“Theoretical Marine Science should be a fun fluff class. We spend most of our time contemplating what ocean technology might look like in one or two hundred years. Or if science had taken a different course, what might have happened? What if Leonardo da Vinci had done more to develop sonar when he discovered it in 1490?”

Here, Ana considers Theoretical Marine Science, the class that Dr. Hewett teaches. In this part of the novel, Ana does not yet know the reality of Harding-Pencroft Academy, Jules Verne, and alt-tech: She believes that Theoretical Marine Science is, in fact, theoretical, rather than a class that will prepare her to use real Vernian technology. This quote provides dramatic irony for the reader, who might figure out before Ana that Jules Verne’s writings are not mere fiction.

“I start to cry. I’m shaking with anger. Why is it that I can keep myself together when thinking about Dev, but I break down at the thought of his girlfriend dying? What is wrong with me?”

After Ana sees her school tragically destroyed and her brother and only remaining family member dead, she holds herself together out of necessity. However, when Ana thinks about Amelia, her house captain and her brother’s girlfriend, who is likely also now dead, she finally begins to cry. She thinks about the future that Amelia has lost, and this is a future that might have eventually been Ana’s too, since Ana is also in Dolphin House. When Ana breaks down at Amelia’s death but not Dev’s, she thinks there is something wrong with her because she should feel more grief at the death of her own family member. But the loss of her family is too tragic, too threatening to Ana’s ability to move forward in this dangerous time.