Injustice and agony
For a rape victim like Abhor, injustice is impossible to tolerate. Many people experience a distaste for true injustice, but few suffer as directly and emotionally as Abhor and other victims of sexual abuse. The painful suffering is ironic because it merely doubles the injustice. Not only are they the victims of mistreatment, but their suffering continues long after the events are ended. Abhor's life is shaped by trauma and depression, which seems cruel and unfair.
The reckoner
Because of her pain, Abhor takes a left-handed path in life. She is a vigilante who exercises justice her own way. Her version of justice is bloody and painful. When she sees evil in men, she murders them. She finds powerful men especially prone to evil. Yet, there is irony in her judgment, because although she is a victim in many ways, there is a question about whether she is justified to the extent she feels. Then again, does it even make her happy? Her life holds her moral judgment and irony in a complicated tension.
Meaning and suffering
A person's suffering has a built-in feeling of sacredness. To Abhor and Thivai, suffering is a part of their psychic experience of life that demands an answer, like the Biblical sufferer Job who demanded a statement from God about why he should have suffer when he was not evil. These characters struggle to find that meaning as well, especially when their lives go from bad to worse. Their suffering is immense, and the thought of it not mattering makes Thivai want to kill himself.
Aversion
Abhor feels a deep distaste for the events of her past, and she cannot stand to think about her suffering too much or else the depression spirals and she is consumed by emotional torture. Her aversion drives her to end other people's lives—that is how averse she is. And yet, the story (like life and fate) brings her into the same room with what she is most averse to; she has an encounter with her rapist. The irony of that scene is central to the novel's argument.
The pain of crime
It is not imprisonment or judgment that make Abhor give up her life of crime. It is Mark's testimony about the painful life of a criminal. She realizes that crime is literally not worth it. She realizes that her suffering can be mitigated if she takes it seriously and addresses it, but as long as her pain and agony drive her to destructive patterns, she will only compound her suffering with more suffering. The reason to do good in life is that doing bad only harms further.
