Comment on language/style

There is a good deal of wordplay in this novel. All of Betsy's and Ellen’s texts to each other and coded messages to say they are who they say they are focus on plays on words and grammar. For instance, Ellen opens one of her messages to Betsy: “The subjunctive would have walked into a bar… had it only known, the the message started” (165). All of these messages start with something, sometimes a part of speech, sometimes a medical condition, walking into a bar. In this case, the subjunctive tenses of verbs are used to indicate what a person wishes he had done.