37 pages • 1 hour read
LancaliI Fell in Love with Hope
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “Quid Pro Quo”
Sam and Neo work on the first phase of their ultimate escape heist—getting Neo to walk on his own again. While they practice Neo’s standing, Neo convinces Sam to seek out Hikari, whom he avoids out of fear. When Sam finds her, he discovers that she has depression and she discusses the toll it takes on her physical and mental health. He jokes and brings back some of her joy, but recognizes that her pain runs deeper because her parents do not listen to her desire—they only hear the desires of who they want her to be. A text interrupts their conversation telling Hikari that C has been in an accident.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Countdown”
This chapter covers multiple days’ worth of events, exploring what the friend group experienced in the days leading up to their escape from the hospital.
Five Nights Until Escape
Sam and Hikari are in the library drawing and reading. Soon, they become bored, and she leads him on a chase through the stacks, where he gives her a watch he stole from Eric. She beams and says it’s the second-best gift she’s received—the first being Sam’s smile.
Four Nights Until Escape
C goes in for an ultrasound because his heart, the organ he refuses to say by name, feels weird. The results come back: C needs a transplant because the half of his heart he still has is failing. He wants to leave that night, but no one else is ready.
Three Nights Until Escape
Hikari and Sam go to the hospital roof to read Hamlet, discuss books, and talk about Neo’s condition and how Sam connects with him.
Two Nights Until Escape
The gang returns to the roof to enjoy a night together. Sony, C, and Neo share dances together, and Hikari and Sam share a private conversation. When Hikari falls asleep again, Sam wishes he were able to love her the way he wants to.
One Night Until Escape
Sam and Hikari reunite to finish Hamlet. They reach the end. Sam hates the ending because it ends, and Hamlet dies. Hikari, who sees herself as Hamlet, feels the ending is justified, which angers Sam. He tells her that she doesn’t deserve to feel this way; she is better than Hamlet ever would be. Hikari asks if she can kiss Sam.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Kind: One Year Ago”
Sam meets Coeur by running into him while racing Sony. C is kind to them and wants to be kind to Neo. C hurt Neo in the past, and Neo cannot forgive what C did. Sam’s curiosity leads him to help the two reconnect; he finds out that Neo and C have romantic feelings for each other. Neo hurts because C did nothing while members of the swim team beat him up and insulted his sexuality. C works to earn forgiveness, and eventually brings a Jane Austen book that he wants Neo to read to him. Neo agrees, and the two reconcile.
Chapter 10 Summary: The Bridge”
The five friends escape the hospital; there is tension between Hikari and Sam after Sam rejected her kiss and said nothing more than “I’m sorry.” They make it outside and plan to explore the city. They come to the bridge where the other Sam died, and Sam starts to lose his nerve. He realizes that his friends are going to die and tries to stop them from crossing the bridge. He becomes disoriented and someone accidentally bumps into the street as a car comes toward him.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Empty”
Sam remembers another time, another accident, where someone died because a car hit them. He tries to suppress the memory, but the feeling remains. Before the car can hit him, Hikari pulls him out of the way and saves him. Sam flees back to the hospital, afraid to feel because Hikari has physically touched him. On the roof, he and Hikari confront each other about their pasts—Hikari realizes that Sam lost someone, which is why he’s afraid to love and hope for a future; Sam realizes that Hikari thinks about suicide and self-harms. A wall forms between them; Hikari is furious that Sam treats his friends like hopeless cases, and Sam cannot believe he didn’t realize Hikari’s struggle before now. She throws the watch, the symbol of frozen time, to the ground and away from her as she storms away from Sam.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Hope: Before”
Sam reveals that his name isn’t Sam—he doesn’t have a name. He grows up in the hospital, where he sees soldiers die and children come in and out. While living there, he meets a boy who names everything and gives everything life. He connects with the boy, named Sam, and they begin playing together. The named Sam shares stories and hopes and stars with the narrator, and eventually agrees to share his name with the narrator as well. The narrator takes on the name, forever becoming Sam.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Rain”
Hikari leaves Sam alone on the roof in the rain. Sony, C, and Neo find him alone and crying. C and Sony focus on comforting him and assuring him that there will be other escapes. Neo confronts Sam about what he really wants and what caused his deep pain. Sam finally talks about the Sam who died, how he died, and how that broke him inside—he wants to save everyone, but he can’t save the person he wants to. Neo tells him that he already saved them by helping them live, and now it’s his turn. Sam picks up the watch that Hikari threw on the ground. He decides he wants to save Hikari the same way he saved his other friends.
Chapters 7-13 Analysis
For the first time since the Prologue, Sam goes to the bridge, where the trauma of losing Sam catches up to him. Even though the characters escaped the physical confines of the hospital building, Sam has not fled the past, and actively works to repress it. His fear of his friends’ deaths comes back to him. When he sees his friends walking across the bridge, he remembers why he hardened his heart against people in the first place. His friends have unique reactions: Hikari experiences hurt and confusion because she does not understand why Sam rejects her so definitively, while Sony and C reassure Sam that his reaction is okay and that there will be other escapes. Hikari distances herself from Sam. This is the reaction Sam wants; now he does not have to worry about loving her or fear her loss.
Neo’s reaction hits Sam the hardest. Neo doesn’t distance himself from Sam’s trauma, nor does he let Sam have time to deal with emotions on his own. Instead, he asks direct questions that force Sam to remember losing his love Sam. Neo also helps Sam to reframe his memories. Sam sees everyone, including his friends, as nothing more than their diseases, which he calls “killers.” Through him, Lancali introduces Illness as a Label and a Prison. Neo teaches Sam how to see past a person’s illness. Instead of remembering Sam as a disease, which strips Sam of autonomy and individuality, Neo makes the narrator Sam remember the person Sam used to be.
This is the first time Sam experiences significant growth. Until now, Sam has remained cold and distant from his friends. In this bildungsroman, Sam will learn life lessons that teach him to be a better, more moral person. Neo is that first step. Neo’s father had a specific plan for who Neo would be and never took the time to get to know Neo’s personality. Neo resented this and used the experience to teach Sam how to consider people, not just perceptions. This allows Sam to reflect and grow from his recent interaction with Hikari.
Sam says that he wants to “save” Hikari the way he saved his friends, but Sam as a person does not exist. He symbolizes the wishes of people in the hospital. When Sam says he wants to save his friends and Hikari, he means that he wants to bring them hope and allow them to happily dream of living beyond their diseases. Until now, Sam lacked the tools to do this effectively; he needs his friends to guide him and serve as mentors.
Now, Sam must accept Hikari without judgment. He cannot view her as a hopeless case, nor can her see her as being limited to her depression. She is a survivor, the spirit that lives on after death. She also reflects what Sam learns through the novel. Only when Hikari is ready to leave the hospital will Sam’s journey be complete; he will finally see someone come to the hospital and leave without regularly returning.
