Through Turtle’s narration, Holm explores the challenge of balancing pessimism and optimism, showing the flaws associated with both extremes.

As the novel opens, Turtle is feeling openly pessimistic. On her way to Florida to live with people she doesn’t know, Turtle brings with her years of disappointment and discouragement from living as an assistant to Sadiebelle, who is a housekeeper. After repeated examples of cruelty and insensitivity toward her and her mother, Turtle is convinced that people are bad, and that life rarely works out for the best as it does in the movies.

The flaw in this approach is revealed as Turtle begins to integrate herself into Key West society and finds, to her surprise, that there is much good to be discovered in the people around her. The key is that it sometimes takes work to uncover and cultivate goodness, both in oneself and others. With Nana Philly, for instance, Turtle must return several times before the elderly woman softens. Had Turtle decided that there was no point in visiting Nana Philly, as her pessimism would suggest, she would have missed out on a vital friendship.

On the other extreme, unbridled optimism can be equally hurtful. Try as she might, Turtle cannot resist the appeal of dreaming and hoping for a better life.