Book Review
The book “Regretting You” by Colleen Hoover tells the story of the tumultuous relationship between Morgan Grant and her daughter Clara when she was a teenager. Regretting You, which was released in 2019, is currently ranked as the #1 best seller in the Wall Street Journal. The themes of mother-daughter relationships, loss, and first love are investigated in the novel Regretting You, which is written from Morgan’s and Clara’s points of view in alternating chapters.
Introduction
Regretting Morgan, then 17 years old, is shown in the opening scene of the film spending the summer with her boyfriend Chris Grant, her sister Jenny, and Jenny’s boyfriend Jonah Sullivan. You is set in the past. Morgan takes on the role of a motherly figure for Jenny, and she shares an unspoken connection with Jonah, whose level of maturity inspires Morgan’s respect. Both Chris and Jenny abuse alcoholic beverages and illicit narcotics. Morgan quickly learns that she is carrying Chris’s child and that she is pregnant.
When Clara, the daughter of Chris and Morgan, is 16 years old in the future, she is driving home from school when she spots an abandoned classmate named Miller Adams on the side of the road. The future is seventeen years in the future. She goes to pick up Miller and then drives him back to his house. Miller has been following Clara on several social media platforms while lying to his girlfriend Shelby about his connections with her.
Morgan, who will be 34 on her birthday, and her sister Jenny are preparing the meal that will be shared by the rest of the family. Jenny claims that she and Jonah will be getting married; the couple broke up when they were teenagers, and Jonah vanished, but they reconciled momentarily for a one-night stand, and Jenny later found out that she was pregnant. Jenny says that they will be getting married. Morgan avoids Jonah because she is still upset with him for the sudden exit he made several years ago. The family gathers around the table for dinner. Jenny is a nurse at the same local hospital where Chris, Morgan’s now-husband, works. Chris is employed there. Jonah is currently employed as a teacher at Clara’s high school. When Chris finds out that Clara has been talking to Miller, he strongly advises her against pursuing a career in acting and forbids her from having any further contact with Miller. During the meal, Morgan has the impression that she is alone herself. Later on that evening, Morgan shares with Chris her intention to resume her studies at the university. Morgan and Clara follow their custom of creating a birthday vision board together as part of their birthday celebration. Morgan makes the decision that accomplishing this will be her primary objective.
The following morning, Morgan takes care of Jenny and Elijah’s son while Jenny goes back to work following her maternity leave. Jenny finds out from Clara that she has a thing for Miller. Throughout the academic year, Jonah enters Clara and Miller into a film competition together. Jenny receives text messages from Clara informing her of her interactions with Miller.
A little later on that same day, Morgan gets a call informing her that Chris was in a car accident. When Morgan gets to the hospital, he finds Jonah there, but he is unaware that Jenny was also involved in the tragedy. Jonah and Morgan make an investigation to find out why Chris and Jenny were driving together, and they discover that Jenny has been lying about having to go back to work. They inform Clara that Jenny picked up Chris after he had a flat tire so that they can keep her safe from Chris. Jonah and Morgan are given the tragic news by a physician that Chris and Jenny have passed away.
In the wake of the accident, Clara holds herself responsible, believing that she should not have been texting her aunt at the time. Miller goes to the funeral, and thereafter he and his friend drive off together, where they consume marijuana until Morgan finds out about it. While Morgan makes an effort to brush off her suspicions that Chris and Jenny are having an affair, Jonah locates Chris’s car at a local hotel. Morgan is trying to ignore her feelings. Together, Morgan and Jonah make their way to the hotel, where they find lingerie and learn that Chris and Jenny are having an affair. Morgan has a sneaking suspicion that Elijah’s biological father is not Jonah but rather Chris.
