Genre
Science fiction, middle-grade
Setting and Context
Earth around a hundred years in the future, space, a planet called Sagan
Narrator and Point of View
Narrator: the main protagonist Petra
Point of view: first person
Tone and Mood
Tense, nightmarish
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: Petra Peña; Antagonist: The Collective and their leader Nyla.
Major Conflict
Earth will soon be hit and destroyed by an approaching comet. Petra and her family are one of the chosen few of humanity to travel and rebuild human life on an Earth-similar planet called Sagan.
Climax
The reprogramming of Petra fails after Nyla discovers that she kept her memories after all, and Javier, Petra's brother, helps her and other Zetas escape the spaceship and hopefully survive on Sagan and reach the first human settlers.
Foreshadowing
"It's not like the rocks are gonna fall from the sky." - Chapter 9 - It is a quote from one of Petra's memories of a rock-collecting outing she had with her father. It is an ironic and foreshadowing statement of the event that will ensue.
Understatement
"What happened to the former world was not a tragedy. It was an opportunity to leave our past behind." - Chapter 15 - a complete understatement by the leader of the Collective of the destruction of Earth and all life on it, to benefit her manipulating rhetoric.
Allusions
Mentions of real books and works, like Neil Gaiman's "Norse Mythology" in Chapter 7.
Imagery
"Walking paths, like veins in a leaf, weave through the green below. Scattered benches and tables along the trails look miniature from where we stand, at least fifteen meters above. Lanterns glitter like fireflies lighting the paths." - Chapter 4 - This is the imagery of the spaceship when Petra first enters it before it leaves the Earth. It is important because it's in direct contrast to what she will see when she wakes up to Collective controlling the ship.
Paradox
"Differences make things beautiful as a whole." - Chapter 9 - a paradoxical statement from Petra's father that holds the core truth and message of the novel.
Parallelism
"Books became our language. Books became our home. Books became our lives." - Chapter 25
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"Maybe this Collective is right." - Chapter 3 - Petra overhears her parents talking about the Collective before the comet knowledge and the spaceship plans. The "Collective" is a metonymy meant to substitute the entire group of people who are a part of it.
Personification
"It peeks curiously over the bigger moon's shoulder, like a younger sibling." - Chapter 17
