Memory and Storytelling
Very early on, the narrator makes a concrete connection between the non-linear mechanics and memory and the construction of recalled details into a coherent narrative. Noting that the processes of memory is not dependent upon the chronology of events, this examination of memory also serves as foreshadowing to warn the reader that the structure of the novel will be somewhat akin to the unconscious apprehension of facts which then must be worked out afterward to form a conscious comprehension of meaning. In other words, this is a novel in which, to a certain degree, form meets content.
Schools and Stalkers
Without giving away the whole store, suffice to say that one of the dominant themes of story as the narrator begins piecing together a narrative from hazily recalled memories is the unwitting creation of potentially dangerous situation for children in the name of entertainment and education. The entirety of the dark passage that the story takes originates with the cruelest of irony: an apparently completely benevolent school project intended to create the possibility of students finding a penpal. The school projects begins with excitement and helium balloons, but ends in the worst possible and most unexpected of places.
Explaining—But Not Moderating--Evil
A certain describing a very specific sexual deviance from the norm is never actually used in the text and as a theme it can only be described at best as allusively or even cryptically referenced until almost the very end. It is only when the final awful revelations come fast and furious that the psychology of the events become unambiguously clear. Hints are strewn along the way that agency of darkness at the core of this story is not just some uncomplicated boogey man; an unleashing of easily understood pure evil and malevolence upon a world of innocents. Ultimately, the facts of the past are no longer blurred and the story is no longer distorted, but is instead literally on display for all to see who dare to actually look. Each individual reader will be forced to decide for themselves whether the story is made more horrifying by realizing—if by no means understanding—what happened or if it is at least more reassuring than the alternative.
