As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked. You have been warned.
Dunk may initially start out happy, with Chad realizing what he wants his occupation to be and everything going fairly well. Well, to quote Chad: "At 4:30 mom headed out. And I headed into trouble".
- Chad doesn't know what he wants to be in life, and in this book he has quite possibly the worst Summer of his life: He's framed three times for stuff he'd never even think of doing, and at one point goes into depression after the second framing. He doesn't even have his best friend Jason to comfort him, because he got diagnosed with a chronic-progressive autoimmune disease and spends nearly the entire Summer in the hospital.
- On the topic of Jason, imagine having optimistic plans for your Summer, such as a big sports-related event you'll do great at, but then you suddenly start feeling sick, and it turns out you have a disease that people rarely recover from. Huge inconvenience, but is also sad because you have to worry every day that you might get worse and die. Plus, your best friend is repeatedly driven away by your mom because she thinks he supplied you with drugs.
- Chad's mom had her husband walk out on her due to not wanting Chad, and she overworks herself to the point where she could pass off for 40, and she's 32.
- Malcolm's backstory is sad. It was a normal day, and he was driving with his wife and son. But then one of the tires of the car in front of him goes lose and causes a car crash. 8 cars are involved, but only 2 people die.
- Chad goes into a Despair Event Horizon in chapter 27, and Chad's sudden personality change is disheartening. He goes from a self-conscious but friendly teen to an unfortunate couch potato who is too depressed to process anything.
- After Chad is mistaken for a druggie and put in jail in chapter 20, he goes into intense depression, being forced to think only about his most unpleasant memories, and any sign of happiness being sucked away from him. Even after being released from jail, the depression stigma still hangs around in chapter 22, as he completely ignores the intense storm going on around him and lets himself get soaked.
- Eventually he goes to the closed boardwalk during the storm and has a Villainous Breakdown for neutrals, becoming a bit of a pessimist and starts thinking that he's the reason Jason's in the hospital.
