People Watching

“Men are lured to their death by beautiful creatures time and time again in mythology. Different legends call them by different names: sirens, nymphs, pixies, faeries, rusalki. But the result is the same—death at the hands of a beautiful creature, too alluring to deny.”

Milo thinks this the first time he sees Prue. This is the first time he has experienced a more-than-physical pull toward someone he finds attractive, and his references to mythology show an attempt to frame this new experience. The fact that he chooses examples that are all tales of men being lured to their death highlights his belief that love is a dangerous force that can only bring about his downfall, illustrating the theme of The Effect of Past Trauma on Emotional Growth.

“‘Phone tree?’ I flash him a wry smile. ‘What is this, 1995?’

He winces, his eyebrows jumping in agreement, before he crosses his arms over his broad chest. ‘Apparently they tried to start a neighborhood group on Facebook but someone kept anonymously posting grainy photos of vintage Playboy magazines. They called it quits and went back to their roots.’”

This exchange between Nik and Milo comes shortly after Milo arrives in Baysville, and it helps to establish the culture of the small-town setting. The phone tree referred to here is a somewhat outdated method of spreading news and information, for which, as Nik points out, social media is now more often used. However, in a small town like Baysville, the people rely on the older method, highlighting how the pace of change differs from more urban areas. The reference to the failed neighborhood group on Facebook also highlights how the people of Baysville prefer reliable methods of communication that they know work.

“I had believed my time would come in college. I fantasized about boys in dimly lit libraries, drinking from steaming to-go cups, and reading Mary Oliver’s poetry across an oak table from me. They’d look up, see me, place their book down, and offer me a soft, self-serving smile. These college guys would be more interesting, find me more interesting. They’d be named something more interesting too, like Sawyer or Aiden or Pierce.”

After meeting Milo, Prue convinces herself to stay away from him because she is sure, just by looking at him, that they are too different. She supports this assertion by pointing to how he differs from her fantasy boyfriends, offering a detailed picture that illustrates how often she has considered this. Her portrait of poetry-reading boys with “soft” smiles stands in stark juxtaposition to her initial impression of Milo.

“‘You are an actual saint.’ I turn and plant my feet on the floor then bend over to stretch my neck.

‘I’m a mom,’ she says, correcting me.

I turn my face toward her before straightening. ‘The way you do it? It’s the same thing.’”

Milo says this to Sef on his first morning at Nik’s house, after being woken by the sound of Nik’s five kids rampaging through the house. After years of being on his own, Milo cannot fathom how Nik and Sef put up with this every morning. Calling Sef a “saint” shows both Milo’s inexperience with parenthood and how he puts Sef in a completely separate category from his own parents. Sef’s correction is meant to dispel the common misconception that parents have some kind of superhuman skill or patience.

“Milo has taken off his button-down shirt, revealing the white tank he is wearing underneath that puts so much more of him on achingly salacious display. If rolling up his sleeves was to be considered pornographic, this is…well, this is the real deal.”

This excerpt comes while Prue and Milo are cleaning the studio and highlights Prue’s instinctive physical attraction to him. Prue’s admission that Milo rolling his sleeves up felt erotic again highlights her lack of experience but also explicitly connects him to sex in her mind. This passage highlights the novel’s adherence to romance-genre conventions with Prue’s instinctive and undeniable recognition of Milo’s sexiness.

“‘Did everyone go to fucking therapy since I’ve been gone? Why are you all acting so—’

‘Mature?’ Aleks smirks, throwing his hands up defensively. ‘We’ve been growing up…haven’t you?’

He doesn’t mean to be an asshole, I tell myself, shoving a clenched fist into my jeans pocket. That’s just Aleks. He says the things the rest of us are too afraid to because he doesn’t realize how bad they’ll sting.”

This exchange between Milo and Aleks highlights how all the time that Milo spent running has not helped him deal with his past. While the others have been “growing up,” Miles has been avoiding his history. Instead of understanding Nik’s frustration with the reaction to MANS Brewery, Milo instead turns to anger, blaming Aleks for stating the obvious. While it is clear that Milo experiences stress related to his past here, his refusal to accept accountability shows that, at this point in the novel, he is still running away from the inevitable confrontation with his past.

