In the Likely Event

While a complex, years-long love affair such as Izzy and Nate’s could easily have taken place in any setting, Yarros makes a deliberate choice to imbue her romance novel with references to very recent historical events whose long-term ramifications are still unfolding today. She uses the tumultuous and controversial withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan as a backdrop for an otherwise conventional romance plot, thus inserting key moments of social commentary about recent events and rendering her novel more widely relevant to the ongoing conversation surrounding the aftermath of these historical occurrences. To this end, Nate and Izzy’s emotional reconciliation takes place on August 15, 2021, and they reunite in the midst of chaos as the infrastructure of Kabul falls to pieces around them. The evacuation of the US embassy was a real-life event, and the frantic, last-minute issuing of visas to evacuees was also a major factor in the remaining staff’s attempts to get as many people as possible safely out of Kabul before the city fell to the Taliban. The airport was likewise overwhelmed with fleeing international citizens as well as Afghan evacuees. Potentially drawing upon stories of her husband’s own military experiences in the region, Yarros describes the event with a high degree of detail that lends a sense of authenticity to her otherwise fictional narrative.

Ironically, this scene of destruction provides Nate and Izzy with the urgent impetus to reconstruct the remains of their damaged relationship and renew their connection to each other, and they are finally able to voice the sentiments that they have been avoiding for three years. When Nate admits to loving Izzy and accepts her declarations of love for him, this moment signals a change in Nate that becomes apparent when he later talks to his friend Torres and states his desire to leave the military. While the scene initially appears to be no more than a supportive moment between two active-duty soldiers in the midst of their duties, the true significance of this exchange and other conversations that Nate has had with Torres will soon provide a much deeper insight into the most carefully guarded secrets of Nate’s character. When Izzy later examines the dog tags that Nate was wearing with her ring, she realizes that they bear the name of Julian Torres, and this moment reveals that the Julian of Nate’s past and the Torres of his present are indeed the same person; ergo, Nate has been suffering the long-term effects of PTSD for years and has been hallucinating the presence of a long-dead comrade. This is a delusion that is common with many mental health disorders, including PTSD. This revelation shows The Myriad Effects of Psychological Trauma that Nate has endured over the years, and his earlier hints about his coping mechanisms and his concerns over his own mental health now take on a new and urgent significance. While the scope of the novel does not allow Yarros to explore the nuances of PTSD at length, her decision to incorporate its deleterious effects as a plot twist nonetheless brings the topic into a mainstream forum, acknowledging and validating the trauma and mental health challenges that many real-life soldiers are faced with.

In the end, Nate and Izzy stand together once again, and their renewed relationship thus becomes a symbol of hope for people whose real-life experiences and challenges might very well echo those of the two protagonists. In the novel’s denouement, Yarros also strives to bring the narrative full circle, for their choice to move to Maine references the lighthearted questions that Nate asked her at the beginning of the novel. This detail therefore demonstrates that he devotedly commits everything she has ever told him to memory, and it also creates a sense of completion that resolves both plotlines simultaneously. Likewise, Izzy’s choice to work with nonprofit organizations in Maine also proves that she has returned to her original passions rather than allowing her father to dictate the course of her career for his own personal gain. Nate, too, has embraced the teaching career that he dream of pursuing before joining the military, which suggests that he has also gotten his life and goals back on track.