In Chapter 14, Duncan checks out a library book called Death: Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer by Mason Lucas. Lucas defines acceleration as a burgeoning killer’s “escalation of increasingly destructive aberrant behavior” (88). The term literally refers to Roach’s progression from killing animals, to burning buildings, to stalking women, to planning to kill said women.

Much of Acceleration depicts characters struggling with the consequences of their decisions. Characters set events into motion that then influence the remainder of their lives. Duncan’s description of the Jungle introduces the metaphor of gravity into their situation: “Most of the people who live there have the doomed look of lifers. They move in slow motion, never picking up enough speed to escape its gravity” (126). Once someone reaches the point where they have to live in the Jungle, they are doomed to battle the pitiless force of gravity as it shapes their trajectory.

Duncan’s decision to help Wayne with a toilet heist set him on a path with criminal activity on the periphery. His decision to read the lost and found journal accelerates into a full-blown obsession with Roach.