Well, our three new characters introduced, we reach Part 2: Whollies

Then we do the thing where the writer puts in some actual news that either inspired him or just fits with the thing he wants to hammer in, and it’s the thing about how a state’s law about abandoning babies at hospitals made some people drop off older kids, haha parents suck right?

Well, no.
When you look for what actually happened, you find a common theme – the parents know their children need help and can’t afford it. It’s something that happens because of the fact our wages have been stagnant, our economy is crumbling and meanwhile deregulation upon deregulation means health care would be unaffordable even if those first two weren’t true.

The author apparently can’t understand this, which does explain why so little emphasis has been put on parents doing this because they were told it’s for the child’s own good.

Really, the whole story is so very America, isn’t it – people are pushed to their breaking point, then we cluck about what terrible people they are and how the rules need to change so those sort of people can’t take advantage of it any longer.

With that over, we head to the fourth chapter, which is Parents.

So, the cops show up one night and the parents are confused because hey, they’re a day early, but the cops say that changing the day is one of the things they’re allowed to do.

“Look here, Officer Mullard,” he says in a loud whisper, “we’re not prepared to surrender our son just yet. As my wife has told you, we were expecting you tomorrow. You’ll have to come back then.”

Why do they care? It’s not really clear. This is isn’t like a month early, where you can imagine the parents might’ve been planning a family vacation to sooth their guilt. And they don’t show any positive emotions.

“Stop him, Walter!” the woman begs her husband. Walter, put on the spot, turns to Mullard with a vengeance. “I want to talk to your superior.”

We know only that for some reason, they really don’t want to give their kid up, except in 24 hours, at which point they’re fine about it (and also that standard gender roles remain in play). There’s no tears, there’s nothing about changing their mind, they seem to be objecting solely so the “cops” will have an excuse to pull out a gun and threaten them a bunch, because, of course, the cops? Actually fucking Connor and friends.

Aside from the fucking Connor issue, the idea of this is a good one. We know that clapper style fighting back is banned, but apparently the author does allow this much rebellion, perhaps in part because this is a sort of heroism Connor-sue can safely engage in.

The thing is, last book, I had the distinct impression the current unwind hideout was barely keeping itself going. The kids being shuttled in likely get caught all the time during the long wait until they can send a batch, and selling the kids as completely undocumented and never followed up on workers likely has its own death toll.

If they had plenty for the escaped kids and the problem was only so few made it, this would make perfect sense. As it is, it seems a huge amount of time, energy, and risk, all when they can barely support the kids they have already.

For that matter, if things are going well enough they can afford to take in more kids, it’d make far more sense to have some kids leave to wander around, trying to find fellow runaways and direct them to safehouses. We know the current safehouse system has so much trouble being able to contact the kids that they’re resorted to electrocuting random thieves.

This would be a much better use of Lev’s time in particular, since he’s a rare kid who can’t be unwound if the police notice him.

Anyway, as usual for our side viewpoints that might actually explain something, this one is terribly short so that’s all there is to it.