"I’d have one arm to wipe Aurora’s nose. Two more for holding both kids’ hands when I pick them up from the Head Start bus stop to keep Bryce from wandering into the street after some rock he’s spotted. One to hold Hector and his diaper bag on the afternoons when my mom works at the Pizza Pit. One to adjust my shirt because it doesn’t really fit and it can get too revealing if I’m not paying attention, and I don’t want to be `that girl.' One so I could do my homework at least some of the time if I wanted. One to pick up the Cheerios that are always on the floor. And the last one to swipe a can of Easy Cheese from the Cumberland Farms convenience store."
Zoey is the first-person narrator of the story. She is a middle-school student with a fascination for all things having to do with the octopus. This passage occurs very early in the narrative. In fact, it occurs early enough to immediately convey the almost obsessive interest Zoey has in the strange underwater animal. This quote is also effective in the way it quickly delineates the narrator's domestic situation as she conducts a roll call of sorts of her siblings of various ages and gender. It is telling that she imagines using an extra arm to maintain a sense of modesty because not only does it offer insight into her personality, but strongly hints at the less than sufficient financial status of her family. The reference to resorting to petty theft at the end of this passage also seems to be a commentary on her family's less than sufficient budget to completely cover necessities like food. The paragraph is especially efficient in situating the domestic circumstances of Zoey's life while also indicating a healthy imagination.
"Bryce and Aurora’s dad, Nate, wasn’t bad. He was kind, and those times he took me hunting were super fun. But then he stopped hunting and started drinking, and you can’t hold down a job and take care of kids when you’re like that. He’d just look out the window of the camper van we lived in back then like the answer was out there. I mean, maybe it was, because my mom told him loads of times to go to AA meetings—but he never went."
This quote serves to illustrate the actual complexity of the domestic situation which has the narrator wishing she enjoyed the benefits of being an octopus. The reference to the different paternity of Bryce and Aurora indicates the expansive family duties which fall to Zoey is partially the result of a blended family. This passage also lays the foundation for why the family is experiencing such economic woes. The effects of alcoholism upon the domestic dynamic are addressed directly in the quote and make it clear that the economic difficulties facing the young narrator are at least partially connected to this condition. In the present-day of the narrator, Nate has been replaced in the affections of Zoey's mother by a new boyfriend. The reference to the father of her step-siblings taking Zoey hunting presents the opportunity for the narrative to explore the theme of America's problems with gun violence. Some readers may find it problematic that the novel approaches this controversial issue from a middle of the road perspective that fails to really take a solid stand on either side of the debate.
"Our first stop is the courthouse to file for the emergency protective order. The process takes a long time...then when my mom finally gets in front of the judge, he immediately issues the protective order."
The new boyfriend of Zoey's mom turns out to be something far less desirable than he at first seems. The novel is a portrait of the difficulties of living under domestic and financial conditions which reflect the reality of all too many people in America. What at first seems merely like the imaginative contemplation of a young girl to have multiple arms like an octopus is eventually revealed to be a much darker fantasy than it seems. The responsibilities of helping to care for multiple siblings who do not all share the same parental lineage that fall upon Zoey is a more realistic portrayal of blended family difficulties than a sitcom fantasy where the father makes enough money that the mother doesn't have to go to work or clean the house. There is no live-in maid to take the burden off Zoey or her mother and her mother's choices in boyfriends is persistently less than the stuff of fairy tale fantasies. This passage refers to a trip to the courthouse to get a restraining order against Lenny, the latest boyfriend of Zoey's mother. The very fact that the judge wastes no time at all in approving and issuing the restraining order against the boyfriend strongly asserts the extent to which the family needs such protection.
