How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I liked this feeling so much that, when we moved to Petree, our next place, I took it further, calling myself Lizbet and taking up with the drama mamas and dancers. I wore cut-off tights, black turtlenecks, and bright red lipstick, my hair pulled back into the tightest bun possible as I counted calories, took up cigarettes, and made everything Into A Production. (1.30)
Mclean doesn't just change her name slightly when she starts at a new school—she straight up makes up a new character for herself. It's not a true reflection of who she is, but it makes things a lot easier to deal with when she's just following a predetermined script.
Quote #2
But idols fall, and sometimes they land right on you and leave you flattened. They destroy your family, shame you in the eyes of the town you love, and ruin the sport of basketball for you forever. (1.36)
It's really hard to get into basketball again when your mom's run off with your favorite team's basketball coach. Now even Mclean's favorite sport is tainted by all the lies and betrayal.
Quote #3
My mother didn't tell me about this when she split up with my dad, but if I did the math—and oh, how I hated having to do the math—it became clear that she not only knew about it, but it was the reason she finally came clean. (2.7)
Ugh—it's bad enough that her mom was cheating on her dad with another man, but it's even worse when Mclean does the math and realizes that her mom only came clean because she was pregnant with Peter's babies. What a web of lies and deceit.
Quote #4
Faking all of these things was easy, because I could plan them out, selected the friends and activities that best suited whomever I'd decided to be. (5.146)
Sometimes it's easier to pretend to be someone else. When Mclean is taking on one of her personas, she doesn't have to confront her own feelings—she just chooses friends, picks activities, and does things based off of what her persona would do. Rinse and repeat.
Quote #5
And all because I'd done the one thing I hadn't been able to for all this time: speak the truth. If my mother loved me enough to fight for me, even against my will, why couldn't she accept that I was angry at her? (10.83)
Mclean finally tells her mom the cold harsh truth, that it's her fault that they have such an icy relationship now. It may not be what her mom wanted to hear, but at least they're not lying to each other anymore, right?
Quote #6
We just stood there for a moment, both of us still. Coffee, Kona, aloha, not to mention Luna Blu's apparent reprieve and his date with the councilwoman: it suddenly all made sense. "We're going to Hawaii?" I asked finally. "When?" (13.37)
Oh, boy. Here's a big thing that Mclean's dad was trying to keep from her… at least for the time being. He's thinking of moving to Hawaii, which will definitely change her whole life and force her to start over again.
Quote #7
I felt my mouth go dry as the impact of what they'd discovered finally began to hit me. I stepped forward, my eyes narrowing to the screen on the table, and the list of names there. Five girls, five profiles, four pictures. Mclean Sweet. Eliza Sweet. Lizbet Sweet. Beth Sweet. (13.127)
Well this isn't good—Mclean should have really deleted all of her old profiles when she moved to a new town. What was she thinking? If she were a secret spy, she'd be the worst at covering her tracks.
Quote #8
They'd all been so honest with me, so open. Dave and his past embarrassments, Riley and her dirtbags, Ellis and the Love Van, Deb and, well, everything… With this, they had perfectly good reason to doubt everything I had told them in return. (13.129)
Mclean's not just embarrassed about all her past personas—she's also worried that she'll lose all of her new friends. After all, who wants to be friends with a crazy pathological liar who has multiple identities?
Quote #9
"You should have told me," she said over her shoulder. Her face was flushed, angry. "You let me just go along here like an idiot, thinking things were okay." (13.133)
Mclean's dad might typically get away with leaving a town and slipping off from all the complications of departing, but not this time. Opal's going to call him out on his nonsense—especially the fact that he lied to her about how well Luna Blu was doing.
Quote #10
"It wasn't about being happy or unhappy. I just didn't want to be me anymore." (16.52)
Finally we get a proper explanation for Mclean's obsession with coming up with new identities. It was all a coping mechanism in order to escape from the harsh realities of her parents' divorce, and the fact that she didn't want that to be her life anymore.