How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Then he pulled out a handgun and shot me in the chest. I was standing on the lawn and I fell. The bullet hole opened wide and my heart rolled out of my rib cage and down into a flower bed. Blood gushed rhythmically from my open wound,
then from my eyes,
my ears,
my mouth. (2.19-22)
This is the first instance in the book of Cadence saying something that makes you go, "Wait, what?" It takes a few more paragraphs to figure out she's being metaphorical—but where do her metaphors end and her hallucinations begin?
Quote #2
My head and shoulders melted first, followed by my hips and knees. Before long I was a puddle, soaking into the pretty cotton prints. I drenched the quilt she never finished, rusted the metal parts of her sewing machine. (11.9)
Cadence imagines a form of crying with her whole body in response to her grandmother's death.
Quote #3
I must have had my face in the water and then hit my head on one of these rocks.
Like I said, I don't know.
I remember only this: I plunged down into this ocean,
down to rocky rocky bottom, and
I could see the base of Beechwood Island and
my arms and legs felt numb but my fingers were cold. (12.8-13)
Can you really see the base of an island? Can you sink to the bottom of the ocean? Does Cadence really remember these things?