The Woods Darken

Although it starts out full of whimsy, Too Far becomes something more fairly quickly. Within chapters 3 to 5, the tone changes from one of childhood adventurousness looking to be curbed by adult experience, to one of keen dread and insecurity.

Shapero shows that Robbie's parents feel that he's almost too much to handle between them. His father's studying for a doctorate while his mother works four days of the week leaves them feeling as if they aren't quite responsible enough for a child. And it's made known that at least Robbie's mother thinks that the parents of the girl he's playing in the woods with (Fristeen) are definitely too irresponsible. The second set of parents' drug use is made pretty obvious in these chapters, and both of their moral codes are called into question.

Certainly not the least of these incidents comes when Fristeen becomes uncomfortable with the fact that they've just shown each other their genitals, fearing that she's become like her mother (?) Grace. Although it has yet to come up, there's some foreshadowing of Fristeen's feeling this way further when she notices that the woman in the couple they stumble upon in the woods wanted to "be killed."

Shapero keeps the book's whimsy alive through these chapters, but it is put into stark contrast with the harder, more difficult to understand adult world that also occupies the book. That both worlds are seen through the eyes of children makes them both all the bolder.