Count Me In

Content Warning: This section contains references to and descriptions of racism and anti-immigrant violence.

The attack that Karina, Chris, and Karina’s grandfather Shiv experience leads the primary characters to see the importance of self-advocacy as a survival tool. In Chapters 9 and 10, a hateful stranger verbally and physically assaults them because of Karina’s and Shiv’s South Asian identity. Karina has heard about “the rising number of hate crimes against South Asians” (134), but it is different when this kind of violence happens to her and her family. Before the attack, Chris did not understand that his friends could face such unjust treatment in a town that he believed was safe, loving, and peaceful.

After the incident, the tween characters learn about resilience, guided by Shiv, who describes the world as “a constant struggle between love and hate” (149), in which Karina and Chris “can’t stop fighting for good” (150). Despite sustaining physical injuries, Karina’s grandfather encourages Karina and Chris not to back down to hateful, aggressive, and prejudiced people: He tells Karina in Chapter 11 that the man who attacked them “will not win. He will not defeat us” (65). After all Shiv has experienced throughout his life, he refuses “to let that hater take [him and his family] down” (65).