The social, historical, economic, and cultural contexts of the novel overlap, but I will try to separate them out. Historically, the novel is set in the recent past, spanning the years 2011–2015, so we can understand it as fairly contemporary to our recent pre-COVID-19 world and still very relatable to today's teen experience.

The economic context is the post-2008 recession, and economics loom large in the novel, as Marianne comes from a wealthy background while Connell is the son of a working class single mother who cleans Marianne's house.

The cultural context is Ireland, though in many ways Marianne and Connell's high school and university experience is not dissimilar to other Western cultures. At the university they enter a highly intellectual world, where people discuss world literature, Marx, and politics.

The social context explores a world stratified in a number of ways that touch on intersectionality. For example, Connell comes from a lower class background: he is the son of a not highly educated single mother, whereas Marianne's family is not only rich but upper-middle class in terms of education and connections. Yet at the same time, Connell is very much accepted into the social milieu of the high school because he is athletic and personable, while Marianne, in part because of her social background, finds herself marginalized and disliked. Interestingly, at Trinity, the peer social world flips, with Marianne on the inside and Connell not quite fitting in.