Is She Just a Sad Puppy Boy?

Elena's parents are gone way more early on. I think it sets her up as this person who's a little more isolated at home and makes her less willing to invest deep in a relationship like this. The book doesn't unpack why she might, you know, be that way. There was something like kind of lovely about just being in her head with her knowledge of it in a way that I had occasionally. When women have been stripped of so much power historically, how you look has been like a mainstay of where our power can come from.