“I ended up on the shore, where the ocean crashed into the rocks, sending an explosion of sea spray into the air. The sky was no longer storm black. The haze over the ocean could almost have passed for fog, but I knew it for what it was. Smoke.”

The imagery in this quote uses the ocean motif to mirror Hannah’s inner turmoil and the tragedy that has caused it. The subtle contrast between fog and smoke combines the mystery associated with the former and the danger implied by the latter to create an ominous atmosphere. The ocean crashing into rocks reflects the chaos affecting Hannah’s life and her awareness of the danger around her.

“Instead of noticing the color of his irises this time, I noticed the clarity in his gaze, the way it searched mine, like I was the patient, and he was something else altogether.”

The imagery in this quote shows the depth of Toby’s gaze, hinting at his perceptive nature. The passage also illustrates a key role reversal, as Hannah now feels examined and vulnerable. That vulnerability lays the groundwork for the novel’s exploration of How Love Reshapes Identity.

“I didn’t see pain there. I saw fury and devastation and more. For a single moment in time, it was like looking in a mirror.”13

This quote uses a simile to connect Hannah’s perception of another’s emotions with her own inner state, thus emphasizing her reflection and empathy. The phrase “fury and devastation and more” is an example of polysyndeton, or the use of conjunctions where they aren’t grammatically necessary; here, it creates a rhythm of accumulation that mirrors the emotional impact she feels and recognizes in Toby. Hannah’s ability to recognize complexity in others points to her emotional intelligence and sets up the dynamic of shared suffering.

“I saw his pupils expand, black overtaking deepest green like a midnight wave devouring the edges of a white sand beach.”

This sentence uses visual imagery and a simile that invokes the broader ocean motif and associates Toby with this violent (“devouring”) natural force. The contrast of black and white emphasizes duality and suggests both danger and beauty in his character. It also reflects Hannah’s perceptive attention to detail.

“There’s something beautiful about anything built for one purpose that refuses to die, even once that purpose is gone.”

This sentence uses personification to explore resilience through the symbol of the lighthouse, here described as something that “refuses to die.” Toby later compares himself to the lighthouse in reference to this idea. The passage supports the novel’s emphasis on finding beauty in survival, which is a trait both protagonists share.

“You have ways of going elsewhere in your mind. It’s like you’re a dreamer trapped in a cynic’s body, a cynic’s life.”

This quote conveys Hannah’s duality, including her capacity for imagination despite her skepticism. Describing her as a “dreamer trapped in a cynic’s body” emphasizes the tension between her outward composure and inner vitality while also showing Toby’s deep observation skills. The passage contributes to character development by showing that the two perceive the complexity beneath one another’s surface behavior.

“Her hair was going wild in the wind. How was it that the wind could touch her, but I couldn’t? How was any of this possible?”

This sentence uses imagery and rhetorical questioning to convey Hannah’s sense of longing for her sister. The wind touching Kaylie while Hannah cannot illustrates the distance between them even in Hannah’s dreams—a result of her knowledge that Kaylie is dead.

“I needed to dance. Every day. I needed to feel—the way Kaylie had always felt everything. She’d spent a lifetime trying to drag me into the sun, into trouble—and there trouble was, standing far too close to me.”

This quote shows Hannah’s yearning for life and emotional connection as she reflects on the lessons her sister left her. Dance here symbolizes the freedom to feel and be, the sun connotes joy and openness, and the word “trouble” evokes the risk and passion of her attraction to Toby. The moment shows Hannah’s awakening desire to experience life fully, the repetition of “I needed” suggesting the urgency of this feeling.

“I wasn’t in pieces. I wasn’t nothing. And there was something I wanted much more than to disappear—something impossible, something real. But he didn’t know that.”

This quote indicates Hannah’s strength and self-assertion by showing her newfound refusal to be defined by fear or invisibility. The contrasting descriptions of connection as both “something impossible” and “something real” illustrate the tension between her awareness of danger and uncertainty and her determination to choose what matters most to her.

“Some people are like the ocean, little Hannah. You can’t let or not let them do a damn thing.”

Jackson uses a simile to suggest that the actions of people like Toby are inevitable and uncontrollable; the comparison relates to the broader ocean motif. The affectionate nickname of “little Hannah” contrasts with the realism of Jackson’s statement; he addresses her as a child but treats her as an adult, highlighting a broader tension between innocence/idealism and cynicism.

“I loved you when the world was pain and the only thing that made sense was your eyes. I loved you before I knew to hate myself, and I have loved you every day since.”

This quote uses anaphora through the repetition of “I loved you” to emphasize the intensity of Toby’s feelings for Hannah. The juxtaposition of love and self-hatred reveals his internal conflict and suggests that love tempers guilt but does not abolish it.

“Eyes should be one color, maybe two. Hers are everything. Brown and blue and green and gray—rings of color like rings on a tree, their borders messy and blurring into one another, a line of deep blue around the rim of her iris, a golden brown starburst around the pupil, and stormy gray and mossy green battling it out in between.”

