Content Warning: This section of the guide references racism, colorism, anti-gay bias, anti-fat bias, emotional abuse, and terminal illness.

“The bar next door had a Confederate flag proudly draped in the window. My family said nothing. I could only stare at Mom’s tight coils and wonder how in the world this place created her.”

Avery’s shock at the Confederate flag and her confusion over how a town with an overt symbol of slavery’s legacy could produce her liberal-minded mother offers an image of the novel’s setting that becomes increasingly complex as the text unfolds. Avery discovers from her time in Bardell that legacies of slavery and anti-Black racism abound both in liberal DC (where she was raised) and in the Deep South, as explored through the theme Life in Cities Versus Small Towns. Avery learns that people of all ideologies, sexualities, and political orientations may come from small Southern towns.

“‘I teach,’ Mom said, swatting away her three degrees, her Georgetown tenure, her bestselling nonfiction book, and her superstar status as a nationally renowned astrophysicist as if they were yesterday’s weather report.”

Avery’s breathless recitation of her mother’s accomplishments shows both her appreciation for Zora and the role model she struggles to compare herself to. Time in Bardell reveals to both mother and daughter their relative relationships to academic success; Avery learns there is more to life than following her mother’s footsteps, while Zora learns to treat her Bardell childhood and her adult accomplishments as two parts of the same whole, rather than two separate identities.

“I thought about texting something snarky back. Something like, hey bitches, my grandmother is DYING. There were more important things to worry about than stupid AP classes.”

Avery’s priorities shift early in the novel as she gets to know Letty—and learns about all the things she has missed in the years away from her grandmother.