Woke Up Like This

“Prom is the single most important night of a teenager’s life, and you can’t convince me otherwise.”

This is the opening line of the novel, and it immediately establishes the protagonist, Char’s, character via indirect characterization. She is stubborn and not very proficient at seeing other people’s perspectives. She is most comfortable in charge, wielding full control of a situation, and this line conveys these elements of her personality.

“My point is, I spend half the time pretending to know what I’m doing, and the other half ignoring all my problems and hoping they’ll disappear. Spoiler alert: they do not.”

Here, Char’s mother tries to explain why Char shouldn’t be in such a rush to become an adult, essentially describing adults in a way that makes them sound a lot like teenagers. Char, however, continues to believe that adults feel more certainty and purposefulness until she witnesses this very cluelessness with her father after she returns from 2037. While Char cannot empathize with her mother’s view in this statement, this changes as she matures.

“The thought of me not being in control is hive-inducing.”

When Kassie suggests that Char take a backseat in the prom planning, this is how Char responds. She recognizes that her need for control is not exactly healthy, but in her mind, to relinquish all control is tantamount to a severe allergy with potentially dire physical implications. This histrionic reaction underscores her adolescence.