“Twelve minutes ago, they breezed into my office—glamorous, affluent, enviable. The golden couple. Now the underlying tarnishes they’ve never allowed the public to see are already beginning to show. It’s going to get a lot uglier soon.”

With these words, Avery sums up Matthew and Marissa Bishop, the book’s eponymous “golden couple.” Through Avery’s perspective, the reader sees that the perfect couple is anything but. Avery’s ominous promise that things will get “uglier” also provides foreshadowing.

“Avery cuts her off: ‘That’s an Instagram post. Give me something real.’”

Avery’s accusation that Marissa portrays her marriages as an “Instagram post” speaks to the book’s theme of The Deceptive Nature of Appearances. While Matthew and Marissa look like a perfect couple, this isn’t real—something that the authors compare to social media.

“Avery has cut to the core of what their marriage has become: curated moments served up in public, while in private the emptiness between them slowly expands.”

Marissa thinks these words after Avery accuses her of sharing a memory as if it’s an “Instagram post” (above). The line illuminates Marissa’s loneliness in her marriage; behind the woman who is trying to present a perfect life, there is someone aching for real human connection. The authors evoke sympathy for Marissa through these insights.