Opening
The story pivots from public humiliation to private reckoning as Libby Strout claims her voice and Jack Masselin confronts his secrets. These chapters braid confession, empathy, and memory, advancing the themes of Self-Acceptance and Body Image, Seeing Beyond Appearances, and Loneliness and Isolation.
What Happens
Chapter 31: Libby
In the kitchen, Libby tries to soothe an ache food can’t touch, a habit she and her dad, Will Strout, keep trying to break. He announces a visitor: Bailey Bishop. In Libby’s room, Bailey apologizes for not visiting during Libby’s years at home and admits she’s come with hard news: a cruel school game called “Fat Girl Rodeo” targeted Libby, and Jack played a part.
Bailey shows Libby the explosion online—photos of Libby punching Jack with the caption “Don’t mess with Mad Lbs,” and a cruel wave of fat-shaming comments. Instead of crumbling, Libby burns hot with clarity. She unleashes a blistering monologue: why is her worth measured against her weight, her beauty qualified as “pretty for a fat girl,” her body policed as if it invites judgment? Bailey listens, hand in hand, and Libby lands on a truth—there’s nothing wrong with her; the rot lies with “inside-small” people who can’t handle her being big.
Chapter 32: Jack
Jack hides in his basement, belly-deep in Legos, trying to build a robot for his little brother as penance he can hold in his hands. He lies on the hard floor because he thinks he doesn’t deserve comfort, hoping Libby isn’t thinking about him. When his mother comes down, he works to identify her the way he always does—with clues like “Mom-with-Hair-Down”—a daily, exhausting workaround for face blindness.
She’s furious and scared. She warns him about real consequences, including how “our society treats kids of color more severely than others,” and Jack accepts the anger without telling her about prosopagnosia. They part in a fragile truce—“I love you anyway”—that underscores both his isolation and the family’s care.
Chapter 33: Libby
After Bailey leaves, Libby finds a white envelope in her backpack. Jack’s letter confesses prosopagnosia—face blindness—and explains why he relies on hair, voice, clothes to recognize people. The cafeteria incident shifts under this new light. Libby remembers her mother’s wisdom: sometimes you’re a supporting character in someone else’s story. Maybe the “Fat Girl Rodeo” is a lesson the universe needed Jack to learn, not just a trauma she has to bear.
Libby researches prosopagnosia and imagines a face-blind world where looks don’t dominate—where people are seen for who they are, not how they appear. She practices empathy—her own Atticus Finch exercise—without letting Jack off the hook. She writes back: direct, clear, acknowledging the condition while refusing excuses. She ends with a decisive PS: “I have questions.”
Chapter 34: Jack
On the phone, Jack’s friend Dave Kaminski jokes about Jack’s punishment—community service and counseling—then drops the truth: Libby is the girl who was cut out of her house, branded “America’s Fattest Teen.” The revelation lands like a second punch. Jack fakes recognition, then hangs up sick with shame.
He slips out the window and climbs the familiar tree to the roof—his refuge. Touching an old scar from a childhood fall, he stares across at Libby’s old house. The memory jolts back into place: the gaping hole where the wall used to be, the neighborhood spectacle. The girl from the cafeteria is the girl from that night.
Chapter 35: Jack (Three Years Earlier)
Sirens wake a younger Jack. He runs outside, fearing his house is on fire, and finds chaos across the street—fire trucks, police, a crane. His family gathers; his brothers Marcus and Dusty Masselin watch as Dusty confesses he and a friend once peeked through the windows to see “the fat girl,” sparking a brief debate over the word “fat.”
Jack talks to their neighbor, Mr. Wallin, but only recognizes him when his mom says his name—another quiet sign of the condition Jack can’t yet name. He rationalizes his “weirdly, strangely different” brain, telling himself it’s built for bigger things like physics and engineering. Detached, he invents scenarios—terrorists?—and watches, front-row, without understanding the human emergency unfolding just beyond that torn-open wall.
Character Development
These chapters shift both leads from reaction to reckoning, pairing anger with accountability and empathy.
- Libby: Turns humiliation into a manifesto; refuses to internalize cruelty; researches Jack’s condition; writes back with compassion and boundaries; reclaims her story.
- Jack: Sinks into guilt and self-loathing; maintains secrecy around prosopagnosia; affirms family bonds; learns Libby’s history and confronts his role; reconnects past and present on the roof.
- Bailey: Steps up as an ally; apologizes for her absence; brings truth and solidarity when Libby needs both.
Themes & Symbols
Jack’s prosopagnosia literalizes Seeing Beyond Appearances. Unable to rely on faces, he must assemble people from fragments—a metaphor for learning the whole person rather than accepting quick judgments. Libby flips the gaze: her “face-blind world” thought experiment imagines a culture where character eclipses appearance.
Libby’s speech crystallizes Self-Acceptance and Body Image: she refuses conditional compliments and demands to be “pretty, period.” Jack’s basement scene deepens Loneliness and Isolation, showing how his secret condition distances him even from family. The roof becomes a symbol of perspective and refuge—where Jack pulls back from chaos to see patterns and, finally, the full weight of the past.
Key Quotes
“Don’t mess with Mad Lbs.” This viral caption turns a moment of violence into a meme, revealing how the internet flattens people into punchlines. Libby’s refusal to be defined by it signals her shift from object to agent.
“The problem isn’t me—it’s the inside-small people.” Libby names the real source of cruelty, rejecting the shame pushed onto her body. By reframing the issue as others’ smallness, she safeguards her self-worth.
“Our society treats kids of color more severely than others.” Jack’s mother widens the frame from school punishment to systemic inequity. Her warning adds urgency to Jack’s choices and complicates his fear of coming clean.
“I don’t deserve comfort.” Jack’s self-punishment exposes a deeper crisis: guilt fused with secrecy. It illustrates how hiding his condition isolates him and warps his sense of worth.
“I love you anyway.” This exchange captures a bruised but resilient family bond. It doesn’t absolve Jack, but it gives him a foundation for change.
“I have questions.” Libby’s postscript is both boundary and invitation. She acknowledges Jack’s condition without excusing harm, opening a path toward honest conversation.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
- Shifting Dynamics: Jack’s confession and Libby’s measured response move them beyond bully and target, toward a wary curiosity that can grow into understanding.
- Connecting Pasts: Jack’s rooftop memory reveals he unknowingly witnessed Libby’s most public trauma, binding their stories long before they meet.
- Revealing Motivations: Naming prosopagnosia complicates Jack’s actions without excusing them, allowing the narrative to interrogate harm, intention, and repair.
- Thematic Deepening: These chapters anchor the novel’s arguments about body politics, perception, and empathy, setting the stage for accountability and change.