Anna’s entrenchment in the world of the London elite exposes her to the alluring and risky aspects of prioritizing wealth over honesty and authenticity. When Anna starts to spend time with the Wilders and Faye’s sprawl of blue-blooded friends, she feels as if the ritzy fictional worlds of her favorite novels are suddenly within reach. She, Faye, Callum, Theo, Tess, and Lucy spend their days dining at fancy restaurants, spending exorbitant amounts of money, drinking, partying, and never worrying about the future. This lifestyle appeals to Anna because it’s antithetical to her own experience. As she spends time with Faye and her friends, she feels as though “the scene around [her is] like a dreamy magazine spread: these handsome men, these beautiful women, their cashmere sweaters and soft-spun button-down shirts, leaning forward in their chairs, glowing with firelight and wine” (170). Everett emphasizes the pain of Anna’s background—marked by hardship, financial insecurity, her mother’s illness, and the grief over her death. In contrast, the Wilders “looked like they had everything they needed, like they had never wanted, never failed, never lost someone” (171). This direct comparison makes clear that this world of wealth and ease exerts a profound pull on Anna.

Everett’s diction as she describes Anna’s impressions of the Wilders’ life affects an ethereal, fanciful mood. Words like “warming,” “dreamy,” “beautiful,” and “glowing” evoke notions of comfort and escape. The characters drink together and wear expensive clothes, untouched by the concerns of the world beyond their circle of privilege. The scene is so rich and decadent that it reminds Anna of a “magazine spread”—a metaphor that conjures notions of staging or meticulous curation. The luxurious lifestyle of her new friends is seductive to Anna because it offers her an escape from the burdens of reality she’s faced since she was a little girl.

The pain and grief Anna experiences as a result of her mother’s death exacerbate the seductive pull of the constructed façade that allows her to escape her life, even temporarily. As she notes, “even this sort of half-true happiness feels a hundred times better than anything [she’s] had since [her] mom died” (248). By the novel’s climax, Anna discovers that coveting wealth comes with a cost. Anna’s birthday dinner in Lisbon highlights the ethical implications of her new friends’ decadent lifestyle. Although Anna tries to hide her disgust at the expensive meal, she realizes that she’s “going through the motions” to fit in, and “th[ese] motions cost enough to buy dozens of insulin vials. Hundreds, thousands of test strips” (227-28). Anna is embarrassed by her past, but her past has also afforded her an awareness of the economic injustices that define her world. Everett suggests that if Anna ignores these truths just to find acceptance amongst the wealthy and elite, she’s effectively betraying her mother’s memory.

The lessons Anna learns in the latter third of the novel free her from the seductive hold that her friends’ monied life has on her as she realigns her priorities with her ethics, passions, and values. Her dissertation advisor reminds her how important it is to claim her background. Everyone “arrive[s] with their own individual readings of texts,” he asserts, and these readings are “impacted so powerfully by their backgrounds and experiences” (306). Owning her background allows Anna to remember who she is and what she values. Money is alluring to Anna because of how much she and her family have struggled financially. However, she learns that if having money causes her to compromise who she is, then it is not worth the cost.