The Fine Print

“[W]hile I’ve completely changed as a person, my aversion to mourning hasn’t.”

Rowan’s aversion to mourning implies that he has unhealed traumas in his past, and this suggestion provides the basis for the unspoken conflicts and fears that drive him throughout the story. The author soon reveals that he has already lost his mother, and his reactions to the mourning process hint at his impulse to run away from difficult emotions.

“With your father pushing me away, I devoted myself to my job until I became numb to everything else. […] I met someone who opened my eyes to my mistakes. As the company grew, I lost touch with why I started this all.”

These words of Brady’s from beyond the grave foreshadow Zahra’s later role as one of the committee members who will decide the fate of Rowan’s inheritance and plans for the park. Rowan eventually realizes that Zahra was the person Brady met: the one who helped him open his eyes to the problems within the park during their meetings to discuss her original Nebula Land proposal.

“I’m not the hopeless boy anymore that craved a real relationship with my father. Because of him, I turned my mind into a weapon rather than a weakness. No matter how hard he tries to poke at me, I’ll always come out on top because the child he once knew no longer exists. I made sure of that.”

This moment reveals both Rowan’s past trauma and the effects it had on who he has become. Although he has found strength in not letting his father’s opinions get to him, he has done so at the cost of his happiness and empathy for others.