“And then came an ear-shattering blast. Boom! Nate saw flames. A blinding light. And then the world went black.”

Tarshis’s habit of beginning the story in medias res is one of the trademarks of the I Survived series, and this technique is designed to catch and hold readers’ interest from the very first line, raising a series of urgent questions that can only be answered by reading the novel to its conclusion. The author then takes shifts back in time to describe the events leading up to this climactic moment, and the “sneak peek” of an action-packed scene provides foreshadowing for the events to come.

“Nate hated living here with Storch. But Eliza had it far worse. Nate was Storch’s nephew. Eliza was [enslaved by] Storch.”

Tarshis frequently inserts reminders of the novel’s historical context. In 1776, while many Americans (white and Black) were fighting for liberty, the underlying reality was that Revolutionary War would not bring “freedom and justice for all.” The presence of enslaved characters such as Eliza and Theo serve as pointed reminders that although the Revolutionary War would play an important role in gaining freedom for certain groups, the country had (and still has) a long way to go.

“Nate closed his eyes and pretended he was on one of those ships, heading out to the open sea. […] He could practically feel his father’s strong hand resting on his shoulder.”

To cope with the turmoil in his life, Nate often finds himself imagining his time back at sea with his father, who has since died.