“Her face turns my new favorite shade of pink. Without thought I visualize measuring out red and white paint onto the back of my hand. I’d go slow, mixing them together until I had the exact color to match her blush.”

Here, Prue blushes at yet something else that Milo has said, and this moment shows how Milo thinks of the world in terms of art and color, establishing his fundamental identity as an artist. His unthinking technical knowledge demonstrates both the serious way he approaches art and its innate place in his life. This excerpt also foreshadows the many pictures that Milo draws of Prue, highlighting their importance and how those become central to Milo and Prue getting through their argument at the end of the book.

“When he doesn’t immediately respond, as he had earlier, I read my message over again and start to worry. I’ve never been excellent at niceties, as Milo was quick to point out. My father told me it’s because I’m otherwise preoccupied, my mind elsewhere, and that I need to try to slow down. My mother practiced that with me, kept me grounded and present when my imagination beckoned and seemed a much safer place to venture off to.”

Prue’s immediate anxious reaction to Milo’s lack of response highlights her sensitive nature and also how she always jumps to the worst possible conclusion. Her instinctual references to what her father and mother thought of this tendency highlight the significance of their responses, illustrating the dynamic that is revealed over the course of the novel to be a source of trauma for Prue. Her reaction highlights how her coddled childhood did not allow her to find better ways to deal with the moment and establishes the theme of the effect of past trauma on emotional growth in her individual storyline.

“Suddenly I’m left in the dark, questioning my outfit choice. I’m wearing loose-fitting jeans with a baggy white sweater. It felt right for the cheesy party my dad was throwing me for all the townies who still seem to see me as their neighbor’s sweet twelve-year-old kid. But not for him. Not for this.”

Prue thinks this on her birthday after Milo says he’s coming to join her so that she isn’t drinking alone. This moment shows Prue beginning to consider things she has not before—specifically, what she’s wearing. It also highlights how her perception of herself as young and inexperienced is not only limited to her; the rest of the town sees her this way, too, which suggests that her father’s coddling has had a broader effect on Prue’s image. This moment shows Prue starting to think of herself as an adult with adult desires. This makes her self-conscious in new ways, highlighting how Milo is a catalyst for how she changes.

“‘Tell me, Milo, what does a virgin look like exactly?’

Not someone who licks their lips like you did the other day when I knelt beside you. Not someone who practically purred when I brushed my nose against their temple. Not someone who looks at me like I’m their next meal and then coyly, casually tosses me aside.”

These lines follow Milo telling Prue that she doesn’t look like a “virgin,” and Prue’s response points to how “virginity” is a construct created by society that paints women who have never had sex as inexperienced, shy, and unable to define what they want from a partner. In truth, Prue’s “virginity” or lack thereof has no bearing on her ability to feel or identify these things, as illustrated by Milo’s examples. His reaction highlights how he has unquestioningly bought into the societal construct of “virginity”; despite all his sexual experience, this passage shows that there are still things about sexuality he does not understand.

“The key to it is improvisation following observation. For example, the middle-aged man who’s taking his sweet time looking at each and every apple might, to some, just be nitpicky. But, to me, he’s a lovesick fool buying time.”

Prue has explained how her favorite part of working at her family store is people watching, thus giving the novel its title. Here, Prue digs deeper into what makes people watching so enjoyable for her, which bolsters her love of writing and storytelling. Her reflection reveals her to be observant and empathetic, reframing her ability to craft stories for people and to see the world in different ways as a strength, rather than the weakness it’s been portrayed as up until this point.

“‘But what should I expect?’ I ask, my throat tightening as I watch Milo pucker his lips and blow cold air across my wet skin. ‘Like, should I be ushering things along or is that your job?’

‘You can tell me when you’re done.’

‘But how will I know?’

‘When it feels right. When you feel satisfied. There’s no right or wrong here.’”

