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Content Warning: This section discusses murder and death, violence, trauma and PTSD, a cult, racism, and anti-gay bias.

“Get Lost in the Fun! posters advertised, and it was true: Crowds surged through the gates in the morning and didn’t stumble out again until the sun had set, and spotlights at the exit guided them free. The maps were useless, the You Are Here guides impossible to find. It was a park designed to swallow.”

The opening descriptions of the labyrinthine park foreshadow the danger that lurks within it. The posters telling guests to “get lost” are also deeply ironic, given that people are sacrificed and permanently lost every seven years. It is indeed a park designed “to swallow,” disguised as one designed for fun.

“It takes money to make money, her dad used to say. He also once said Come out, come out, wherever you are, dragging the knife along the wall as music to accompany the dying gasps of her sister.”

This passage juxtaposes the ordinary and clichéd advice offered by Mack’s father with the horror and violence that he enacted on her family. By placing the two side by side, White banishes all sense of normalcy from the novel and provides a glimpse into Mack’s trauma. She is so affected by her father’s actions that, in some ways, she has never truly escaped his grasp, and these lasting wounds deeply affect her experience in the treacherous park.

“Mack realizes Ava has become Ava, not buzzed Ava. She’s the main Ava in Mack’s worldview. When Mack woke up—before Ava—Ava’s head was on her shoulder, tucked in.”

Mack tries to avoid human connection at all costs, preferring to remain safely alone and unnoticed. However, she is beginning to feel drawn to Ava and is dismayed to realize that this particular Ava now holds a special significance for her. In sleep, their physical closeness also transcends some of Mack’s instinctive barriers, and this brief moment of bonding foreshadows that she will change for the better as she builds new connections in order to survive.