“Be smart. Be brave. Be careful.” is a motif that appears several times in the novel. The words form a mantra that Charlie uses during her car ride with Josh when her suspicions flare regarding whether he might be a killer. For this reason, the motif connects with the theme of Trust Versus Paranoia, highlighting Charlie’s struggle with deciding which strangers to trust on her journey. The mantra emerges in full after Charlie notices that Josh’s driver’s license shows him to be Jake Collins from Pennsylvania. As she begins to ask him questions, hoping to catch him in a lie, she decides to “add another item to her list of things to do, joining ‘be smart’ and ‘be brave.’ Be careful” (80).

The motif also ties closely into the theme of The Wrongful Blaming of Women for Misogynistic Violence, highlighting the burden placed on women to protect themselves. The words echo the “Take Back the Night” poster that Charlie sees hanging on campus just before Josh arrives to pick her up:

Never go out alone at night.

Always walk in pairs.

Always tell someone where you’re going.

Never trust a stranger (18).

As Charlie continues to question Josh, as a woman alone in a car with a strange man, she knows she must make choices that are “smarter, braver, more careful” (81).