How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Welcome to the beautiful Sinclair family.
No one is a criminal.
No one is an addict.
No one is a failure. (1.1-4)
True to the title, Cadence starts the book by lying. All the Liars become criminals, Cadence is arguably an addict, her aunts drink constantly, and none of them can finish college or stay married.
Quote #2
That June, summer fifteen, Dad announced he was leaving and departed two days later. He told my mother he wasn't a Sinclair, and couldn't try to be one, any longer. (2.16)
We're with Dad—bail on that Sinclair business while you can. Bummer about sacrificing your kid, though.
Quote #3
Penny, Carrie, and Bess are the daughters of Tipper and Harris Sinclair. Harris came into his money at twenty-one after Harvard and grew the fortune doing business I never bothered to understand. (3.1)
Cadence is largely unaffected and unimpressed by Harris's wealth—except, of course, that her life would be very different without it. Oh hi, private island.
Quote #4
They built three new houses on their craggy private island and gave them each a name: Windemere for Penny, Red Gate for Carrie, and Cuddledown for Bess.
I am the eldest Sinclair grandchild. Heiress to the island, the fortune, and the expectations.
Well, probably. (3.4-6)
Once you know that Cadence planned the destruction of Clairmont, the "probably" makes a lot more sense. Do you think Harris will still leave everything to her? Does what she did change his expectations?
Quote #5
The family calls us four the Liars, and probably we deserve it. We are all nearly the same age, and we all have birthdays in the fall. Most years on the island, we've been trouble. (4.2)
The Liars don't seem like trouble until the end of the book, which makes us wonder if Cadence is lying here, too. Maybe burning down the house is the first time they've actually been trouble, after having to be perfect for so many years.
Quote #6
I understood, and I managed to erase Granny Tipper from conversation, the same way I had erased my father. Not happily, but thoroughly. (11.14)
The Sinclairs are big on denial and façade. It doesn't matter how you leave the family; when you're gone, you're gone.
Quote #7
Welcome, once again, to the beautiful Sinclair family.
We believe in outdoor exercise. We believe that time heals.
We believe, although we will not say so explicitly, in prescription drugs and the cocktail hour. (15.1-3)
Even though the Sinclairs know each other inside and out, Penny still lies to Bess and Carrie about Cadence's medications. Nobody would fault her for taking the addictive stuff, but Penny insists on pretending the non-addictive pills work—so yeah, the Liars aren't the only ones who lie.
Quote #8
Granddad is more like Mummy than like me. He's erased his old life by spending money on a replacement one. (33.16)
Money can't buy happiness, as the saying goes, but that's never stopped people who have it from trying.
Quote #9
Now, at the breakfast table, watching him eat my toast, "Don't take no for an answer" seemed like the attitude of a privileged guy who didn't care who got hurt, so long as his wife had the cute statues she wanted to display in her summerhouses. (42.21)
Granddad tells Cadence not to take no for an answer, but, on his usual huge power trip, denies her even her own toast. He's basically saying, "Don't let anyone tell you no. Oh, you want that breakfast? No. Psych!"
Quote #10
They would repent of their deeds.
And after that, learn to love one another again.
Open their souls. Open their veins. Wipe off their smiles.
Be a family. Stay a family. (68.12-15)
Cadence and the Liars decide that only tragedy, in the form of property destruction, will make the family stop fighting and come together. The problem is, though, they were never really together in the first place, and as long as there's money left, they never will be.