Oona Out of Order is primarily a bildungsroman, a literary genre that dates to Goethe’s 1795 Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship and was formally named in 1819. The bildungsroman is often confused with the coming-of-age story, and while there is overlap, a bildungsroman is literally an “education” (bildung) “novel” (roman), a genre unto itself that chronicles the protagonist’s progress toward knowledge and maturity. Coming-of-age stories range across genres and can be bildungsromans, but not all bildungsromans are coming-of-age stories. Protagonists in bildungsromans make specific progress instead of merely growing up and usually change from being immature and lost to finding self-acceptance and understanding of their place in the world.

Oona is one such protagonist. Because of the narrative’s nonlinear structure, she does not grow up as she would in a coming-of-age story but rather grows into the major themes and lessons of the novel. Achieving wisdom about how to live her life is the novel’s goal, and it is only when she has internalized these lessons—Enjoying the Good Moments and Being Here Now, showing Consideration for Others, Being True to Oneself, and Finding Healthy Highs—that she returns to the beginning of the novel to start living well.