Russell’s comment that black boys are “target practice” picks up the novel’s touch-and-go examination of the ways in which race influences the way people treat each other. Bennett’s considerations of how race influences identity are rarely at the foreground of a scene’s focus, instead existing as a background reality that she acknowledges from time to time. On another note, throughout the novel, Aubrey has slowly pieced together the details of Luke and Nadia’s relationship, first learning that they used to hook up, then learning that Luke once got a girl pregnant, and finally discovering that this girl was Nadia. In this moment, Aubrey finally articulates what she has long expected: that Nadia and Luke are still romantically involved.