Clara manages to avoid being caught and makes her way to the theater, where she stumbles upon Miller working. They are conversing. Jonah wakes Morgan up late in the evening and abandons Elijah with her because he is distraught about the fact that Elijah is not his biological father. When a few days have passed, Morgan keeps providing care for Elijah until Clara travels to Jonah’s house and encourages him to take Elijah back. Morgan receives an apology from Jonah.
When two weeks have passed, Clara continues to avoid going home because of the numerous arguments she has had with her mother regarding her relationship with Miller. Clara is picked up from a coffee shop by Miller after he has informed her that Miller has ended his relationship with his girlfriend. The two of them than spend time together. As Miller confesses to having a crush on Clara for the past three years, they finally get the chance to share their first kiss. At Morgan’s house, she and Jonah had a conversation about whether or not they should reveal the truth to Clara and Elijah about Chris and Jenny. Morgan is adamant about shielding Clara from harm and concealing the truth. When Jonah has left, Morgan thinks of how attracted she was to him and how upset she was that he had left town without warning when they were both teenagers, shortly after she had told him about her pregnancy.
The following day at school, Miller and Clara are seen openly holding hands with one another. Morgan shows up at the school when they least expect him and finds them talking to each other. Morgan and Clara have a disagreement. Morgan, who is feeling worried, drives Elijah home from daycare and watches over him until Jonah finishes his shift. While Jonah searches for tools to assist Morgan in removing a door that she had smashed in a fit of rage, he comes across a number of letters written by Jenny to Chris. Morgan is sneaky and hides the letters because she knows Jonah won’t read them. Jonah and Morgan smash a picture that Jenny had previously given Chris after commiserating with one other about Chris and Jenny’s betrayal. They are so close to locking lips that Clara, who has just returned home, is on the verge of interrupting them. Jonah approaches Morgan at a later time and inquires about her feelings for him. They get into an argument as a result of Morgan’s refusal to answer.
When Miller and Clara continue to become closer to one another, Morgan chooses to ignore Jonah’s calls for the next week. Jonah cries out to Morgan for assistance in a vain attempt to save Elijah’s life after the latter becomes unwell. Jonah arrives home from work to pick up Elijah, and then he and Morgan have supper together. Morgan brings up the issue of Jonah having sex with Jenny the previous year to Jonah in a confrontation. Jonah says that he had sexual contact with Jenny out of jealousy for the bond that Chris had with Morgan. As they continue to talk about how they feel for one another, Jonah leans in and gives Morgan a kiss. While they were making out, Clara walks in on them. Clara, who is convinced that Jonah and Morgan have been having an affair before Chris and Jenny’s deaths, contacts Miller and asks him to sneak into her room so that she can start having sexual relations with him. Miller pauses what he’s doing when he discovers Clara isn’t very enthusiastic about something, and he becomes angry with Clara for using him to make her mother angry. Clara implores him to remain, and eventually, the two of them are able to fall asleep together.
The following morning, a neighbor alerts Morgan to the fact that one of his window screens is damaged. As Morgan goes to check on Clara, she finds Miller dozing off in the bed she normally uses. Another argument between Morgan and Clara is. Clara heads out to the school in a belligerent manner. Today marks her 17th year on this planet. It was during the first period of Jonah’s class that she smashed her cell phone in a fit of rage. Worried, rather than punishing Clara, Jonah gives her comfort instead. Clara decides to forgo the rest of the school day and celebrate her birthday at home with Jonah and Miller instead of going to class. Morgan is taken aback when Jonah and Miller show up when she is in the middle of preparing Clara’s favorite dish for supper. Clara irritates her mother during the meal, and the two of them eventually have a heated argument before Clara storms out. Clara makes an effort to depart with Miller, but he does not permit her behavior and would not accompany her. Clara goes back inside and gives her closest companion Lexie a call.
