I think he imagines the end of life like the finish of a satisfying novel: something that should be wrapped up with a nice bow, all the sins forgiven. Like that would ever happen.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1)

Importance: Blix says that it was Houndy who made her go to her family’s after Christmas tea because he thought she needed to say goodbye to them. Blix criticizes Houndy for believing that life is something that can be neatly wrapped up like the ending of a novel.

I look around this room in the house that was once our family homestead, passed down through the generations from favorite daughter to favorite daughter (missing me, of course), and it takes everything I can muster to block all the negative energy that slithers along the baseboards.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1)

Importance: This quote is an example of the personification that can be found throughout the course of the novel. In this particular...