There are a lot of types of love represented in this book, not just romantic love. The love between Nick's mom and her son is very prominent. She loves him unconditionally.

There is plenty of romantic love in this novel, too, if that's more your thing. Nick falls for Nekoda at first sight. Is it destiny? Or is it lust, because Nick is only fourteen? Or is everybody wrong when they say that teenagers only know about lust and infatuation and not about love?

As a teenager, it can be especially difficult to believe that you have any sort of free will, since your parents control everything you do. And when you're parents aren't controlling you, then there's school. And then at school, there is the terrifying, Darwinian nature of social life that controls you, too. Yikes.