“She wanted to press a button and erase that ugly phrase from her memory, but it just kept repeating itself, echoing through her brain on an endless loop: Suck it bitch…Suck it bitch…Suck it…” 

Eve is fixated and disturbed by the language her son Brendan uses during sex. As much as she tries to suppress the memory that her son has misogynistic tendencies, it repeats on her. She feels both Brendan’s failure to be the young man she hoped he would be, and her own as a parent.  

“The truth is, I would’ve been just as happy to spend another year at Haddington High, where I knew everyone and everyone knew me […] I had a slightly queasy feeling walking into town—the same feeling I got in airports and train stations—like there were way too many people in the world, and none of them gave a shit about me.”

Brendan, who was popular and well-adjusted in high-school, struggles to cope with the anonymity of entering a new social environment. Given that Brendan “would’ve been just as happy” to have a repeat of his high school years, the reader can ascertain that he is not ready to adapt to a new, more challenging environment. 

“U r my MILF! Send me a naked pic!! I want to cum on those big floppy tits!!!” 

This is the anonymous text message that disgusts Eve and also begins to arouse her curiosity about pornography. It also resembles the message that George verbally repeats while they are having sex and brings up the possibility that he is the original sender.