“Perhaps I am projecting, but what I felt I was seeing was an intergenerational dislike, a mid-thirties person looking at people a quarter of a century older than her and seeing a complacent affluence, an unearned self-confidence and assuredness, born of never having had to do anything difficult; of having cruised through life sitting on the great sofa of baby boomer entitlement and economic good fortune, and believing that every good thing that had happened had come so easily and so naturally that we all thought it our due, a tribute to our talents, rather than a huge piece of lucky timing to which we were oblivious—oblivious of other lives, an entire generation driving the metaphorical Volvo of self-awarded entitlement.”

Observing Katrina, Kate projects her own insecurities and perceives a younger generation’s contempt for baby boomer privilege. This moment of “intergenerational dislike” reveals Kate’s awareness of her unearned advantages and her fear of being judged for a life of “complacent affluence.” It establishes a thematic tension between generations that echoes throughout the narrative.

“Because when you first see a dead person, especially a dead person you love, the thing that hits you immediately and powerfully is this sense of absence. There used to be something there that is not there any more. Death isn’t the presence of something, it is the absence of something.”

In the immediate aftermath of Jack’s death, Kate’s internal monologue explores the nature of grief and mortality. Her focus on absence over presence highlights the deep void left by Jack, whom she equated with her entire world. This passage establishes the depth of her loss and drives pathos around her characters, which fuels her later rage when she is made to believe that his life was a deception.

“JERRY

Want your body, disco doll.

Tina isn’t buying it. She’s genuinely angry.

TINA

Is that one of the things you say to her?

One of your lines?”

This excerpt marks the story’s inciting incident, though Kate is not yet aware of it. The use of screenplay format introduces verisimilitude into the text, using alternative storytelling formats to make the reader feel as though the reliability of Kate’s narration is not enough to reveal the breadth of the story being told. The appropriation of Jack and Kate’s private language transforms it from a symbol of unique marital intimacy into a cheap, adulterous pickup line, undermining Kate further as a protagonist and narrator.

“The thing is, it’s in your show too. That dark quality. The nastiness. It’s about someone fucking someone else’s husband and when you read it part of the point seems to be that she’s doing it not because she particularly wants the husband but because she gets a kick out of messing up the wife, without the wife knowing she’s being messed up. So it’s fucking plus the thrill of secrecy and the thing about the thrill of secrecy is that it’s always ultimately about power.”

Phoebe’s agent, Aloysius, encourages her to embody the amoral aspects of the television show she has created in this passage, which sets up expectations around her characterization. His monologue also functions as a commentary on entertainment media in the present-day, suggesting that voyeurism is what makes a story compelling. This reflects more on the audiences and the people who produce the shows than it does on Phoebe as an individual.

“So those are the three toxic maternal archetypes: bitch, vampire and squid. By and large, they stay in their lane. They know what they’re doing and they stick to it. What’s so special about my mother is that she is all three.”

Phoebe’s clinical, almost humorous categorization of toxic mothers reveals her deep-seated psychological trauma and intellectualizes her emotional pain. Her metaphorical comparison of her mother to a “bitch, vampire and squid” helps the reader to anticipate the mother’s character while also foreshadowing the pathos that Phoebe’s circumstances will later evoke.

“It’s basically a machine that’s inflicting psychological torture on my enemy and printing money at the same time. How great is that?”

Conor’s enthusiastic description of his revenge mechanism drives the novel’s preoccupation with revenge as a desirable outcome. Key to this description is the fact that he names “psychological torture” as the primary outcome of his scheme, listing profit as a secondary outcome, as though it were a byproduct. The ironic rhetorical question “How great is that?” underscores the narcissism embedded in the act of revenge: it serves only Conor in this case, foreshadowing the narcissism Kate will embody when she enacts her own revenge.

“‘You have a talent for this,’ he said. ‘I hope I never cross you.’

‘I hope so too, darling,’ I said, sipping my mint tea.”

This exchange reveals a previously unseen menacing side to Kate’s character. Her calm, almost nonchalant response while “sipping my mint tea” juxtaposes her dark sentiment, thus deepening her characterization by suggesting there are aspects of her that she hasn’t willingly revealed to the reader. This hints at Kate’s status as an unreliable narrator, someone who is more than what she presents herself to be.

