“Because that was the real thing, that cold, barbed thing between Jet and Sophia. You go away to college and your best friend who stopped calling and stopped replying—and stopped caring—sets her sights on your brother instead. Anything to be in with the Masons. Jet didn’t know how to talk to her anymore, and she’d never say it, but she thought the baby was boring as fuck.”

As Jet describes the people at the Halloween Fair, she does so coldly and harshly, emphasizing her dislike of the town and the people she grew up with. Jet’s bitterness is highlighted by sarcastic humor like a “baby” being “boring,” projecting her distance from the people she should feel close to. However, it also reveals the depth of Sophia’s betrayal and Jet’s suspicion that she was only friends with Jet for the money, establishing the theme of The Connection Between Privilege and Corruption.

“A clown was bounding toward them, slipping and stumbling on the grass. A drunk clown, beer bottle in hand. […] Now she recognized him only a clown from the neck up, a half-assed red nose and wig. Underneath that, it was just Andrew Smith. He rocked on his feet, his eyes unfocused, setting on fire when they found her.”

The first introduction of Andrew emphasizes his alcohol addiction while also positioning him as someone dangerous, as Jet sees the angry “fire” in his eyes. However, the use of the word “just” before his name also conveys the role that the setting plays: Because it is a small town, she knows who he is and therefore has no fear of him, despite his anger and aggression.

“[Jet] didn’t realize until she’d just said it. The murder weapon. That’s what it was, though, wasn’t it? Because Jet hadn’t just been attacked, or assaulted—those paler, one-size-fits-all words. She’d been…murdered. Someone had killed her.”

Jet’s words call attention to the novel’s unique narrative, as someone who has been murdered still lives to figure out what happened. Here, it dawns on Jet that that means there is a murderer out there, marking a change in her perspective, as she now views the investigation with a sense of urgency.

“‘No, wait.’ [Jet] sat up, brought her knees closer to her chest. They couldn’t be done, because if they were, that means it was time for Jet to decide, to make her choice. And maybe, maybe she could put it off just a few minutes more. Not right now. Later. Later. Let her choose later.”

When the police finish interviewing Jet in the hospital, she desperately hopes that they won’t leave, as it will force her to make a decision about the surgery. The repetition of the word “later” emphasizes a shift in Jet’s catchphrase, “I’ll do it later” (13), which she used in the first part of the novel. Now, she is desperately hoping that a “later” will allow her to put off her concrete, life-altering decision, instead of just an abstract idea of where her life may go.

“[Ecker] [d]idn’t see her. Because she was small? Or because she was dead in a week and didn’t matter as much as the other people here, the ones who didn’t have a countdown hanging over them. Halfway between the living and the not, her edges less defined somehow. No…probably just the small thing.”

Because of the limited third-person point of view that focuses on Jet, the reader is given insight into her thoughts. Outwardly, she constantly projects dark humor, acting as if her death doesn’t really bother her. Internally, she still uses that same humor—“just the small thing”—yet secretly struggles with her own mortality, something she does not project to others.

“His face changed, one second to the next. Mouth cracked open, eyes faraway and spinning, a quake in his knees that made him stumble back. Poor, sweet Billy.”

When Billy is told about Jet’s diagnosis, his reaction foreshadows his feelings of love toward Jet. Although the reader knows little about him at this point in the text, his devastated reaction, highlighted with specific detail about his facial expression and even body language, conveys how much he truly cares for Jet, cueing the reader into the romance that will unfold.

“Her makeup bag—would she even need that? Did the walking dead need concealer? Left the white bottle of Lotrel, the pills she took every day for high blood pressure, for her kidneys, because what was the fucking point now? Didn’t need them anymore.”

As Jet decides what to pack to take with her from her mother’s house, the reader again sees her internal conflict as she struggles to grasp her own death. Outwardly, she projects anger and annoyance to her family; inwardly, she struggles over simple things like whether she should ever wear makeup again. This moment signals Jet’s shift in perspective as she begins to understand The Value of Living in the Present.

“‘Lovely.’ Jet grinned up at him. ‘I can see myself living here, for the rest of my life.’

Billy retracted his thumb, gave her a look.

‘What? That’s funny.’ Jet gave a gruff laugh, if he wouldn’t. Billy normally laughed at all of her jokes.”

Jet’s dark humor permeates the text, creating a humorous mood despite the dark subject matter. Billy is uncomfortable with her joke and unsure how to handle it, signified by his refusal to laugh, which Jet knows is out of the ordinary. This is Jet’s coping mechanism as she struggles with her mortality, and her forced attempt to bring humor to the situation highlights her awareness of its actual seriousness.

“It was Jet’s fourth time driving the street tonight, and she still had no answers, no sign. […] Maybe she should get out of the truck, walk the street instead of driving it, swap the smell of congealing fries for the crisp night air. Maybe she’d see it from a different perspective, in a new light.”

