"People avoid me like I have a disease—like I have the disease. If only they knew." Ch. 1, p. 2

"Fire in my legs and lungs; fire tearing through every nerve and cell in my body. That's how I am born again, in pain." Ch. 1, p. 4

"I am not born all at once, the new Lena. Step by step—and then, inch by inch." Ch. 1, p. 5

"On one wall is tacked a small wooden cross with the figure of a man suspended in its middle. I recognize the symbol—it's a cross from one of the old religions, from the time before the cure, although I can't remember which one now." Ch. 1, p. 9

"Of course it makes sense that girls and boys would be sharing a house in the Wilds—that's the whole point, after all: freedom to choose, freedom to be around one another...