What Is Life?
Zola quotes her mother on the answer to this deep philosophical inquiry. The answer might be surprising to some, though even those who are surprised should still be able to clearly see the point that Zola’s mom makes. This truth expressed as metaphor was very accurate even before social media transformed the simple act of living an intensely boring life into performance art:
“So my mother says life is just a TV show, and we’re all characters.”
The Castle
Portico lives in a huge apartment building populated with various assorted eccentric characters. He has personally transformed Skylight Gardens into a metaphorical domicile that is far more suited to his imaginative adventures: it is “The Castle.”
The Frets
The Frets is the name that Portico gives to what his Gran Gran identifies as feelings of anxiety. The Frets is not just a term, it is a metaphor that even comes with a definition:
“There’s nervous in the brain that makes nervous in the body.”
Anxiety
A lot of Portico’s anxiety derives from the constant state of argument that it seems his parents’ marriage has fallen into. For children living in such circumstances, it can often seem as though arguing is all that a mom and dad ever do. Whether true or not, the potential consequences are not lost upon Portico and it is a short leap from worry to physical discomfort:
“Portico’s throat also felt like it had an X in it. Like something spiky caught in there. Or maybe something even more awkward, like a question mark. Or questions.”
The Mysterious Room
The central antagonist of the book—aside from the state of affairs in the marriage of Portico’s parents—is Herbert Singletary the Worst. He starts off as just another school bully, but eventually Portico and Zola discover there is more to Herbert than meets the eye. Like, for one thing, the simile-friendly mysterious door to an even more mysterious room:
“A half door. A door that looked like it had been cut down the middle. Neither Portico nor Zola knew why there was a door there or what was actually behind it. All Portico and Zola knew was that Herbert Singletary the Worst lived there.”
