Preparation for the Next Life explores the wide-ranging impact of war as it reverberates across communities, damaging the lives of everyone it touches. All of the characters are impacted by war in some way, but the most impacted communities are the veterans, immigrants, and American Muslims.

As the character who is most obviously impacted by the war, Skinner illustrates both the physical and psychological costs paid by those tasked with fighting America’s wars. Before the start of the novel, Skinner served three tours in Iraq and witnessed countless deaths. His PTSD makes it difficult for him to find or keep work, and he feels abandoned by his community and by his government; occasionally people thank him for his service, but these expressions of gratitude feel empty as Skinner’s present-day struggles go unacknowledged. Skinner’s mental illness and his disillusionment with society and the United States government go hand-in-hand. As his PTSD symptoms worsen, his lack of access to mental health services means that he “[doesn’t] know enough to be as scared as he should have been” (150). Skinner, like many returning war veterans, does not have the resources he needs to help himself. The war has also taken Skinner’s identity. It is revealed in the middle of the novel that Skinner’s first name is Brad, and Skinner is a nickname that he received while in Iraq.