Quotes in The Forest of Hands and Teeth
How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I have been alternating between hope that my mother turns quickly and dread that she will turn too quickly and I will have lost her forever. (2.14)
Kind of like the feeling on the first day of school—hope that the school year will be fantastic and dread that the summer will be lost forever. Except, you know, a lot more serious and depressing.
Quote #2
My brother doesn't visit and I hear no news of him from the Sisters. I wonder if he thinks of me. I want to be angry at him, to revel in any emotion other than shock and pain, but I understand that this is the way he grieves. (3.18)
Mary and Jed just lost their mom, and it can pretty tough to see past your own hurt in a time like this. It's tricky, though, because while Mary understands her brother well enough to know that this is how he grieves, she also really wishes they could come together in their loss.
Quote #3
I want to yell at Jed that I hurt too and that I am sorry and that I need him. But then I realize that he has his new family to mourn with. That somehow I'm no longer enough to comfort him. I'm only a reminder of our parents' deaths. I flex my fingers against the door, my nails digging into the wood, realizing just how fully alone I am. (3.51)
No longer enough to comfort him, eh? As his little sister, we wonder if Mary was ever enough to comfort him on her own. Usually it's the job of the older sibling to comfort the younger one, right? Leaving Mary alone at the moment she needs him most seems awful cruel of Jed when we think of things this way.