Cassie and Frederick live extremely different lives which come crashing into each other once Cassie moves into Frederick’s apartment. Frederick has the added difficulty of having to adjust to a much-different time period after his century-long coma, especially since there are now radically different social norms. As Frederick seeks to blend in, the novel explores the challenges of adapting to different lifestyles.  

Even before Cassie moves into the apartment, she notices the visual differences in their lifestyles, which are evident even in Frederick’s choice of furniture. When Frederick emails Cassie photos of the apartment, she immediately sees the strangeness of the decor: “This kitchen wasn’t just different from every other kitchen in every other place I’d ever lived. It looked like it belonged to an entirely different era. Nothing in it looked like it had been made within the last fifty years” (13, emphasis added). Frederick’s apartment is completely “different” from anywhere else because it reflects the aesthetics of a century prior. The furniture and appliances are old enough that they are anachronistic in the modern era, which reflects Frederick’s anachronistic existence in the world.

Cassie begins to realize how difficult Frederick’s transition into 21st-century life is when she teaches him about

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