Morgan goes to Jonah’s house and tells him about her feelings for him while Clara is spending time with Lexie. Clara is with Lexie. They engage in ardent sexual activity. To ensure Clara’s safety, Jonah pledges to keep the identity of Elijah’s biological father a secret. After returning home, Morgan finds both Clara and Lexie under the influence of alcohol. Morgan tends to Clara after she passes out from the effects of her alcohol consumption. Clara explains the shame that she feels for texting Jenny during the accident as she continues to clean up the mess.
The ritual of filling out the birthday board is one that Morgan and Clara finish the day after Clara’s birthday. Clara expresses to Morgan her hopes that she will accept her relationship with Miller, encourage her to pursue a career in acting and remain honest with her at all times. Clara is reassured by Morgan that she would have assistance from her, and Morgan also tries to reassure Clara that she is not to blame for the deaths of Jenny and Chris. Clara, who is now perplexed, insists that Morgan reveal the facts regarding what took place. Morgan tells Chris and Jenny the truth about their romance, although she does so with reluctance. Morgan, recognizing Clara’s anxiety, offers to drive Clara to Miller’s place of employment. Miller comforts Clara. Morgan makes his way back to the movie theater to check on Clara as Clara is waiting for Miller to finish his shift. After resolving their differences, the mother and daughter leave the theater together. The following day, Clara makes it clear that she approves of the connection between Morgan and Jonah. Morgan destroys the letters that Chris and Jenny had written to each other in confidence at the conclusion of the evening without first reading them.
When a few months have passed, Miller and Clara finally show their entry for the film competition to Jonah, Morgan, and their other friends. Miller surprises Clara with a montage of films he filmed in secret over the course of several months in order to ask Clara to the prom after the initial showing. At Miller’s house, Clara and Miller place an order for pizza. Miller’s grandfather shares with him the news that Miller will receive a bequest of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars upon the grandfather’s passing and pushes Miller to follow his ambition of attending film school.
CHAPTERS 1-12 ANALYSIS
The novel Regretting You explores the difficult connection between mother and daughter duo Morgan and Clara through the use of rotating narrators during the course of the story. The narrator is a teenager at the beginning and the very end of the book. The first chapter offers a view into the life and mind of Morgan, who is 17 years old, as she navigates her relationship with Chris as well as her complicated romantic feelings for Jonah, who is Chris’s best friend and her sister Jenny’s boyfriend. At the same time, the story comes to a close with a chapter that focuses on Clara when she is 17 years old. For the entirety of the book, Hoover offers the reader a glimpse inside the most private thoughts of both Morgan and Clara. The choice that Hoover made to start and finish the book from the point of view of a teenager exemplifies the principal theme of the book, which is The Transition from Childhood to Adulthood.
At the very beginning of the book, Hoover delves into the intricate web of relationships that exists between Morgan, Jenny, Chris, and Jonah. She uses Morgan and Jonah as a counterpoint to Jenny and Chris’s relationship. A character who accentuates particular attributes in another character, which may sometimes be comparable to those of the foil’s character but more often than not contrast with those of the antagonist. While Morgan and Jonah act in ways that are mature and responsible, Jenny and Chris engage in behaviors that are risky and impulsive. For example, they drink excessively and cheat on each other. Even when they were young adults, Morgan and Jonah made the conscious decision to put the welfare of others ahead of their own pleasure, as evidenced by the fact that they chose to “remain sober tonight” in Chapter 1. In the years before she became a teenage mother, Morgan has a protective instinct toward her younger sister Jenny. She tries to dissuade Jenny from having sexual relations with Jonah, stating that she wants “to protect [Jenny] from making the same mistakes [she] made.” Morgan eventually becomes a teen mother herself. Morgan as a teenager also struggles with the powerful and developing feelings she has for Jonah. Morgan believes that the fact that they are “a lot alike, so [their] ideas are in sync a lot of the time” is the reason for their ability to “communicate without communicating”. Morgan and Jonah have been holding back on expressing how they genuinely feel for each other for over 17 years due to the fact that their love for one another are unspoken as well as the fact that they are involved with Jenny and Chris.
