How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He does hate mobile phones, I know—says they interfere with signals in the brain. […] Grudgingly he passed me the phone and the attachment he'd invented to protect his brain from it—a plastic funnel with the spout cut out. (3.20)
Very early in the book, we readers begin to suspect that Uncle Victor is absolutely cuckoo. It takes Sym a lot longer to come around to the idea, though—not because she's mad, too, but because girl lives in major denial.
Quote #2
The two halves of the mobile phone had come apart, spilling the SIM card out of its slot. Victor picked it up and, with the air of a naughty schoolboy, tipped back his head, opened his mouth, and dropped the SIM card into his gullet […]. (3.75)
Sym laughs her head off when Uncle Victor eats his SIM card. But there's something disturbing about this scene. Responsible guardians don't usually destroy their mobile phones before a big trip, right?
Quote #3
This lion-maned Viking…was actually in awe of a cuddly Yorkshireman who favors nightshirts and for years has collected, in a Jacobs Cream Cracker tin under the bed, the pith of all the oranges he eats. (8.14)
A tin of orange piths under the bed is not exactly a hallmark of mental health. Is Uncle Victor a harmless hoarder? Or is this a sign of something more sinister? We're thinking it's the latter.