How to Make Friends with the Dark

Content Warning: This section discusses themes of grief, parental loss, and trauma. It also mentions suicidal ideation, substance abuse, underage drinking, and domestic violence.

“[S]he’s tight-lipped about her early, non-Mom, kidlike days. Her parents died when she was in college, and she doesn’t like to talk about them.”

This quote shows Tiger’s curiosity about June’s childhood. June is secretive about her life before Tiger, and Tiger later discovers it is because she had a difficult time after her parents passed away when she was young. June’s secrecy stems from a desire to keep Tiger shielded and safe. However, it ends up having the opposite effect when Tiger is left to deal with the aftermath of June’s sudden death with no information, resources, or support system.

“I mean, what do I ever do without my mom anyway? Nothing. I go to school, sometimes I watch the skaters at The Pit, I come home, I read, I…I sit in our small life. Watching everybody else. A bug in a jar.”

Tiger reflects on how her world is severely limited to just her mother and her. June’s protectiveness means that Tiger does participate in a lot of normal, teenage activities and experiences like her peers. Tiger feels suffocated by this, which leads her to making the “bug in a jar” analogy that is a recurring image throughout the novel.

“She didn’t even ask. We didn’t even talk about it. I don’t even understand how we went from fighting about a dance to her buying a dress for the dance.”

June calls Tiger at school to tell her about the dress she has bought, and Tiger is furious. Tiger’s anger stems from the lack of communication and agency she experiences in her relationship with her mother. She feels frustrated by the lack of resolution to their fight about the dance and angered by her mother’s attempt to take control of the situation by buying the dress for her.