Despite Jet’s insistence that she is going to solve her murder, she initially struggles with where to begin, driving up and down River Road while eating fast food. The fact that she does so four times conveys her obsession; she is now fixated on solving her murder, even if she isn’t sure exactly what to do.

“But in the right side of the frame, behind Billy’s dad, was Andrew Smith, heading toward them, beer bottle paused on the way to his mouth. Blurred in the background, in motion, but still clear enough. A smear of red painted across his nose, black lines down his eyes, and on his head was a red wig.”

When Jet and Billy look at photos from the Halloween Fair, Andrew is described in an ominous tone, lurking in the background of the photos. Jackson continues to present him in this light, creating a red herring, or misdirection, which is a classic convention of the mystery genre.

“Billy was back. Crossing the trench, a blue sledgehammer gripped in his hands. He came to stand beside her, didn’t look at her, looked down instead. ‘Only you,’ he said. He raised the sledgehammer above his head and brought it down, the sound so loud it shook the world.”

When Billy grabs a sledgehammer to join Jet, it confirms his commitment to helping her, no matter the consequences that he may face for his actions. To this point, he has been hesitant to help her and has been constantly trying to keep her in check; now, he decides to actively help her, emphasizing his love and devotion to her, even if it means jeopardizing his own well-being.

“This little thing, right here. No more than sixteen inches long. Head like a metal bird, a few strands of blond hair caught in its mouth. This was it. This was what killed her. The thing that had broken open her head, shattered her skull, left a sliver of bone where it shouldn’t be. This, right here. The thing that took Jet’s life before she’d even lived it, stole her future, all of her laters and all of her tomorrows.”

The murder weapon symbolizes the brutality and the destruction of everything good in Jet’s life. Although there are dozens of pieces to the puzzle that lead to her death—Emily’s death, Jack’s affair, Luke’s true father, the Mason Construction company, and more—it is all condensed down to one item, something small and simple that destroys her life yet is representative of the bigger picture. Her description of it as “little” and comparison to a “metal bird” highlight its seemingly innocuous nature, while the juxtaposition with graphic images of her skull underscores its deadliness.

“‘It was my fault both my parents were out that afternoon, watching me at the competition. If I hadn’t reached the final, Mom and Dad would have been at home, and Emily wouldn’t have died.’ Jet dropped her chin, hiding it behind Billy’s collar. ‘I overheard Mom saying it to Dad, right after the funeral. That it was my fault Emily died.’”

This moment is the first time that Jet articulates the issue that she has with her mother, delving into the core conflict of her family: Emily’s death. This passage offers insight into Jet’s motivations, revealing that she struggled her entire life with Emily’s death and the impact it had on her. She went to law school because of Emily, has always felt like a failure because of her, and has had to live with her mother’s blame.

“‘Billy!’ she screamed, voice grating in her throat. ‘Billy, help!’

The door was open before she could scream again.

‘What?’ Billy rushed in, eyes wide and circling. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘My arm.’ Jet picked it up with her other hand, too heavy. It fell back to the mattress. ‘I can’t move it. I can’t feel it. Something’s wrong.’”

Jet first sees concrete effects of her aneurysm when her arm stops working. She reacts with panic and fear, shaking the otherwise stoic and humorous façade that she has put on for much of the text. This moment is a reminder of Jet’s suffering, permeating the enjoyable time that she has been having with Billy with a reminder that she will soon die, and how much that scares her. This escalation in her condition also brings her ticking clock back to the forefront of the narrative, increasing tension.

“[S]he forgot for a few minutes, forgot that she was dying because she’d been distracted by living. Before, it had just been a what if, a theoretical time bomb ticking away, and here it was, made real and tangible, a white shape against the gray mass of her brain. Jet swallowed again, her very last bit of hope.”

Seeing the aneurysm on the scan with Dr. Lee reaffirms Jet’s mortality. Until now, she has struggled with the idea but has not been openly upset. Now, however, a large component of her fear of death comes from the fact that she has finally “been […] living” due to her newfound relationship with Billy. Jackson uses a metaphor, comparing the aneurysm to a “bomb” that will soon explode, to remind the reader of the stakes while also conveying the theme of the value of living in the present. Now that Jet has finally learned to enjoy her life, she is moments from dying.

“‘Fuck the police. No offense to your dad.’ [Jet] sniffed. ‘They’re convinced it’s JJ. I don’t have time to wait around un-convincing them. This is for me, not them. I will deal with Sophia. And I don’t want my dad taking any more of these.’ Jet scooped up as many pills as she could in her left hand. ‘Grab the rest,’ she told Billy, heading toward the toilet. She dropped the yellow capsules in.”

