Never Never

As with any coming-of-age story, Never Never showcases adolescents beginning their journey into adulthood with assumptions about themselves, their families, and the larger world. Charlie and Silas undergo a series of amnesia loops and ultimately conquer them by embracing new assumptions—leaving behind their naivete and uncertainty in the process. The teens begin the novel playing dictated roles: Charlie as a “Daddy’s Girl,” Silas as his father’s football star.

Charlie assumes her father’s integrity, and his love gives her purpose. When Brett is arrested and imprisoned for fraud, she understandably has trauma. She isolates herself from family and friends, and breaks up with soul mate Silas, because her father’s fall destroyed her faith in the universe itself. Charlie spirals, embracing the role of victim and pursuing a casual relationship with athletic student Brian to ignore her true feelings. By shaping so much of her identity around her father, she loses herself when he is out of the picture. As for Silas, he is shaped by his own manipulative father. He loves photography and proves a romantic at heart, but is pressured to play football due to Clark’s business savvy and specific image of masculinity. Both Clark and Silas’s male peers dismiss Silas’s love for Charlie as a liability: “The guys are starting to say I am whipped” (198).