To me the answer is obvious if you are someone who stands in the middle.

Maybe you are queer. Maybe you are mixed ethnicities. Migrant. Expat. 3rd-culture kid.

If you live in a shapist world, you need to either be lucky enough that there is a shape for you, or that you are able to shape-shift in ways that don't hurt you.

If I were reading into things, Nicky, the author, has a small personal game about comming out as gay - and there is pressure from the mom to conform and pressure from boyfriend to come out. And the alternative reality where everybody is accepting would be nicer, right?

So I see this as plea for acceptance. And I understand that plea, as I have many ways I don't entirely fit.

But I do understand the pull of insular culture and small villages, where diversity is less of a virtue.