The Building
The entire story revolves around the presence of a building. It is uncompleted five-story “monstrosity” sticking out like an ugly sore thumb in a neighborhood dominated by iconic Brooklyn brownstones. Several of the older residents are especially discontented:
“Manny and the other old guys who played dominos in the lot had immediately declared war on it.”
This Means War
The weapon of mass destruction of neighbor discontent is a mural to be painted by our protagonist, talented high school artist Sierra Santiago. The strategy is simple: make the ugly outsider more appealing by cover it with something preferable to community standards. In this case, a huge painted dragon:
“The dragon was almost done; its wings stretched magnificently over the Junklot, a ferocious middle finger to the seriousness of the Tower.”
Character Transformation
A significant amount of character transformation goes on in the novel. People who are one thing at first become something else entirely. This sort of character alternation is the stuff for which the use of metaphor was made:
“Her voice carried the voices of a hundred thousand souls in it; a whole history of resistance and rage moved with her.”
Darkness
The all-encompassing metaphor of the modern age is in full bloom and abundantly utilized in this fantasy tale set in the midst of the real world. Darkness as a metaphor is a reflection of the existential dread pervading our lives in ways large and small:
“Even on a creepy night like this, the park’s darkness seemed welcoming somehow, its shushing leaves beckoning her from across the street.”
Suburban Paranoia
One familiar example of that existential dread is urban paranoia. But as the world expands outward, the fears of the inner city become more universally shared. This aspect of modern living is made more tangible:
“Something else was following her. The knowledge of it was as clear as if she could see the thing, but when she squinted her eyes into the dim, soaking suburban streets, there was nothing there.”