“One of the reasons we get so angry about beggars and the homeless, the destitute human detritus of the city, is that it is so exhausting putting in the necessary effort of ignoring them.”

Kate’s internal monologue reveals a cynical and detached worldview, exposing the reader to her analytical yet unsympathetic mind. This observation about the social contract of willful ignorance in public spaces is a piece of social commentary. It establishes her as a character who is perceptive about hidden human motivations, but is herself aware of her own exhaustion with confronting the realities of people who find themselves in challenging circumstances.

“Jack had a theory that people tend not actually to like their friends, just to be thoroughly used to them.”

This memory of Jack’s cynical theory on friendship is a moment of dramatic irony. Kate is about to discover that her own most cherished relationship was not what she believed it to be, but which the reader already knows from the earlier glimpse into the content of the series Cheating. The quote foreshadows the impending revelation that will force Kate to re-evaluate her entire life with Jack.

“I looked at this man and I felt: mine. Simple as that: mine. It wasn’t that I wanted him—though I did, obviously—it was that I knew he already belonged to me. He was mine.”

This quote establishes Kate’s intensely possessive and deterministic perspective on her relationship with Jack. The simple, repeated declaration “mine” recontextualizes her character and frames her subsequent actions as the actions of a narcissist. She only values Jack as a commodity, someone she can possess; the fact that he is already involved with someone else is irrelevant to her.

“Let me put it this way: do you want to be the sneaky one, or the theatrical one, the centre of attention?”

By framing a criminal act as a choice between two dramatic roles, Kate reveals her manipulative nature and her tendency to view life as a performance, even as she is appealing to Sarah’s interest in theatre. The question understates the act’s moral implications, recasting it as a theatrical production in which she is the director. This moment demonstrates Kate’s early capacity for deception.

“But whoever it was said, ‘Good night.’ And we walked off together and left her.”

This passage depicts the novel’s foundational betrayal with cold, simple language. The single, curt line followed by the final action of abandonment emphasizes the cruelty and finality of Kate and Jack’s decision to betray Sarah. The ambiguity surrounding the attribution of the quote implies that Sarah mattered so little to Kate that Kate doesn’t even remember who spoke the line of betrayal.

“The kind of people who lie and cheat and pretend to be someone they’re not. Who fuck other people’s boyfriends and steal them and shoplift and lie and are whores.”

Sarah’s public outburst is the most direct criticism of Kate’s character. Though crude, Sarah’s callout is the only time anyone in the novel ever diagnoses Kate’s morality and calls her to account for it. This critique is therefore crucial for the reader to gain a more nuanced understanding of Kate’s narrative function as a protagonist and unreliable narrator.

“It’s as if she has an ear but no eyes.”

This quote marks the novel’s key moment of discovery, where Kate realizes the way Phoebe managed to mine details of her life without actually engaging in an affair with Jack. The simile of having “an ear but no eyes” is meant to articulate the limitations of the person surveilling their lives, but also paints them as an uncanny figure who can leverage those limitations to their advantage.

“I haven’t seen him for eighteen months, and he’s saying bitchy things that have to me a just detectable (and meant to be detectable) edge that says: This place isn’t as nice as you think it is; being able to come here/be a member here/afford to pay for it isn’t as impressive as you want me to think; your life isn’t as great as you imagine; you do know that you’re a bit ridiculous, don’t you?”

This passage captures the passive-aggressive dynamic between Phoebe and her twin, Tristan, while also characterizing Phoebe through her pathetic qualities. His insults are carefully crafted to subvert her achievements and sense of self-worth. Phoebe’s ability to deconstruct Tristan’s attacks reveals her intelligence, as well as her deep-seated insecurity and the painful, competitive nature of their sibling relationship.

“She would see what I had done and realise, even though she would never admit it, how important she was to me and how much I cared about her. And I suddenly realised I didn’t want her to know that I cared. Mum, you act like I don’t give a shit. Fine. I’ll live up to it.”

