Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses anti-gay and anti-asexual bias.

“She is placed under a phototherapy lamp. Lit blue-green by the mothering light, yearning toward its heat, she appears other than human. Plant or marine life, maybe. An orchid or otter. A shrimp.”

The novel’s premise that Adina is an alien sent to observe Earth is a literal element of the book, putting the novel in the territory of speculative fiction, but it is also a metaphor for Adina’s sense of being other. The image of Adina appearing alien as a newborn captures Bertino’s characteristic style, marked by staccato prose and vivid figurative language.

“Adina is a student and her mother is her major concentration.”

Adina’s inquisitiveness is both a character trait and, within the speculative premise, part of the mission given to her by her superiors. The image of Adina as a student studying her mother captures her learning abilities but also reflects a child’s dependence on the mother in the early stages of development. The human lifecycle, interrogated through the ironic premise of Adina being an alien, is a major focus of the book.

“She does not want to inhabit a body with other souls, crowded and intimate, like an internal city. She likes her body’s solitude and privacy. Her belly button. Her glasses placed over her one set of eyes.”

The premise that the people from Adina’s planet are one interconnected being provides a sharp contrast to the isolation and lack of connection Adina often finds on Earth. Her longing to connect with others or a group will provide constant conflict and dissonance with her preference for isolation and individuality.