It follows Ronnie Cleveland, who is a famous twelve-year-old entertainer with a Photographic Memory, as he runs away from the people responsible for him after his guardian/manager warns him before being killed. He meets up with two others his age, Ana Maria Rosalita—a girl who knows about magic and is with an abusive aunt—and Luis Black, her best friend. Helping them all is the enigmatic Marlowe.
This book provides examples of:
- Alternate Universe: In this, the alternate universe is that which is completely opposite, with no humans and noon in one is midnight in the other.
- Animal Motifs: Ana Maria Rosalita, or at least her eyes, is compared to an owl a few times because of how she looks at Ronnie.
- Beardness Protection Program: Inverted, but Ronnie actually recognizes him immediately, though he doesn't let on even after thinking he could trust Peter until he tried to take Ronnie into custody.
- Berserk Button: After hearing her aunt and half-brother hadn't fed Ana Maria Rosalita and had her locked in her room, Marlowe went crazy searching for the key, tearing apart the Senora Breton's room and, just for spite, shredding a couple of her best dresses.
- Beware the Nice Ones: When Ana Maria Rosalita is mad, especially if you are threatening her friends, watch out.
- Big Bad: For Ronnie, it was the Corporation. For Ana Maria Rosalita and Luis, it was Ana Maria Rosalita's half brother, Bernardo.
- Blatant Lies: The excuse Ronnie gives the cab driver in Puerto Rico for not wanting the police to see him. Knowing the cabbie is friendly and doesn't mind him not wanting to be seen, Ronnie explains that he is a Communist whose job it is to blow up all the police stations in the city. The cabbie plays along laughingly.
- Child Prodigy: While Ronnie's Photographic Memory allows him to learn quickly, he also is shown doing advanced physics equations to disprove the concept of parallel universes.
- Comes Great Responsibility: Ana Maria Rosalita tells Ronnie that she knows if she uses her powers only for her own benefit or to harm others, she will lose them.
- Badass In Distress: Ana Maria Rosalita is locked up in a room and denied food by her half brother and his aunt so she can't use her magical abilities to free herself or cause other problems.
- Denied Food as Punishment: As seen above, Ana Maria Rosalita was denied food so she was too weak to use her magical abilities, but also because her half brother and his aunt simply didn't like her.
- Disconnected by Death: Or rather a struggle that led to a death.
- The Dragon: Wally for the Corporation who is trying to kill Ronnie.
- The Senora Breton was this to her nephew and Ana Maria Rosalita's half-brother, Bernardo.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Ronnie has three of these dreams about events in his life that happened exactly the way he dreamed, but the dreams always ended before the conclusion.
- The Fair Folk: Just gets a mention as Ana Maria Rosalita states her Irish grandmother was a daughter of the Sidhe.
- Insistent Terminology: Do not call her Ana Maria—it's Ana Maria Rosalita.
- Only Known By His Stage Name: At least by Ana Maria Rosalita, Luis Black, and Marlowe who all refer to Ronnie by his stage name, The Blue Boy. Ana Maria Rosalita calls him Boy Blue while Luis Black sometimes refers to him as brother Blue.
- Overly Long Name: Ana Maria Rosalita Montoya de la Torre. Or Ana Maria Rosalita for short.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Ronnie only wears glasses and a wig to cover his prominent blue hair. Most of the time, no one recognizes him.
- Parental Abandonment: All three main characters. Ronnie's biological parents were never known. He loses one Parental Substitute before having to abandon his other Parental Substitutes when he didn't know who to trust.
- Both Luis Black and Ana Maria Rosalita had mothers who died much earlier and fathers who died only a year earlier or less.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Captain Anders. He demands to know why Ronnie is traveling alone on his ship and then does everything in his power to help out. He also has been trying to figure out how to deal with Ana Maria Rosalita for a while, but is too busy and too removed from the situation to be of much help.
- Talking Animal: Marlowe—possibly. Only Ana Maria Rosalita and Luis Black know for sure and they aren't talking.
- The Voice: Marlowe; though Ana Maria Rosalita and Luis have seen him, no one else has or even knows he exists. And he prefers it that way.
- There Are No Coincidences: Ana Maria Rosalita believed this, especially with Ronnie making his way to the ship that she was on.
- Tranquil Fury: Since Ana Maria Rosalita needs to concentrate to perform some bigger spells, this became her reaction when she found out that her half brother was trying to deport Luis Black.
- Two Guys and a Girl: Ronnie Cleveland, Luis Black, and Ana Maria Rosalita. They qualify as a Token Trio with Ronnie as white while Ana Maria Rosalita is Puerto Rican/Irish and Luis a very dark skinned Puerto Rican. It was a platonic group as well, as they felt more like a family.
- Wicked Stepmother: The Senora Breton acted as this for Ana Maria Rosalita. She was actually the aunt of Ana Maria Rosalita's much older half-brother, but he sends his aunt down to take custody of his half-sister after their father dies.
- Wild Card: Josip only wants the reward for finding the Blue Boy, not realizing that the reward was put in place so that Ronnie would have a harder time escaping those who want to kill him.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- The Senora Breton smacked Ana Maria Rosalita in the face so hard, she could barely walk for a few hours after. The bruise was still prominent about two days later.
- The men trying to kill Ronnie. One even points his gun at Ronnie.
