Oh, just thinking about what you said, on what part of her has to die to stay sane. And that makes sense, with the indoctrination and just numbing yourself to the reality of things to get through the next day. Her refusal of a last request to get it over with kinda hints at this too. But thinking about it more, as a potential different ending, what if her final thoughts after turning purple wasn't excitement but instead a release of all the pent up emotions she'd been suppressing up till now? Accepting death as a reality and trying to be brave and wanting it to be over only to find out at the last minute that you get some more time has got to have a large mental impact on a person, especially a child. If instead of walking back to habitat, she collapsed in a hallway outside the butchery sobbing and shaking as her whole life is turned upside down once again would show that deep down she's still human and just a kid and that the indoctrination is only so effective. I think that'd be a crazy bit of lore to add =D.

Thinking about it more, being at peace with your fate is to be already dead. I think that's why the last few chapters went by so fast and felt so bleak to me, because on the inside she was already gone. That doesn't seem like something that could continue in Book 2. Riley is interesting because she is Riley and not just because of her meat shell, no matter how cute it may be. So I think that deep inside, she must still be Riley to have a story about her.