Check & Mate uses Mallory’s journey to illustrate both the pain that vulnerability can cause and the joys that it can provide if one is willing to lean into it. Mallory’s starting position in the novel is that of guardedness. She knows she is good at compartmentalizing to help her “survive day by day without hyperventilating about all sorts of stuff. It’s either compartmentalizing or going broke buying inhalers” (32). She has legitimate reasons to do so, and despite its drawbacks, it helps her cope. Her father hurt her deeply when she was a vulnerable teen, putting her in the precarious position of deciding whether to tell her mother about his affair and then blaming her for doing so. When her parents’ split and her mother’s subsequent illness leads to deteriorating family circumstances, Mallory takes over responsibility for helping them survive. With her mother so ill, Mallory has little choice, and compartmentalization helps her survive and provide for her family.

However, the events of the novel reveal that Mallory’s clinging to that compartmentalization and emotional distancing does her harm by preventing any strong emotional connections, romantic or otherwise. Mallory admits to herself, “I don’t have room to care about anything that’s not family.