Clara is the glue that holds Morgan and Chris together in a committed relationship that Hoover orchestrates. Clara also plays the role of an antagonist to Morgan, which helps to establish the story’s central topic of the complexities of relationships between mothers and daughters.
Clara, a defiant adolescent, looks to her aunt Jenny for direction since she is frustrated by the fact that her mother is always responsible and predictable. Morgan finds out in the aftermath of Jenny and Chris’s deaths that Clara has begun a complicated relationship with Miller despite the fact that she made her best efforts to shield Clara from sex and drugs. Jenny and Chris both passed away. The relationship between Clara and Miler is reminiscent to that which exists between Jonah and Morgan. Both sets of people are having difficulty overcoming their links to their previous relationships, and they do so while sharing an organic and unspoken bond.
Clara explains why she is attracted to Miller even before she picks him up on the side of the road by saying, “Miller and I have never even had a conversation one-on-one, but there have been times I’ve caught him glancing at me in the past, and even a simple one-second graze of his attention can send a shiver through me”. While simultaneously navigating their passionate love for Jonah and Miller, respectively, the mother and daughter must also deal with the challenges of their newly acquired freedom. Clara experiences a rise in her level of self-reliance throughout her maturation from a child to an adult. As Morgan works through the difficulties brought on by the aftermath of her loss and the treachery, she starts looking for a new direction to take her life.
Morgan, who is now 34 years old, considers her life choices, which she acknowledges have been constrained by the unshakeable loyalty she has always shown to her family. Morgan becomes fixated on her hatred for her home’s traditional floor plan and the kitchen door on her birthday, which is the day before Jenny and Chris are involved in an accident. Chris, whose family home they have inherited and who wishes to keep the traditional aspects of, acts as a sign of her connection to Chris, and her home serves as a symbol for that link. Morgan says that she “felt like she couldn’t breathe in this house with all these walls” and that’s why she “wanted an open floor plan”. Morgan and Chris’s home, which serves as a metaphor for their regimented lifestyle, suffocates Morgan and forces her to wonder whether or not she is truly happy. The constant slamming of the kitchen door into her face irritates her and serves as a constant reminder of how powerless she feels. She makes the observation as she watches the door swinging that she “truly hates that door”, which is a foreshadowing of the fact that she will eventually destroy the door.
While Morgan celebrates her birthday with her family, she takes stock of her life and mulls over the adjustments she has to make in order to be happy. Morgan remarks that she is “more alone than [she’s] ever felt” and questions whether or not “maybe [she’s] becoming bored” despite the fact that her loved ones have gathered around her. Morgan is propelled into a journey of self-discovery by Hoover, which forces her to confront her dormant desires for Jonah and her need for an identity apart from being a mother. Hoover accelerates this with the sudden and tragic deaths of Jenny and Chris, as well as the revelation of their infidelity. This propels Morgan forward in the story.
Last but not least, The Nuances of Sorrow are presented in these early chapters. The deaths of Jenny and Chris come early in the book, in Chapter 5. This makes it possible for Hoover to conduct an in-depth investigation into the various feelings that accompany bereavements, such as dread, remorse, or rage. She ties Jenny and Chris’s deaths to their identities, which she describes as reckless and unfaithful. As a result, Morgan, Clara, and Jonah’s feelings about their deaths become more complicated. The three people who survived the tragedy each deal with their loss in their own unique way, but ultimately come together to form a new family in the wake of the tragedy.
CHAPTERS 13-24 ANALYSIS
During the course of this part of the story, Morgan and Clara carry on with their separate paths of becoming better versions of themselves. Although Morgan is struggling to face her repressed feelings for Jonah and let go of her resentment over Jenny and Chris’s treachery, Clara is coming to terms with the effect that loss has had on her growth. Clara struggles to make sense of her overwhelming feelings and the impact that her rash decisions have on the people around her as she and Miller get closer to one another.
