How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Later, with the coconut cake still resting in her stomach, the youngest rises from her bed and stares out into the night—the moon is bright yellow, the sky blue-black, the shadows that are the Rocky Mountains. She sniffs, inhaling the scent of pine and cedar and air that is warm still—but with winter at its edges. The beauty of it all stops her breath. When it comes again, her breath is shallow and loud. She has never lived anyplace else and can't imagine it. Doesn't have to because, tonight, this beauty seems to be hers forever. (Prologue.7)
This description is beautiful enough to make us want to move to Denver, and our hearts ache for Toswiah/Evie when she has to leave all this beauty behind. If you were describing your home, what would you say? How would you feel if you had to leave and never go back?
Quote #2
So she remembers not to tell her sister this—that the world outside her window tonight is perfect. So perfect that sometimes it all seems too much. Too much beauty in one place. All mine, she whispers, wrapping her arms around herself and laughing. This world is all mine.
Gone. It is all gone now. (P.10-11)
Ah, stop breaking our hearts. How do you feel when the author describes the beauty of Toswiah/Evie's home and then says it's gone? Is it gone? Obviously, Denver is still there, but Toswiah/Evie is gone. Does it matter which way we say it?
Quote #3
When it comes down to it, every single other thing can be taken clean away from you. Or you can be taken clean away from it. Like home. More and more and more, Denver feels like a dream I used to have. A place I once belonged to.
When the memory of Denver gets too blurred, I pinch myself and say, Your name is Toswiah. There was a time when the Rocky Mountains were just outside your window. But my name isn't Toswiah anymore. And now, this tiny apartment in this crowded city is supposed to be my home. (1.3-4)
Toswiah/Evie describes Denver as a dream rather than as a memory, which is what it is. Perhaps this is because she's not supposed to lay claim to this memory any longer—it feels more like a dream than her reality.