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The heart carved on Monica’s shoulder, which Gucci Hangman replicates on Blair’s body, is Kimmi’s private message to Dee. The heart represents Kimmi’s threat. It also reflects Kimmi’s twisted sisterly love for Dee. Kimmi turns the typically positive image of a heart into a macabre object of fear. Seeing the heart has a profound impact on Dee. After watching Blair’s death, “Dee continued to see the image of the bloody heart long after it had disappeared from the screen” (93). Dee knows it is not a coincidence that the same heart was cut into Monica’s body. The heart makes Dee wonder whether Gucci killed Monica, but also connects Dee to Kimmi, who vowed to kill everyone Dee cared about if Dee told anyone about the white room and her serial-killer father. The heart also represents Kimmi’s control over Dee, and her determination to never let Dee go: It shows Kimmi’s desire to be “Best friends. Sisters. Forever” (328).

Role-playing is a motif that informs several of the novel’s themes. The inmates play parts assigned to them by the Postman, but some, like Dee, change those roles. All are aware they are playing roles and largely accept them as a matter of survival. Dee sees Griselda straighten her hair and expose a little more skin before going on camera. It is “like watching an actress backstage before she made her entrance” (21).

The inmates’ stereotypical roles inform the theme of The Desensitizing Influence of Social Media. Their roles help dehumanize them for viewers, making them more like fictional characters than real people and allowing fans to objectify them. As Blair says, the Postman is "selling a brand and he wants us to fit into his scripts” (54). The inmates’ deaths are elaborately staged in the Painiacs’ creative dramas.

Dee inverts her stereotypical victim-princess character into that of a warrior princess. She comes to embody the strength and perseverance indicated by her hashtag #CinderellaSurvivor. Playing this role, Dee shows the strength and courage that informs the theme of Perseverance in the Pursuit of Truth and Justice.

Dee has other roles: some that are true to her life, and some that are false. She is Monica’s loving stepsister, and Kimmi’s coerced “sister.” Dee plays “the part of a dutiful victim” as she attempts to deceive the Postman, and the role of a mistrustful former friend when she stages a fight with Nyles and Griselda (241). Kimmi also plays many roles: Mara, the Postman, and Slycer. The Postman himself has different personas: television mogul, fan favorite, Kimmi’s dad, Slycer, and the white room's serial killer.

Throughout the novel, acting and role-playing keep readers and fictional app users “hooked,” adding suspense and reinforcing the idea that they are watching a story within a story. McNeil’s multiple extended allusions to popular films reinforce this concept. Role-playing also informs the theme of the pursuit of truth and justice, as characters must learn the truth behind secrets and secret identities.