The Recruit

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, child abuse, and bullying.



After grabbing food with the guys, James goes for a walk and comes across a girl his age (Joanna) by herself near the trees. A police car parks nearby, and Joanna hides, only for the policeman (her father) to find her and force her to leave the party. Later, James talks to the woman he and Amy are staying with, who tells them she came to Fort Harmony after she got married and had a son who died when he was three months old. James thinks about how much his life has changed since his mom died and tells the woman, “Your whole life might have been different if he’d lived” (266).

At school, the other kids push James around because he lives at Fort Harmony. After a few kids try to rough him up, James punches one and runs away, and he spends the rest of the day “paranoid that everyone was staring at him like a freak” (272). Later, the boy brings a bunch of friends to beat James up, and James goes to the first-aid room until the end of the school day.