How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I've never been comfortable with my body like Hana. (5.46)
Early on, we see how Lena is not only insecure, she's comparing herself to others in an unfavorable light. This is a one-way ticket to Low Self-Esteemville… on the express train.
Quote #2
I'm sure to [Alex] I was only a blurry, in-between face, easy to forget. [...] Just plain, like a thousand other faces you would see on the street. (6.126)
Lena is extremely insecure about her appearance, and this dissatisfaction has overshadowed the fact that Alex has been flirting with her for almost the entire conversation. See what you miss when you're super worried about yourself?
Quote #3
"I'm sick of that [Lena]. [...] Sick of always checking your back, looking behind you, watching what you say." (8.48)
Lena isn't the only one experiencing some dissatisfaction in her friendship with Hana. Hana feels like she's always walking on eggshells because of all Lena's issues—trust issues, fear issues, self-image issues. This isn't exactly the healthiest friendship in the book.
Quote #4
I don't even really know Alex, and there's an impassable divide between us, but the idea upsets me anyway. (10.33)
Lena is beating herself up for talking too much about herself to Alex. For someone who has never had a conversation with a member of the opposite sex, much less a relationship, she puts a lot of pressure on herself to be perfect. Take a chill pill, girl.
Quote #5
I know the past will drag you backward and down, have you snatching at whispers of wind and the gibberish of trees rubbing together, trying to decipher some code, trying to piece together what was broken. (11.10)
Lena is so filled with regrets that just the very concept of the past makes her depressed. No wonder she looks forward to the cure, and to forgetting.
Quote #6
"Why? It's not like you'll even /have/ a budget." I don't mean to sound bitter but there it is, the difference in our futures cutting between us again. (12.45)
Well, it's not so much the difference between their futures coming between Lena and Hana as much as Lena's attitude toward them. She's grown a little depressed with being a have-not. She wants everything that Hana has.
Quote #7
She only skimmed a hand over my head as she came through the door. (13.5)
If Lena is so disappointed with the lack of affection she receives from others, why is she so eager to have her own deliria cured?
Quote #8
"Are you sure that being like everybody else will make you happy?" (14.91)
Alex is trying to point out how irrational Lena's desire to be like everyone else is. She's so dissatisfied with being different that she doesn't realize being the same wouldn't make her feel any better. It might make her feel worse.
Quote #9
Time jumps. It leaps. It pours away like water through fingers. (16.32)
Lena is very happy with Alex. She's not happy with the way that time flies when she's with him. You know, time flies when you're having fun and all that.
Quote #10
I actually feel sorry for Carol. I'm only seventeen years old, and I already know something she doesn't know: I know that life isn't life if you just float through it.
Aunt Carol lives a life of dissatisfaction. A loveless marriage. Stupid kids she doesn't even like. But she does just float through it. Is that any kind of life? Does Lena have a point here?