The symbolism that Hoover used in the previous section of the kitchen door to depict the traditional and controlled existence that no longer satisfies Morgan is carried over into this section. Morgan, who is no longer willing to accept a life of ease, decides to take decisive action by smashing the kitchen door with a hammer. She freely acknowledges that “maybe [she] simply really wanted something to take out [her] aggression on”. Morgan, who was previously reserved and dependable, exhibits a flood of emotion as she cathartically destroys the kitchen door. Hoover assigns Jonah the role of Morgan’s assistant for the duration of this journey. Jonah assists Morgan in achieving her objective of removing the kitchen door and begins the process of destroying a painting that Jenny had given Chris.
The painting, which serves as a taunt to Morgan and Jonah, is a sign of the affair that Chris and Jenny had been having. Hoover examines grief in a variety of subtle ways throughout “The Nuances of Sorrow.” The romance adds an additional layer of complication to Morgan and Jonah’s sadness over Chris and Jenny’s passing. Morgan and Jonah, when they were teenagers, kept their distance from each other out of consideration for Chris and Jenny. They don’t find out that they weren’t treated with the same respect until after Chris and Jenny have passed away, which permanently links their loss to the dishonesty that occurred. Morgan and Jonah have finally given themselves permission to vent their rage over the situation by destroying the picture. Morgan makes the following observation as they are destroying it: “Normally, I’d be stressing out over the mess we’re making, but the gratification much outweighs the dread of the inevitable cleanup”. The impact of Morgan’s damaging activities can be encapsulated in the one word “pleasure.” She finds a release that ultimately paves the way for her to address the feelings she has for Jonah and establish a connection with him. Morgan acts irrationally at first because she is shaken by the intensity of her affection for him. Once he goes, Morgan begins to feel overwhelmed, and she says something along the lines of, “I’m left standing alone in my front yard, in the dark, full of information I’m not sure I wanted and sentiments I’ve never allowed myself to address”. In the end, Jonah is the one who takes the initial step toward establishing their indisputable connection with one another. Morgan describes their kiss as both a new beginning and an ending at the same time. Hoover makes use of this paradox in order to convey the muddled emotions that Morgan identifies with the kiss. The kiss not only reawakens Morgan to a new version of herself that enables her to live freely, but it also marks the end of her previous life and the end of her previous personality.
As The Transition from Childhood to Adulthood proceeds, Clara, like everyone else, goes through a period of transformation. After Miller breaks up with his girlfriend and tells her how he feels, she enters into her first serious relationship in Chapter 14. Miller was the one who initiated the breakup. The new friendship that Clara has developed with Miller is a source of solace for her, yet at the same time it compels her to examine how her loss has affected her progression as a person. In the beginning, Clara’s connection with Miller brings her joy because she enjoys “how [she feels] when [she’s] with him,” and because “none of [them] have stopped smiling”. Their emotional connection deepens as they become more physically intimate with one another, exchanging kisses that progress from innocent to passionate in tone. Hoover also makes connections between The Complexities of Mother-Daughter Relationships and romantic relationships, particularly the affair that Jenny and Chris had and the relationship that Clara had with Miller. When Clara walks in on her mother and Jonah making out, she interprets this as a violation of the trust her late father and aunt had placed in her. As soon as Clara has the opportunity, she exacts her vengeance on her mother by using the fact that she is still a virgin as a weapon. Clara had sexual relations with Miller because she is aware that “it would ruin [Morgan]”, who previously advised Clara that having a child at such a young age was “a mistake.” Clara understands this to mean that her mother views her as a “mistake,” she is unable to tolerate what she views as her mother’s betrayal. Clara’s emotional development is not yet fully developed, and she makes an attempt to manipulate Miller into hurting her mother. The passage from childhood to adulthood is characterized by the frequent occurrence of rash choices that might significantly impact one’s future. But Miller, who is older and wiser than Clara, will not consent to her using him in any way. Even though he was initially willing to have sex with Clara, he changed his mind when it became apparent that Clara was only acting out in response to her pain and grief. Instead of engaging in sexual activity with her, he chose to console her.
