Float

“I was next. How was I supposed to follow someone like Hank? I wasn’t funny. I was lame. Following him was just going to accentuate the lameness.”

At the beginning of his character arc, Emerson is shy and lacks self-confidence. Befriending Hank helps him recognize that it is okay to look silly sometimes. Hank helps Emerson build his confidence and step outside his comfort zone, catalyzing Emerson’s character growth and emphasizing The Power of Friendship.

“To my surprise I spotted a convenient metal ring in the floor. Eli hadn’t been lying when he told my mom that they’d had kids like me here before. I looped the bungee through and double-checked my knots.”

Mr. Blue designs Camp Outlier to accommodate campers’ RISK factors and allow them a space where they feel free to be themselves without judgment. Martin characterizes these accommodations as analogous to the real accommodations that people with disabilities require, such as accessible showers with handrails and seats. Disability accommodations are an important way to allow people of differing abilities to participate fully in society.

“I didn’t want it to be named Camp RISK, since that was a name that was placed on us without our permission. So I named it Camp Outlier, because to be an outlier means to be set apart from the main system.”

Mr. Blue raises an important point about the language used to describe marginalized groups. Activist spaces often work to establish linguistic norms predicated on respect and dignity in an effort to push back against ableism.

“It turned out that almost everyone had made bucket lists at some point except for me. The thought had honestly never occurred to me. On the contrary, I’d spent a huge amount of time and energy avoiding the things that pushed me out of my comfort zone.”

Emerson’s introduction to the life lists forces him to realize how little he takes risks and gets out of his comfort zone. This epiphany propels his arc forward, moving him closer to Living Life Fully.

“As my mom stood there, that letter clasped in her hand like it was the last lifeboat on the Titanic, I could see that she was relieved. It hurt, even though I knew that she dreaded summers full of extra equipment, caseworker check-ins, and the added stress of documentation. That letter was her ticket to freedom, and all it was going to cost her was one son.”

The status quo of Emerson’s life extends to his relationship with his mother. Living locked in a cycle of worry and anxiety strains their relationship and isolates them from each other. Emerson’s mother’s worry makes him feel like a burden and makes it difficult to receive her overprotective tendencies as love and care. The freedom Emerson experiences at Camp Outlier and the confidence he builds as a result of his friendships enable him to view his mother with empathy and recognize her love for him.

“I turned back to the mirror to finish brushing my teeth and stared at myself for a second. The kid looking back at me was almost unrecognizable. Old Emerson had always had a sickly yellow look to his skin from spending too much time in a dark basement playing video games. Camp Emerson had a tan, freckles, and a gnarly scar above his eye.”

Emerson’s view of himself in the mirror provides an external image of his internal growth as he starts to realize how good Camp Outlier has been for him. In the mirror, he sees a more confident version of himself than he has ever seen before. Spending so much time outside alters his physical appearance for the better, pointing to the benefits of Living Life Fully.

“Anthony appeared and gingerly handed me my vest, careful, as always, not to get too close in case he caught fire. I wondered momentarily what it must be like to go through life like that. Could his mother even hug him without worrying about third-degree burns?”

The Power of Friendship enhances Emerson’s inherent empathy and helps him extend compassion to his fellow campers. He recognizes that RISK factors might sound cool, but they can have a major negative impact on a person’s life. As he becomes less isolated, he’s able to connect with the experiences and challenges of others.

“All of a sudden Mr. Stink jumped to the ground and started chattering angrily, pawing at Zeke’s pant leg. Zeke froze and sat down so fast that I tripped over him.”

Martin uses Zeke’s skunk, Mr. Stink, to parallel real-life service animals used by those with disabilities. She structures this scene to make Mr. Stink’s purpose clear. In real life, service animals can alert their owners before they have a seizure or perform other tasks to keep them safe and allow them greater accessibility and mobility in the world around them.

“‘Maybe he should cut out gluten, dairy, and sugar,’ Gary said. ‘Oh, and artificial colors. My mom tried all of those with me at some point in an attempt to fix me.’”

In this scene, Gary’s perspective highlights specific misconceptions and harmful language used with regard to those with RISK factors, highlighting ableist discourses. In the subtext of this scene, Martin provides a critique of the common impulse to try and “fix” disabilities and neurodiverse presentations like autism with diet changes, instead of accepting a child’s disability as an inherent part of them and providing them with the necessary accommodations to thrive.

“Here, where being a RISK was nothing special or even impressive, I felt normal for the first time in my life. This feeling of normalcy, of belonging, of having friends I could laugh with, was what I would miss. Homesick? Nope. Campsick? I’d feel it the moment I left this place.”

Emerson experiences true community and solidarity for the first time at Camp Outlier. Activists who work to combat ableism often emphasize the importance of community to help people feel less alienated. Community is especially significant for young people still forming their identities and finding their place in the world around them.

“What must it be like to never know what physical obstacle you might face each morning? At least with my RISK I knew what to expect, and I’d spent a lifetime learning how to maneuver and survive it.”

In another example of Emerson’s developing confidence allowing him greater capacity for empathy, Emerson finds himself able to consider what life is like for Eli. As with many of the people at Camp Outlier, Eli’s ability to shape-shift comes with tremendous challenges that are functionally equivalent to a range of physical disabilities.

“Trying to stop Murphy’s time traveling was like trying to make Hank stop disappearing or Gary stop sticking. Our RISK factors were so interwoven with the fabric of who we were that they couldn’t be separated from us.”

