Stung

“But somehow I am alone now, in a house where my family hasn’t been in a really long time.”

Early in Fo’s narrative, this line establishes one of her first conflicts: Where is her family? Their absence is just as jarring to Fo as the sight of her ruined bedroom and home. It also suggests a tone of mystery and confusion, making it evident that she does not know how she came to be alone, nor how long it has been since the last real event in her memory: her father tucking her in at night when she was 13.

“Why are you so clean? […] You’re clean. Your clothes, your skin. And you smell like… […] Plants and iodine. Are you from the right side of the wall?”

Arrin makes these comments after pulling Fo down to the relative safety of the sewer. The line drops several foreshadowing clues; first, it calls out Fo’s outsider status, having wakened with no memory of recent events nor why she is clean (and, Arrin tells her later, well-fed). Also, Arrin’s question directs reader focus the idea of the wall and Arrin’s brief reference to the environment evokes images of both a greenhouse and an experimental, laboratory-like setting with her juxtaposition “plants and iodine.