Clara starts to come to terms with the magnitude of the effects that the deaths of her father and aunt have had on her as she becomes aware of the way that Miller “gives [her] a relief from [her] sadness”. The joy she experiences with Miller only serves to highlight the responsibility she feels for continuing to live. Hoover focuses on the nuances of grief that are experienced by a person’s loved ones after the death of a loved one. Hoover used metaphor throughout her investigation of the complexities of grief and its effects. In an effort to console Clara, Jonah explains that sadness is “an endless roller coaster” that “is going to be up and down and upside down for a very, very long time.” Maybe even forever”. The unpredictability and intensity of grief are both depicted symbolically by a roller coaster, which has a chaotic ride. The word “forever” encapsulates the ever-lasting influence that grief has, which transforms persons in ways that cannot be undone.
CHAPTERS 25-38 ANALYSIS
In this last part of the book, Hoover focuses on Clara’s eventful 17th birthday supper, which functions as the novel’s climax and serves as the focal point of this section. Clara’s supper, much like Morgan’s 34th birthday dinner at the beginning of the novel, influences the path the story takes and serves as an important turning point in both Morgan and Clara’s personal growth. In light of the fact that Morgan found out she was pregnant on her 17th birthday, Clara’s age acts as a tie to her mother as well as a marker for the passing of the last year before entering adulthood. When Clara turns 17, she is forced to confront her immaturity and make the decision whether or not to grow up.
Clara’s capacity to control her intense feelings is put to the test when she finds out that Morgan and Jonah are involved in a love connection on the night before her birthday. The majority of adolescents struggle with heightened emotions and poor impulse control, and the ability to deal with these challenges is a sign of maturation. Clara faces adversity and failure throughout The Transition from Childhood to Adulthood. She attempts to exact her mother’s vengeance on Miller on multiple occasions. The relationship between them is strained as a result of her actions. In a similar vein, her outburst of violence in class on the morning of her birthday threatens to break the burgeoning relationship she is developing with Jonah. But, because Jonah is not self-centered, he is able to console Clara despite the emotional state that she is in. Clara is taken back to her childhood as her captor lovingly hugs her and treats her with such tenderness. At this point, Hoover casts Jonah in the role of a substitute father figure for Clara. In the wake of her father’s passing, he offers her the solace that she has been searching for and directs her toward the way that will lead to peace with her mother. Clara’s acceptance of Jonah, which begins with their embrace and continues through the end of the book, is a mark of her growing maturity. This acceptance begins with their embrace.
Clara continues to struggle despite Jonah’s patient coaching as she makes her way toward being an adult. She invites Miller to her birthday dinner so that he can make her mother angry, and she uses the occasion to retaliate against her mother’s attempts to mend their relationship. Miller once again demonstrates his own level of maturity by rejecting Clara’s attempts to exploit him as a piece in their game. Clara is still overcome with intense feelings as he leaves, and as a result, she sinks more into defiance after he has left. Along with her closest companion, she experiences her first taste of alcoholic beverages. Clara’s intoxication, which was the unintended consequence of Morgan’s choice to act irresponsibly, serves as a conduit for communication between the two of them. The complexities that are inherent in the relationship between a mother and her daughter rear their heads here. In her inebriated state, Clara gives her mother permission to care for her, an action that serves as a poignant reminder of the profound affection that Clara and Morgan feel for one another. Clara’s unfiltered thoughts lead her to confess to her mother the guilt she feels for texting Jenny on the day of the accident. This confession was caused by the fact that Clara’s thoughts were not filtered. The following morning, Morgan acts very out of character by confronting Clara about the accusations she made. Morgan’s desire to shield Clara from the truth overcomes her natural tendency to steer clear of contentious exchanges because of how much she cares about her friend. This conversation is what ultimately leads to the disclosure of Jenny and Chris’s extramarital affair as well as Elijah’s real father.
