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Themes
The Importance of Love and Support
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of physical and emotional abuse, suicidal ideation, bullying, substance use, and addiction.
As Joey struggles with substance use disorder, the care of his younger siblings, and his father’s abuse, several characters in the novel are critical to his survival. Although he initially refuses to open up to anyone outside his family, insistent that he is fine on his own or that he does not want to burden anyone else with his problems, he learns the importance of depending on others.
One important character who helps Joey cope with his issues at home is his sister, Shannon. When Sean is born, Joey is overwhelmed by caring for him while still trying to attend school. However, Shannon’s willingness to help raise Sean gives Joey a reprieve from being his only caregiver. Additionally, as Joey fights withdrawal from drugs, Shannon is the only person who understands what he’s going through. He notes how he “knew that Shannon knew what was really happening. […] Still, neither of [them] spoke a word about the elephant in the room, and [he] was grateful for her in this moment. She wasn’t lecturing [him]. She wasn’t calling [him] names and reminding [him] of what a terrible person” he had become (474). Due to Joey’s independence and his insistence that he can handle his problems, he refuses to allow Aoife to help him through his addiction. He also does not want his family to know what he is going through. However, he is grateful for Shannon’s presence and support, even if she does nothing beyond just being there for him. In this way, Joey realizes the importance of having his sister as a form of support, particularly as he strives to heal from substance abuse.
In addition to Shannon, Aoife is also a key component of his survival in the text. Throughout the first part of the text, Joey fights his attraction to Shannon, insisting that she is better off without him and that he does not want to be responsible for “dragging her deeper into [his] fucked-up world” (382). He resists the urge to tell her about his home life, instead brushing off her questions and insisting that she respect his privacy and boundaries. However, as Aoife continues to be there for him, he realizes how much he cares for her and how much she cares for him. She lies to her father for him, defends him at school, helps him when he is on drugs, and confronts both his father and Shane to help him. When Joey finally lets Aoife into his life, he realizes that “she was [his] momentary escape from all of the fucking dark. She was the only bit of brightness [he] had in [his] life” (436). Although Joey breaks up with her at the end of the text, wanting to fight his addiction alone, there is hope that they will be together again once he “fixes” himself.
At several points in the novel, Joey contemplates whether he wants to live any longer. He thinks of how difficult his life is and how he has no future, even voicing this fact to Aoife’s father. However, each time he is at his lowest point, he finds support from Aoife and Shannon. Although he initially resisted the urge to let people into his life, his change and his acceptance of support from others allowed him to survive.
The Challenges of Mental Health and Addiction
One central conflict in the novel is Joey’s internal conflict as he battles with substance use disorder. Joey starts using marijuana, but transitions to more dangerous drugs as his life becomes increasingly difficult to manage. Although he learns to replace some of his dependency on drugs with love and support from Aoife, he is still on his journey to recovery in the final pages of the novel.
Joey’s substance use is detrimental to both his physical and emotional well-being. On several occasions, Aoife must physically care for him, taking him to her home, cleaning up his vomit, and forcing him to sleep on his floor while he recovers. He skips school regularly, often disappearing for days at a time once he reconnects with Shane. Additionally, after learning about his mother’s new pregnancy, he disappears for over a day and misses his plans for Christmas Eve, with Aoife ultimately finding him unconscious at Shane’s house. These effects of substance abuse convey just how harmful an addiction can be. While Joey initially uses drugs for an escape, drug use begins to consume his entire life, compounding his difficulties by making him unable to deal with any other parts of his life.
When Joey finally admits that he cannot control his addiction and decides to shut Aoife out of his life, the full impact of his addiction is seen through his thoughts while fighting with Aoife. He thinks about how he would “wake up every morning with a strong inclination to attempt suicide” (487) and how it felt when he “finally found something that helped him through the pain and sheer fucking misery that was his life [and] how quickly the shift in balance had happened for [him]” (487), as that thing that helped him began to consume his entire life. Joey’s struggle to articulate these thoughts to Aoife conveys the complexities and complications of addiction. While Aoife begs Joey to just be with her, he is adamant that he cannot explain to her how he feels—how much his drug addiction affects his life and how difficult it is to be in recovery—and therefore he also cannot confront the harmful parts of his life.
In the final pages of the novel, Joey’s decision to remain separated from Aoife reaffirms how much his addiction impacts his life. While most of the novel follows typical romance tropes—with a young girl falling for a troubled teen, supporting him through his problems, and recognizing how good of a person he is under his tough exterior—the conclusion subverts expectations of this genre. Instead of following the typical trope of true love fixing everything, their breakup emphasizes just how difficult addiction is to overcome. While it would be a happy ending for their relationship to “fix” Joey, Joey is adamant that it is not enough. Instead, he needs to dedicate his time and energy to fixing himself before he can be in a committed relationship with Aoife.
The Impact of Family Dynamics on Personal Development
Central to both Joey and Aoife’s characters in the novel is their struggle with the family that they come from. They both face an internal conflict over how much their parents’ lives affect their own, feeling as though the families that they come from define their lives.
Joey repeatedly battles with the feeling that he is going to turn out to be the same as his father. When he first begins to befriend Aoife, he warns her that she “need[s] to know that [he’s] got some bad genes running through [his] system. Some seriously fucked-up DNA” (134). For Joey, the fact that his father struggles with alcoholism—and he struggles with drug addiction—means that they are destined to become the same person. His mother exacerbates these thoughts, first telling Joey that he is the same as his father and then warning Aoife that Joey is going to turn out to be just like him. For Joey, the pressure of his mother believing that he is just like his father, as well as his fears of turning into his father, hinder his ability to escape from the negativity and abuse of his home life. He admits to Tony that he does not see a future for himself; he repeatedly acts out in school, missing or getting suspended for weeks at a time, and gives into the belief that he has no chance of escaping from the cycle of poverty and abuse within his home. These actions, coupled with the physical effects of abuse from his father and being forced to care for his siblings, convey just how much Joey’s family impacts his development.
Similarly, Aoife allows her parents’ relationship to impact her views of relationships. She spends much of the novel in a relationship with Paul despite acknowledging to her friends, parents, and Joey that she does not truly care for him. She admits to Joey that she feels as though, for her, being “comfortable” with Paul “is as good as it gets” (234). This insecurity and fear of relationships is rooted in what she witnesses in her parents’ marriage. She tells her mother that “from [her] viewpoint, men let you down. Even the good ones like Dad can’t be trusted. So why would [she] ever expose [her]self to that kind of pain?” (95-96). The only relationship that Aoife has been exposed to is her parents’ marriage, and it is dictated by a cycle of infidelity and forgiveness. As a result, she struggles to trust the men in her life, conveying just how much of an impact her parents’ choices have on her relationships.
Ultimately, Aoife and Joey’s experiences convey the duality of family. While Aoife has kind, loving parents and a stable home, she is still deeply impacted by her parents’ decisions and their unstable romantic relationship. Similarly, while Joey faces physical and emotional abuse from both his parents, he also finds comfort and support in his relationships with and support from his siblings. Through their relationship with each other, they both learn that they do not have to be products of their parents’ poor choices, instead learning to trust and support each other through life’s hardships.
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