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My comments on Chapter 7 (Reef):
> YES! Bugs Potter had a band called Garbage (and now we all do, in a case of life imitating art). And there was that one book with “Garbage Bag” in the title. Now, Reef Moody’s answer to earning $200 is “garbage.” (The following is not at all interesting but I will share it anyhow: My grandmother thought “garbage” was one of the most vulgar of curse words—it’s trash, please!—so every time I see the word I sort of flinch like a Hogwarts student hearing someone drop “Voldemort” into conversation.)
> “It’s gross, but at least it’s boring too.” – classic inner dialogue humor!
> Reef is spiraling. The trash duty isn’t fun, sure, but he’s got a lot worse going on. He feels like his new “family” doesn’t care about him enough to even notice the bullying he’s getting from Declan. What’s more awful than feeling unseen, unworthy of notice? Well, in Reef’s case, there IS worse. Two pages later, he’s unable to remember his own mother. We as the readers have a lot of pitying to do in five pages of story! Like @Jade said, we’re getting regular reminders this is a serious book (but the humor just fits perfectly and lightens the reader’s load a lot!)
> “Theo? Who’s Theo?” – whooaaa!
@Jade, you said exactly what I was thinking: These short chapters go quickly! But each one adds some character development or piles on to the mystery of the mistaken memories. @Jena, I can totally see where somewhere along the way it becomes hard to remember which are the real memories and which are the shifted ones. Especially when we’re “seeing” some of the memories through both sets of eyes.