This moment calls into question Jet’s morality as she prioritizes her investigation, conveying the theme of privilege, corruption, and moral ambiguity. Jet is seemingly unconcerned by Sophia’s poisoning of her father; instead of going to the police, she flushes the evidence and replaces her father’s pills. This short-sighted action by Jet highlights her focus on her own investigation, as she is unconcerned about what will happen long-term to Sophia or even to her father.

“If Luke knew about Dad’s plan to sell the company to Nell Jankowski, then that gave him motive, and Jet couldn’t write him off. Even though he was her brother, even though they grew up together, even though he was supposed to be her ally. […] Her reaction would tell Jet everything she needed to know.”

In this passage, Jet considers whether or not to tell Luke about the fact that their father is selling the business. Jet’s decision to do so was motivated by one thing: to see whether Luke would be angry. This moment highlights Jet’s focus and obsession with her investigation, conveying the motif of her lack of consequences. She is unconcerned with Luke’s well-being or his happiness, focused only on deciding whether he is guilty, and her repetition of “even though” shows her specifically setting aside her feelings about her brother in order to get to the truth.

“Jet grabbed it because she was not going to die.

She stumbled through the smoke, back to the window, raised her good arm, and struck.

The corner of the stone frame smacked into the window. Glass broke, not from the window. […] She struck again, harder, and the window cracked, a spiderweb in a split second, spreading, anchoring itself.

Jet pulled back, aimed for the middle of the web.

She drove the corner through and the window shattered, giving way to the outside world.

Air.

It rushed inside and Jet sucked at it.”

The moment that Jet is in the burning building emphasizes one of her key character traits: her determination. Just as she is on the verge of death, she finds a way to break the window and escape. Not only does this moment create suspense and excitement for the reader but it also reaffirms Jet’s strength and commitment to solving her murder.

I think that’s who [JJ] loved: the best version of me, the one with the big ideas. He would have resented me eventually, when none of it worked out. And nothing ever works out. I give up, so I gave up on him. I think he thought he was settling with me, and maybe I thought the same too.”

As Jet continues to get close to Billy, she opens up about her past relationship with JJ. This moment conveys the complexity of Jet’s character: Because she was blamed for Emily’s death, Jet always felt the need to try to live up to her sister, but she sees herself as a failure, believing that she was never good enough for JJ. This moment helps to explain the Jet from the beginning of the text, who insisted that she would always “have time” left to fix herself, while her current self-awareness illustrates how much she has grown.

“Jet exploded with laughter, couldn’t hold it in, rolling onto her side, ribs against the ground, dead arm somewhere beneath her.

Billy laughed too, hard, harder, weaving in and out of Jet’s whistling old man cackle.

‘Why are we laughing?’ Billy laughed, bent double, tears in his eyes.

‘I don’t know.’ Jet struggled to speak, to breathe. ‘It’s not even funny.’

But it was, it was the funniest thing in the world and all the stars, and they laughed and they couldn’t stop.”

When Jet and Billy pause the investigation to walk and look at the stars, it marks a key moment in their relationship and the theme of the value of living in the present. Jet has finally decided that being with Billy has value and is learning to appreciate the moment. Their infectious laughter, started by Jet, “exploded” from her, serving as a tension relief, and when Billy joins in, an intimate moment of connection between them.

“Jet shook her head again, the world shifting around her, splitting in half. Everything changed after Emily died, and now it was changing again, coming undone, like Jet’s head.”

This passage emphasizes the interconnectedness of Jet’s death with her discovery of her family’s secrets, conveying the theme of Reconciling With the Past. Jet compares her family coming “undone” to what is happening with her injury, conveying the idea that, although tragic, her injury finally allowed her—and the rest of her family—to face what they have done. She invokes the image of her world “splitting in half,” divided between the past and the present.

“‘I’m here, Jet,’ [Billy] cried over her. ‘You did it, it was me.’

‘It’s OK,’ Jet said, voice weakening too, forcing it out. ‘I know, Billy. It wasn’t you. It’s OK, I don’t need it anymore.’

It wasn’t important.

‘But you did it, you solved—’

‘—shut up, Billy,’ she whispered, reaching for his face, finger finding the dip of his chin.”

Jet’s final moments with Billy emphasize how far their relationship has come and how much they truly mean to each other. Billy is willing to take the blame for what happened, insisting “it was me” over and over again so that Jet can have closure for her murder. However, Jet’s reaction also emphasizes her change, as she recognizes that loving Billy in death is more important than knowing who killed her.

“‘You deserve it—it should be yours!’

Luke balled his hands, knuckles straining through the skin, almost healed. ‘Why? It won’t make me happy. There are more important things. My sister was more important!’”

In Luke’s final moments, it becomes clear that he has changed throughout the text. He has desperately tried to hold onto his father’s company throughout the novel, even resorting to violence when necessary. However, in the end, this same violence is directed at Jack, the very person who tried to help him keep it. Although a tragic ending, Luke’s new understanding offers redemption for his character.