"If he touches her, I swear I'm going to rip out his guts with my bare hands and send them to his next of kin for lunch" (Chapter 1, p. 3).

"Maybe it did take guts to stand up to his crazy, belt-wielding uncle, but I think it took more guts for the Bruiser to invite me inside" (Chapter 10, p. 42).

"It took a day for that strange feeling to fade, although it never wore off entirely. Eventually I was able to hurl enough reason at it to camouflage it against a background of protective logic" (Chapter 16, p. 68).

"My blindness didn't allow me to see it coming" (Chapter 18, p. 85).

"I saw the weak hearts of my classmates shredded by conformity, bloated and numb, as they iced the wounds of acceptance in the primordial gym, hoping to heal themselves into popularity" (Chapter 24, p. 110).

"Brewster said I should always be the rag doll...