Summary

Chapter 3 switches to Stella’s perspective. She browses videos on her phone while lying on the top bunk of her bed, watching one of a beautiful goth-girl. She notices that it is colder this year than usual and hopes that the cold gets severe enough for her school to close down. She also obsesses about a boy she likes named Lewis, who has kissed her but is not likely to do so again. We are made aware of how different Stella is from her mother. Stella compares her desire for companionship to Constance’s “self-reliance and totalitarian independence” (30). It is also revealed that Constance is a survivalist, a point to take note of given the potentially apocalyptic trajectory of the text so far. Constance and Stella begin a quite comprehensive discussion about the difference between sex and gender, both of which lie on...