The apartments and houses where the six main characters spend time together over the course of the novel create a motif of entrapment and insularity. Most often, the friends are coming together to mark a major event. However, they almost always find themselves in claustrophobic interiors where they are compelled to wander around seeking either entertainment or escape from each other.

In Part 2, for example, Mia and Marco move between the various rooms of Richie’s apartment, feeling like awkward outsiders and trying to make sense of where they belong. Richie, meanwhile, tries to plot his escape from the party he’s hosting because he feels trapped and bored by his friends. In Part 4, when the characters go to Amagansett together, the rental house initially feels connective and cozy, but this setting breeds claustrophobia over the course of the trip. Nina ends up walking in on Sasha and Mitch Reynolds having sex; Marco gets stuck in the upstairs room with his upset baby, looking out at his friends below; and Richie closes himself outside on the porch when he notices Adam and Rami becoming intimate. 

In Part 5, the characters experience similar entrapment at Sasha and Theo Wingate’s Montclair home when they travel there for the Halloween party. Sasha and Mia argue in the bathroom, and later, all of the friends get caught in an altercation in the kitchen. Much like the events the characters attend, these domestic spaces are meant to connect the characters but often atmospherically intensify their conflicts. The apartments and houses force them into a common physical space and compel them to air their disagreements and frustrations—either working through them or not.