Wanting to belong is as big a motivator as wanting to escape from that which you belong, Welsh seems to be saying. Some characters are wrestling with inclinations towards both, and some don't question such things at all. Through all of this, everyone considers themselves the star of the story it seems, regardless of their actual standing in the plot. The result is that it is hard to fully root for or against any one character. It is easier to root for each to be true to themselves, even when this means the character is not true to anyone else.

It is hard to pick out just who had the biggest hand in the plot getting to the conclusion. A semi-directed collective of everyone's action plus chance equals the outcome of life, the book seems to say. A nice blending of chance, opportunism and forethought. Even so, the outcome seems natural, almost as if it had to be this way, given the equation.

The plot is fairly screenplay-ready and ends up tying all the diversity of storylines together pretty well. A third installment is also left open by the conclusion, which is well written but also fairly predictable. The details of the loose-end tying make it worth reading to the end, and by this time the characters are developed enough that the reader is not required to know much about the first installment of the series. While Renton is the main protagonist and Sick Boy is the main antagonist, everyone has enough to like or dislike about them that the reader can choose among their favorites to judge this for themselves.