“She knew the poor people lived that way because they believed they had no choice, and she also knew they’d been told a lie, and that the world they lived in was not what they thought it was.”

Ellie’s escape from the space station represents an enormous threat to Gorman’s power—power that has been built on and sustained with a lie. Like most authoritarians, Gorman’s biggest enemy is the truth, and he is willing to go to any lengths—including killing children—to keep that truth buried. Emma Clayton also comments on a key authoritarian strategy: to not only repress the poor but to manipulate them into believing they deserve no better.

“She hung in the air like a ghost between them and they felt as if when Ellie died, so had a part of Mika, so they grieved for both of them.”

The pain of losing a child is incomprehensible, but after a year, Asha and David are trying to rebuild their lives. However, Mika’s insistence that she’s still alive prevents any sense of closure, for them or for their son. They coax and cajole him, they treat him with kid gloves, they send him to therapy, anything to get him to accept what they believe is the tragic truth about his sister, but his refusal is a constant thorn in their side. They are left mourning two children rather than one.

“There were no fields anymore, no woods or parks or gardens. There was no space for anything but concrete and people.”

In Clayton’s world, the vast majority of the population is robbed of an essential component of life—nature. While most of the world’s people live in cities, urban planners realize that green spaces are necessary to mental and emotional well-being.