Emma Clayton’s primary protagonist, Mika, is in many ways a typical 12-year-old boy—insecure, in the early stages of puberty, uncertain about peer relationships—but what sets him apart is the bond he shares with his sister Ellie, presumed by everyone but him to be dead. Mika also possesses a genetic mutation (webbed feet) that he tries to hide at a time in his life when he wants to feel normal. That mutation—and the psychic connection he has with Ellie—informs much of his defiance and suspicion of authority. Since he is convinced that reports of Ellie’s death are a lie, he has no reason to trust anything the government says. His instincts tell him the Fit Mix is poison, and he alone refuses to drink it. Despite his parents’ insistence that he accept his sister’s death, he cannot, avowing to find her and prove everyone wrong.

Mika is a protagonist essential to this genre: confused and vulnerable but possessing an inner strength he doesn’t know he has until circumstances force him to accept and utilize that strength. Mika and his sister represent the idealism and vitality of youth. While the adults around them grimly accept the inequities of their world, Mika cannot.