History YMMV / HarshGeneration

* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: There are subtle hints that the characters are trapped in a metaphorical hell, complete with its own TimeLoop, forced to relive the same year perpetually.
* HarsherInHindsight: The protagonist is clearly addicted to opiates. Much like the HilariousInHindsight entry below, knowing of the US opiate crisis in TheNewTens that would start shortly after the timeline depicted in the novel, and reading about a young person experiencing it in its infancy, is harrowing.
* HilariousInHindsight: The novel is set in 2012. Reading about the characters obsessing over their Facebook photos and the number of likes they receive, [[spoiler: to the point where they have complete mental breakdowns if they receive fewer than they believe they are entitled to,]] is unintentionally funny, with knowing that young people would flock to other social media in the latter part of the TheNewTens, such as Instagram and Tik Tok. Or perhaps it further emphasizes the point of their obsessions being for naught.

* HilariousInHindsight: The novel is set in 2012. Reading about the characters obsessing over their Facebook photos and the number of likes they receive, [[spoiler: to the point where they have complete mental breakdowns if they receive fewer than they believe they are entitled to,]] is unintentionally funny, with knowing that young people would flock to other social media in the latter part of the TheNewTens, such as Instagram and Tik Tok. Or perhaps it further emphasizes the point of their obsessions being for naught.
* VillainProtagonist: The narrator could be interpreted this way, as he stands out among a cast of deeply flawed characters for his sheer awfulness.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: The sheer darkness and prevailing sense of hopelessness of the narrative makes it hard to care about what happens to these people, who are to a fault morally bankrupt, crude, promiscuous drug addicts whose shortcomings are more often than not the result of their own actions.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: The sheer darkness and prevailing sense of hopelessness of the narrative makes it hard to care about what happens to these people, who are to a fault all morally bankrupt, crude, promiscuous drug addicts whose shortcomings are more often than not the result of their own actions.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: The sheer darkness and prevailing sense of hopelessness of the narrative makes it hard to care about what happens to these people, who are to a fault all morally bankrupt, crude, promiscuous drug addicts whose shortcomings are more often than not the result of their own actions.