Growing Up

Growing up is used as a central theme throughout the novel to convey that though growth might be difficult in the moment, it always leads to a better life. At one point or another, most of the main characters experience some maturation. Their periods of growth are typically accompanied with a sense of dissatisfaction or unhappiness, but as they reach the other side of that period they become more content with who they are and their respective situations.

The two youngest characters, Irina and the Observer, spend most of the novel growing up. Irina is a twelve-year-old girl deep in the transition that is puberty. Lennon uses the changes in her novel and the waning obsession with the murders to show her evolution from child to teenager as the novel progresses. The Observer’s growth reflects the maturation that all of humanity experiences as it...