Content Warning: This section of the guide includes references to the source text’s description of sexual assault and molestation of a minor.

“Staring back, I realized she was so much more beautiful than I had originally thought. It was an ethereal beauty, timeless, as though she were the subject of a Renaissance painting. So different from my wife, who looked like she belonged on the cover of a pulp novel from the 1950s.”

Swanson uses the simile of comparing Lily’s beauty to a woman from a Renaissance painting to highlight how her physical appearance evokes a sense of mystery and intrigue. In contrast, Ted compares Miranda’s beauty to the cover of a pulp fiction novel, suggesting she has hidden her infidelity under a mask of beauty.

“I would listen to these parties hum and roar through the walls of my bedroom as I lay in bed. They were familiar symphonies, beginning with bursts of laughter, discordant jazz, and the slap of screen doors, and ending, in the early morning hours, with the sound of yelling, sometimes sobbing, and always the slam of bedroom doors.”

Lily’s description of her memories of Monk’s House reflects the chaotic nature of her upbringing. Even though Monk’s house sometimes represents safety, Lily remembers the ways that her parent’s lifestyle created a landscape of uncertainty and disruption. Swanson uses a run-on sentence to signify the overwhelming nature of these parties on Lily’s mental health.

“My chest hurt, as though the anger inside of me was a balloon, slowly inflating, but never going to pop…I sat on the tiled floor, and cried until my throat hurt. I was thinking of Chet—the scary way he looked at me—but I was also thinking of my parents. Why did they fill our home with strangers? Why did they only know sex maniacs?”

Swanson uses the imagery of a balloon inside of Lily’s chest to symbolize the fear that she feels when Chet stares at her in her bathing suit. Lily’s fear of Chet manifests in anger towards her parents because they are supposed to protect their child. This moment signifies Lily’s exposure to the threat of the outside world, which finally culminates in Chet’s sexual abuse.