I think that the theme of travel in both “Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name” and “You Shall Know Our Velocity” are fairly similar. In Northern Lights, Clarissa is running from her loveless relationship to the hope and possibility that she’ll find her family and her lineage. In YSKOV, Will is running from the death of his friend and the subsequent beating he endured to the possibility that he can give away the money and his baggage at the same time.
In both books, the main character is running from something. The reason they have left their home-countries (if that even works), is to ultimately get away. Neither character left with a specific destination in mind, and neither one cared where they ended up in the long run. All they cared about was getting out and away from where they were.
Aside from that similarity, I feel that the main characters in and of themselves are fairly similar. Although the two authors have distinctly different writing styles overall, the two main characters almost seem as if they could have come from the same family, or were meant for one another romantically or something. Clarissa is a confused, headstrong, impulsive character and Will is quiet, jumble-minded (not a word, true, but I feel it gets the idea across.), and has a bit of impulsiveness in him too despite his tendency to mentally overanalyze everything that happens. Clarissa doesn’t want anyone to know about her past, and keeps everything related to it from the family she settles down with at the end of the novel. Will is completely ashamed of his face and how battered it is, and doesn’t want anyone to really look at him because he fears their judgment.
Overall, it is human nature to try and avoid something that causes discomfort, pain, and stress. Clarissa flies to