This exchange between Prue and Milo comes during their first time being intimate, and it highlights the romance genre’s “bedroom lessons” trope that Bonam-Young utilizes throughout the latter portion of the novel. Milo’s experience is starkly contrasted with Prue’s uncertainty here, as she worries about needing to be perfect and hide her ignorance. Together, Milo’s and Prue’s perspectives dispel the notion that partners must be equally matched in experience to find enjoyment in one another.

“When that didn’t work, when they didn’t soften to her, she hardened. It seemed overnight, at the time. As if one morning I found a jaded teenager at my parents’ table in place of the sweet, helpful daughter they’d once had. But in hindsight, I can see how slow the transition actually was. How many years she spent trying to please them, throwing herself against a locked door time and time again, begging to be let in.”

Milo reflects on Nadia and his childhood, and these lines highlight how Milo and his siblings all responded differently to the abuse from their parents. Like Milo, Nadia walled herself off from people, but where Milo pursued casual sex and relationships, Nadia became over-protective, defensive, and “jaded.” Milo hints at Nadia’s self-destructive patterns throughout the book, suggesting that Nadia has dealt with her past by harming herself in emotional and physical ways, such as smoking. Milo also admits that Nadia’s change seemed sudden years ago, but his new observation of the gradual change shows how distance from the events has given Milo clarity.

“I know my nostalgia can cut deep, what it feels like to be reflecting on the past and wishing for what once was. I never considered how painful it would be for someone raised in a burning house to look back. To fill your lungs with smoke over and over, just to walk through it once more.”

Throughout the book, Prue has looked back fondly on her childhood and wants to get those times back. Here, though, she is astounded by the idea that people could want to escape their childhood, a huge step in Prue’s character arc as she comes to understand that other people’s experiences sometimes differ vastly from her own. The metaphor of a burning house for an abusive home emphasizes the stakes for Milo as he confronts his past, demonstrating Prue’s understanding of the courage and determination that it takes to face a traumatic past.

“Afterward, I go with him to have dinner with his family. They nag him about finally settling down and wink at me as they do it. They know, just as I do, that he and I have something different and meaningful, even if it’s not normal in the traditional sense. We all have an unspoken agreement that one day he’ll probably stop sowing his wild oats and choose to stay.

Then, I burst my own bubble—wondering who he’s been with in between, or how my mom is doing in two years’ time or some other crushing reality. It’s painful every time.”

In this made-up future, Prue imagines that she has never moved on from her time with him because doing so feels impossible in the present, highlighting how Milo has had a huge impact on her in such a short time. In the past, when Prue daydreamed, the focus was on the positive aspects of her thoughts. Here, though, she destroys her own daydream by wondering about things that cause her grief, such as thinking of Milo with someone else. This moment shows that Prue has grown and can no longer use her thoughts only as a place of escape.

“I love how freely she gives herself over to pleasure. It’s genuinely beautiful. I’ve drawn her orgasms from memory dozens of times now, the look of pure bliss that comes as she does is a mesmerizing sight.”

Milo’s first observation highlights how pleasure, like anything else, is a person-by-person experience. Despite Prue’s lack of experience, she is open to experiencing pleasure, emphasizing the novel’s message that sexual experience is not necessary for enjoyment. Milo’s admission that he’s drawn Prue in this intimate moment illustrates how profoundly his art is intertwined with his thoughts—for him, art is a way to understand the world around him and his own emotions.

“So, yes, Milo and I are in love.

And, no, we’ll probably never admit it to each other.

But how wonderful and tragic and lucky is that?”

Prue’s character is illustrated in this comment, which acknowledges both the “tragic” truth alongside the “wonderful” and “lucky” experience of falling in love. Despite her internal assertion that she and Milo are in love, Prue says nothing, suggesting that she is unsure about Milo’s emotions. Rather than dwell on the sorrow of this, though, Prue thinks about how story-like this moment is. Her inner writer sees the beauty in the tragedy of unspoken love and makes it into something worth celebrating, not lamenting.

“It has occurred to me, more than a few times and somewhat against my will, that I am irrevocably in love with Prue. Like the moment I put an extra spoonful of broccoli on my plate at dinner last week, for example. Or the many times I’ve walked past Bertha in the driveway once her two-week vacation was up and chose to drive into town in Nik’s van instead. Or when I checked my blood pressure at the pharmacy last week. I’d never worried about living longer until I met someone I wanted to live a long life with.”

