“We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.”

In the first line of the book, Titus highlights the general sense of discontentment he feels, although he can buy anything he wants. Later in the novel, Violet informs him that traveling to the moon is a luxury, but Titus has been consuming things and expensive experiences his entire life, and his life is still missing something.

“The thing I hate about space is that you can feel how old and empty it is. […] You need the noise of your friends, in space.”

Titus has an unfulfilled desire for human connection, though he doesn’t understand it. He fills the empty space by buying things and surrounding himself with friends who are much louder than they are thoughtful, but all of it is only a distraction. Space is a metaphor for Titus’s life. It’s large and empty, but it’s crowded with trash from the castoffs of consumerism.

“I didn’t have a thing for Calista or Quendy or even completely a thing (anymore) for Loga. But I was watching Link slamming into them, and when he slammed, it said that he and the girls all knew what each other’s bodies would be like, and that was part of the game.”

Titus attempts to describe the ideas of intimacy and connection because he can’t quite name what is missing in his relationships. Although he dated Loga and had sex with her, he feels no trace of that intimacy left between them. He imagines that he sees Link effortlessly achieving what he can’t, but most of the people with