The detailed imagery of Hannah’s eyes demonstrates Toby’s attention to and love for Hannah. The simile comparing her eyes’ rings to those of a tree suggests depth and hidden secrets, while the blending borders mirror Hannah’s emotional complexity. The passage therefore underscores that Toby sees through her walls while also establishing the intensity of his feelings; his remark that her eyes “are everything” suggests not only that they encompass all the colors he goes on to describe but also that they are “everything” to him.

“The lines of her neck are long. She is self-contained, wary but never frightened. She is Hannah, through and through.”

Toby’s physical descriptions of Hannah become a form of characterization, as Hannah’s posture reflects her emotional walls and her closed-off persona. The phrasing of “through and through” functions as repetition that affirms Hannah’s identity and Toby’s acceptance of her.

“I will not be another reason for shadows in her eyes.

I will not be another invisible scar that marks her.

I do not get to die.”

The use of anaphora in these lines creates a repetitive rhythm that emphasizes the strength of Toby’s conviction, while his final, declarative sentence indicates the change in his character as he begins to see a reason to live. The metaphor of “invisible scars” establishes a figurative parallel between Toby’s injuries and the emotional wounds he sees in Hannah, reinforcing their similarities and growing closeness.

“Hannah, through and through, bracing her body against mine. I can feel every single place that we touch, feel her strength, feel all the ways that our bodies fit.”

Toby frequently repeats the mantra “through and through” to affirm his love and acceptance of Hannah. The quote uses sensory imagery to emphasize the characters’ intimacy by focusing on touch and physical closeness. The repetition of “feel” underscores how their emotional awakening unfolds through the physical connection of Hannah caring for Toby, which the imagery here (e.g., of their bodies “against” one another’s) tacitly compares to sex.

“I tell her that I know that she feels things—deeply—and that watching her keep her emotions locked down feels like watching storm water rise and rise behind a dam.”

This quote uses a simile to compare Hannah’s suppressed emotions to water behind a dam. The use of water imagery continues the novel’s recurring ocean motif and suggests that repression is powerful and destructive. Toby’s perception of Hannah gives voice to these emotions, ultimately allowing her to do so herself.

“I know: This is happening.

I know: She is the beginning and the end and everything in between for me.”

The repetition of “I know” represents Toby’s certainty and emotional clarity in his love and devotion for Hannah. Toby’s hyperbolic description of Hannah’s impact on his life positions Hannah as encompassing all of his existence, while the use of polysyndeton underscores just how sweeping his experience of her is.

“I want everything. I want to give her everything—the world and the whole damn sky.”

This quote uses exaggerated language to express Toby’s boundless desire and the intensity of young, idealized love. Toby must reach for “the world” and “the whole damn sky” to find an adequate outlet for his feelings, while his use of these well-worn phrases suggests how love has undercut Toby’s cynicism, reinvesting romantic cliché with meaning.

“When I am with Hannah, time stands still at some moments and expands in others, like the universe endlessly spreading outward, space coming to exist where there was none before.”

Toby’s perception of time and the world in general all depends on Hannah. His simile conveys how love alters perception and creates new meanings and possibilities.

“You look like a fairy tale.”

This comparison reinforces the novel’s recurring fairy tale motif and demonstrates Toby’s idealization of Hannah. Though spoken in earnest, the line also carries slight irony, as both Toby and Hannah know that fairy tales aren’t real. The simplicity of the line contrasts with the complexity of their reality.

“Hannah the Same Backward As Forward kisses me like she needs me, like she knows me, like the world begins and ends with the two of us, like we are the story the universe will tell.”

This quote uses repetition of the word “like” to create a momentum that mirrors Toby’s passion and the urgency of his thoughts. The nickname that draws attention to Hannah’s palindromic name evokes the way that Toby and Hannah are themselves mirrors of each other, while his description of their love as “the story the universe will tell” highlights how all-encompassing it feels.

“She wants to believe that curses can be broken, and that broken, shattered boys can be redeemed. She wants me to be the hero of this story, and I cannot bear to tell her that I am, as I was from the beginning, the villain.”

Allusions to fairy-tale archetypes like hero and villain frame Toby’s moral struggle and relate to the novel’s fairy-tale motif. The metaphor of curses hints at Toby’s continuous battle with his past: He views himself as irredeemable despite Hannah’s faith in him.

“Hannah hates me and loves me and needs me, and no matter what I’ve done or what I deserve, I know that she deserves the world.”

This quote reveals Toby’s recognition of the contradictions in her feelings toward him. The structure emphasizes the intensity and balance of these emotions, while the contrast between “what I’ve done or what I deserve” and “she deserves the world” indicates Toby’s feelings of guilt on the one hand and reverence for Hannah on the other. Ultimately, it is the latter that helps him overcome the former.