Milo’s thoughts confirm that he is in love with Prue, and he recognizes it through the changes in his actions, looking beyond his emotional state for evidence. By observing his own behavior, he sees how caring about someone else has made him care about himself more as well, illustrating The Ripple Effect of Change. This excerpt highlights the transformative power of love while also showing how this transformation is a choice: Milo could choose to ignore these feelings, but instead, he confronts them.

“I learn then that it’s easier to believe kind truths under the darkness of night, when sprawled out and chasing release. In the light of the day, when naked and visible and the urge to hide away is so much stronger, I struggle to trust him. Milo has had so many lovers. Most, I’d bet, far more experienced than me.”

Here, Prue and Milo have just had a meaningful conversation about wanting each other after having sex during the daytime for the first time. Prue’s thoughts reflect her own tendency to hide and how hiding feels second nature. In the light, she has nowhere to run, which makes the conversation feel real in a way that similar talks in the dark have not. This moment also shows Prue moving along her character arc, being more vulnerable and allowing Milo to see that vulnerability, signaling that she trusts him not to hurt her.

“His doctor states that they’re confident in his treatment and recovery. I read that part of the email over and over again. It says they are happy to see the slow progression of his cancer. They claim he is in good hands. Such positive words for such a stunningly dark scenario.”

Prue has just learned about her father’s cancer diagnosis and is working through her emotions about it. While she is scared and angry, she seeks comfort, finding it in the outlook for his prognosis. Even so, the weight of the cancer is too heavy for such hope to overcome, showing how illness and the fear around it affect Prue, highlighted by her return to using imagery of darkness to indicate the unknown. Her struggle to understand and believe in the doctors’ positivity regarding cancer shows that there are some things not even she can daydream away or retreat from, making this moment one that plants Prue irrevocably in the real world.

“‘You start by giving her some space,’ Nik says. ‘Prue has got a lot to process and a fuck ton to discuss with her dad. And, well, she needs to be calm before you two can talk again. Otherwise, you’ll just go in circles.’

‘But I want to be there for her. I want to help her—’

‘You hurt her, Milo,’ Nik says, placing a hand on my shoulder. ‘You don’t get to help fix what you broke right now…That’d be too easy.’”

Milo’s emotional distress shows him coming to the end of his character arc—he cares more about helping Prue than about his own pain in this moment, highlighting how love has changed him because he allowed it to. Nik’s words ground Milo in the reality of the situation and show that, while these emotions are good, they must be tempered with understanding and appropriate action. This interaction also shows the progress that Milo has made in reconnecting with his siblings; he instinctively goes to Nik for advice, and Nik responds with the wisdom of an older brother.

“I was a kid who thought she could go off and do things and call home to tell you and Mom about them. I wanted to send postcards, like Aunt Lucy did. But you and Mom, and this house, and this town, it was always going to be where I came back to, even when I dreamt of leaving. Those dreams were never about trying to get away from you all. They were about getting to come back.”

Prue says this to her father during their talk about his cancer diagnosis. After years of trying to keep Prue safe from the world, Tom is no longer able to do so despite still wanting to, and this moment highlights how his desires were always his, not Prue’s, emphasizing The Importance of Establishing Boundaries in Relationships. Tom did not understand how connected Prue feels to her family and the town because he never asked, believing that he knew better.

“‘Wait, you’ve never?’ she says, tilting her face to see me.

‘Never,’ I answer, nipping at the underside of her breast as we lock eyes. ‘I’m so glad it’ll be with you.’

‘So…I’ll be your first,’ she says proudly, smiling with brightly lit eyes.

‘You, Prudence Welch, are my first, in so, so many ways.’”

This exchange between Prue and Milo comes just before they have sex without a condom for the first time. It will be Milo’s first time doing so, putting him and Prue on a level playing field for the first time when it comes to sexual experience. Prue finally understands that experience levels can be different but equal, while Milo’s comment that Prue is his “first, in so, so many ways” highlights the fact that the experience of loving her is unique and unprecedented for him.