Throughout Float, Martin weaves in the ideas and vocabulary of activism and discourse around Ableism and Disability, specifically the idea that people’s disabilities are part of who they are, not necessarily something that can or should be changed or cured. Camp Outlier gives kids an opportunity to be themselves without feeling that their RISK factors will be stigmatized.

“I wished that I had Hank’s guts, that I had been the one who made her laugh. Maybe good things only happened if you were willing to make yourself look like an idiot. I frowned, not sure how I felt about that.”

As Emerson finds himself more and more open to Living Life Fully, he begins to unlearn isolated patterns of behavior that he constructed self-protectively. Emerson learns that living life fully involves embracing a level of risk, including the risk of looking foolish or silly.

“There were pockets of the population who were still scared of kids like us, scared of us injuring their own kids by accident, or scared that by helping us the schools wouldn’t have the resources left to help their normal kids, and they’d let their fear turn into something ugly.”

The concerns that Emerson describes reflect ableism in the real world. Through Emerson’s perspective, Martin acknowledges the reality of discrimination and ignorance that people living with disabilities encounter, and the tendency of the typically abled to allow discomfort to metastasize into distrust and even hatred. Martin’s story attempts to make these real-world concepts accessible to young readers.

“I hated it when people called me that, and I turned around and did it to you.”

Gary calls Emerson a “RISK reject” in an instance of lateral aggression. Gary and Emerson experience the same oppression, but Gary chooses to weaponize the unkind things that people say to him in order to hurt Emerson rather than standing in solidarity with him. Gary’s immediate recognition of and attempts to make amends for this hurt model self-awareness and an approach to one’s mistakes that prioritizes humility and connection over defensiveness and isolation.

“I hadn’t realized that undergoing that kind of pain was part of his daily life. It explained a lot about why Gary was the way he was.”

Just like with Anthony and Eli, Emerson extends empathy to Gary even in the midst of conflict, noting how difficult his RISK factor must be to live with. Martin positions this empathy as a focal point of Emerson’s character, one of his most positive traits.

“‘The point is to never finish. To live a big life. Think of it this way,’ Hank said. ‘If I had set a list of only one hundred things, I would have reached it by now, and then what? If I have it my way, I’ll die with a list of one hundred more things I wanted to do.’”

Hank possesses a deep commitment to Living Life Fully—a theme of Martin’s narrative represented by the boys’ life lists. Hank’s life list philosophy allows him to keep having new and valuable experiences his entire life. He imparts this wisdom to his friends, encouraging them in their personal growth.

“Ever since the RISK Reduction Act got passed, RISKs like you can’t just go wandering around wherever you please. We gots to keep the general public safe. It’s the law. There’s a hefty reward for bringing in rogue RISKs.”

In the climax of her narrative, Martin extrapolates the novel’s exploration of Ableism and Disability and gives the reader a glimpse of a possible future in which the rights and freedoms of people with RISK factors are removed, endangering their lives and ostracizing them from society. The hunters in the future imply that people with RISK factors are no longer free citizens. Instead, they can be rounded up for a bounty, allegedly to keep everyone else safe. This dystopian vision of the future explores the ways in which oppressive systems use fearmongering rhetoric to dehumanize and harm people who are seen as different.

“Maybe everyone got sick of spending so much money on kids like us. Kids who are unpredictable and dangerous.”

Gary has grown up being told that he is dangerous and difficult to be around. He therefore takes a pessimistic view of the future and does not share his friends’ belief that the government will protect kids with RISK factors. This scene highlights ways in which Gary’s perspective has been shaped by the implicit bias and prejudice around him, which he has internalized over time.

“There is never going to be a moment where we realize that these things we can do are actually really great. We will never be anything but a burden and a danger.”

Gary’s pessimism—a result of his trauma—is both personal and political. He feels incapable of seeing anything positive about RISK factors because of the ways they have made his life more challenging and made him subject to discrimination. Martin’s narrative employs the tropes of superhero stories to reframe RISK factors as extraordinary and positive abilities rather than solely negative and challenging ones. Gary’s arc follows the shift in his perspective from seeing himself as a broken and a burden to seeing himself as special, a hero capable of saving lives.

“It’s possible that just by mentioning to the TTBI the RISK Reduction Act those guys talked about, a domino effect would be started that actually made it happen.”

Rather than Martin focusing on the science of the time travel mechanism in Float, Martin uses it as a device to structure her plot and create a propulsive climax. The idea that it’s possible to change the future provides the key turning point in Murphy’s arc and underscores the novel’s thematic interest in personal autonomy and agency in one’s own life.

“I wouldn’t be alive if your sticky hand hadn’t saved my life on initiation night. You have a lot to be proud of.”

Emerson provides a counterpoint to Gary’s earlier pessimism by reframing his RISK factor as an asset, even a superpower. Martin’s narrative makes clear that while RISK factors are difficult and often unpleasant to live with, they can also help people in unexpected ways.

“‘And there are worse things than dying.’

‘What could be worse than dying?’ she gasped.

I shot Hank a look and grinned. ‘Not really living.’”

The novel’s conclusion makes Emerson's new, more expansive outlook on himself and the world explicit by centering the theme of Living Life Fully. While he will always be at risk of floating away, he refuses to allow that risk to prevent him from fully living his life—a full perspective shift from the start of the novel. He’s finally embraced the value of stepping outside his comfort zone.