This internal monologue clarifies the complex motivation behind Phoebe’s revenge plot, showing it is a defense mechanism born from a painful, codependent love. Her decision to withhold this information from her mother is an attempt to seize power in their toxic dynamic, demonstrating how her personal life and artistic project are inextricably linked to this unresolved maternal conflict.

“[S]tarting out, it was impossible to get anything made, but once you had something made and people liked it, you went through a phase when you could scribble a shopping list on a piece of loo paper and someone would commission a returning series based on it.”

This quote cynically summarizes the boom-and-bust nature of creative industries. It reveals Phoebe’s awareness that her current success is fleeting and based on momentum rather than consistent quality. The metaphor of “[scribbling] a shopping list on a piece of loo paper” highlights the industry’s risk-averse nature, where producers are willing to take on stories that follow a recognizable template, even if Phoebe herself can recognize the lack of quality within her own work.

“[F]or every sensible person who knows what it’s really like and what really happens there are five more who think there’s no smoke without fire, God I think that’s the worst expression in the English language, I really do, of course there’s smoke without fire, with the internet it’s all smoke no fire most of the time…”

Tony’s desperate outburst captures the destructive power of online slander, which he frames through the lens of the idiomatic expression “no smoke without fire.” By pointing out the falsehood inherent to the expression and hyperbolically calling it the “worst expression in the English language,” his criticism extends to behaviors online and highlights how easily anonymous accusations can ruin reputations in a digital world.

“Of the two people it was created to hurt, one of them completely missed out on it. It was only half as toxic, half as horrible, as you wanted it to be. Does that make you feel you failed? I do hope so.”

This line of dialogue is a subversion of Phoebe’s intended revenge, transforming her project into a miscalculated failure. Kate’s taunting question is an act of psychological warfare, turning Phoebe’s desire to inflict pain back on herself as she makes her realize that the weapon of the show failed to hurt all of its intended targets. The moment is an important power shift, as Kate fully embraces her role as an architect of vengeance.

“I don’t know if this is something that has occurred to you, but just so you know, I think Jack was probably your father.”

Kate’s matter-of-fact tone in this passage gives the shocking element of the revelation a quality of understatement. This intentionally reframes Phoebe’s entire revenge project as a grotesque, unknowing act of patricidal rage while also suggesting it has no impact on Kate herself. This moment completes Kate’s transformation into a truly merciless antihero, demonstrating the corrupting nature of her quest for revenge.

“‘You don’t have anywhere to put it,’ he said. ‘Lots of feelings, which we both know aren’t your favourite things, no offence, and nothing you can do to burn them off, or even distract you. No hurdle to overcome.’”

Echoing the earlier scene where Sarah called out the truth behind Kate’s character, Tristan’s observation cuts to the core of Phoebe’s character: She is uncomfortable with feelings and prefers action. His insight highlights her internal struggle during the trial, a period of forced passivity where she cannot “burn off” her anxiety by acting upon the situation. This desire for action effectively becomes Phoebe’s fatal flaw, suggesting that a similar desire motivated her decision to write Cheating.

“The fact was, it was impossible to keep the thought entirely out of my head, and once it was in my head, although I was 99.9 per cent certain of Tony’s innocence, that wasn’t the same as being 100 per cent. That 0.1 per cent made me feel ill.”

This passage uses precise numerical language (“99.9 per cent” versus “100 per cent”) to quantify the insidious nature of doubt, showing how a small uncertainty can have a powerful emotional impact. While this underscores the destructive psychological success of Kate’s revenge plot, it also bears the implication of the gap in knowledge that exists between Tony and Phoebe, turning their relationship into a mirror that resonates with the ambiguity that remains unresolved between Jack and Kate in the wake of Jack’s death.

“‘Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?’ The whole truth. There’s a thought.”

The narrative uses irony to contrast the absolute demand of the legal oath with the complex, messy reality of Phoebe’s life. This internal monologue sarcastically highlights the phrase “the whole truth” to imply that such knowledge is impossible for anyone to possess, an idea that the novel has been trying to demonstrate through limited perspectives and unreliable narrators. Even if Phoebe spoke to the best of her knowledge, what she knows might not be enough to acquit Tony.