The Usual Rules Themes

In The Usual Rules, Wendy deals with a fair amount of abandonment from the people she should be able to count on the most. Yes, we're talking about her own parents. Her father Garrett is largely ab...

From the beginning of The Usual Rules, it's clear Wendy doesn't have the stereotypical family. She has a stepfather named Josh and a half-brother named Louie, both of whom she considers more of her...

In The Usual Rules, when Wendy finds out her mother has died in the World Trade Center attacks, she relies heavily on her family and friends to help her through this difficult time. Her best friend...

In The Usual Rules, Wendy leaves the only home she's ever known—New York City—to go live with her biological father in California. Throughout the story, we see Wendy living in these two differe...

Things are pretty tough in The Usual Rules after Janet dies, and Wendy finds herself wracked with guilt over how she treated her mother in her last days. Even though she's just been having the same...

There's enough sadness in The Usual Rules to fill a book—which is exactly what happens. The book chronicles Wendy's grief and heart wrenching pain after the events of 9/11, which takes her belove...

In The Usual Rules, Wendy is going through a particularly hard time that forces her to reexamine her life and try to figure out who she really is. As a thirteen-year-old girl, Wendy is already deal...

Because Wendy is dealing with the grief of losing her mother, The Usual Rules is rife with flashbacks and memories from her past filled with details of interactions with her mother and the relation...

Death is a pretty big specter in The Usual Rules—you know, since it's a book about 9/11 and its aftermath. Our main girl Wendy goes from being a carefree thirteen-year-old girl to someone who is...

In The Usual Rules, Wendy is on the cusp of adolescence—as a thirteen-year-old, she's starting to change both physically and emotionally. The death of her mother only speeds up this process. Sudd...