Clara shows her progression into adulthood the morning after the birthday meal she had the night before. She makes amends to Miller and expresses regret for the way her hasty, defiant actions have impacted him. As Morgan and Clara get together again to finish out her birthday board, Clara doesn’t rush through the conversation as she reveals her most profound yearnings for honesty and acceptance. Morgan, who had previously worried that Clara wouldn’t be able to deal with the truth, now realizes that Clara is mature enough to handle it and tells her the truth about her father’s affair. In addition, the fact that Morgan does not scold Clara for seeking solace in Miller is another indication of her level of maturity. In the past, Morgan would have lectured Clara about her relationship with Miller and tried to force the two of them apart from one another. On the other hand, Morgan has finally seen the importance of supporting Clara in her efforts to maintain her independence rather than suffocating her with unnecessary safeguards. Since Morgan has also experienced the transformative effect of genuine human connection through her time spent with Jonah, she can empathize with Clara’s predicament and offers to transport her to Jonah.
In return, Clara demonstrates empathetic behavior toward her mother. Clara comes to the realization that her mother “did everything she could to shield [her] from the reality, even if that meant unfairly taking the responsibility” while she is sitting alone in the movie theater. Now that the truth is out in the open, the family may explore together, from the same page, The Nuances of Sorrow. Clara has arrived at the conclusion that Morgan and Jonah did not betray Jenny and Chris, and that the fatal accident was not brought on by her text messages to Jenny. She also realizes that the accident was not her fault. As Morgan goes to check on Clara, the two of them have a sweet moment together that serves to strengthen their relationship and marks the beginning of a new phase in which they are increasingly close to one another. They leave the theater as one unit, symbolizing their newly formed friendship by holding hands and leaving the theater together. Morgan makes a comment about Clara’s maturity and the fact that she “is a lot more emotionally equipped for reality than [Morgan] believed she was”. Jonah, Morgan, and Clara form a bond over Elijah’s development as they are eating supper the following day. The fact that Clara is comfortable leaning on Jonah demonstrates that she views him as a replacement for her biological father.
Before Morgan and Clara can find a resolution to their conflict, Morgan must first face the tremendous feelings she has for Jonah. Morgan is forced to confront the reality of her emotions as a result of Clara’s meal. She goes in search of Jonah and provides the long-awaited response to his question about how she felt about him in the past. After Morgan reveals that she would have left Chris if she hadn’t gotten pregnant, Jonah and Morgan finally consummate their attraction to one another by having sexual contact for the first time. Prior to this revelation, their feelings toward one another had remained unexpressed. Morgan describes the sensation she had after her first sexual contact with Jonah as “a wholeness [she has] never experienced before”. She compares and contrasts her sexual encounters with Jonah and Chris, and she makes a comment on how Jonah gives her the opportunity to “finish first,” which she describes as “an explosive moment of emotions and pleasure and years of suppression finally coming to the surface”. Morgan is able to let go of her suppressed feelings and have a genuine and satisfying connection to another human being because of the sexual encounters she has with Jonah.
The focus shifts from teenage Morgan in the first chapter of the novel to adult Clara in the last chapter of the book. Clara and Miller have the benefit of a caring and supportive network of family and friends while they chase their aspirations, in contrast to Morgan and Jenny, who had been mistreated, which led to teenage drinking, drug use, and unprotected sex with their boyfriends. Irony plays a role in the conclusion of Hoover’s book; Miller and Clara’s film project, which serves as a significant bonding point for the two of them, revolves around their dread of the color orange, which they later discover is the color of their ideal college. This irony is employed for humorous effect, and it signifies that although Clara and Miller, as new adults, may still struggle with concerns and doubts as they mature into adults, they at least have each other to lean on during this process.