Maybe she was not really like that. It's just that I would prefer you to think that what happened to her was justified. - Helen Oyeyemi

"He was looking at her, but in a distracted manner, as if she was something to look at while he waited for something else.”(Page 15)

His heavy eyebrows lowered and he made some small, involuntary gesture with his hand that was recognisably superstitious, as if the words 'God forbid' had flowed into his body.

She had had such a strong feeling that she needed to talk to someone who would tell her some secret that would make everything alright. She had been unable to think who it was.