Family Is What You Make
The overarching theme of this novel is that the concept of the family extends well beyond the traditional nuclear unit. This is by no means a startlingly original theme, of course, but this novel pushes the boundaries of even what constitutes an alternative family. Most obviously, of course, is the idea that the three young main characters—Custis, Curl, and Boobie—along with the infant baby make the journey with them become a family unit not through blood relation but through emotional support and affection. By the end, two members of this family are done and one of them plus the baby starts up another alternative family unit with a kind-hearted adult. This novel truly deserves the overused adjective of “edgy” and though it might be uncomfortable to most readers, there is an edgier addition to this pushing of boundaries of the meaning of family. Even in the way that Custis presents his horrific experience with the middle-aged pedophile who briefly “owns” him, he cannot help but dress it up in a way that makes it seem familial. The novel thus questions not only what it means to be a family, but what the concept of family means.
Friends are Where You Need Them
The three young protagonists come together seemingly through sheer random coincidence. Hovering over the specifics of those coincidences, however, is the question of whether these three would ever have become friends had their circumstances been even slightly different. And by different it meant better. The victim of a child porn ring, a teenager who turns tricks to get money to buy drugs, and a boy with an obvious mental/emotional condition are just two boys and a girl for whom the breaks didn’t go their way. These three interact together in a way that makes it seem as though they were destined to come together. The horror that is their backstories, however, suggests that the bonds of friendship are far more dependent upon social status than common interests. Each of these characters has reached a point in the misery that has been their childhood at which they need to find someone just like the other two. One may be tempted to ask why this matters. The answer can only be found outside the book when one looks at real-life friendships of people existing on the fringes of society and makes presumptions about how “people like that” are simply birds of a feather rather than asking how they got to where they are.
Societal Disgrace
The story does not directly implicate society as the villain but it is easily enough determined by the subtext that comes in a scene quite early in the narrative. Custis relates how he was in a mall with no shoes and is quite clearly homeless and in desperate need. The police only want to kick him out, food court employees find him a source of amusement, and the only person who is nice to him turns out to be a child predator. At no point in the novel does society at large even take much notice of the three teens in trouble except as troublemakers to avoid or arrest. It is not by sheer accident that just one in three of the main characters survive to the end. That percentage mirrors the reality of existence on the street for those under the age of eighteen. Neither is it accidental that it is not any official organization that offers salvation, sanctuary, and safety to the one survivor. That survivor is utterly dependent on the kindness of just one stranger. The book thus ends on the question of how might the issue of homeless children be different if there were at least one such kind stranger actively seeking out the opportunity to end this national disgrace forever and for all.
