“Ben’s mother had pointed them out to him once when he was a child, the faded gold constellations, explaining each zodiac in turn. Was she also the one who had told him that the stars were painted backward on purpose? That it was meant to be seen from the perspective of the divine, rather than humanity.”

Ben is traveling through Grand Central Station, on his way home after hearing about the boxes. He reflects on the perspective shift of the constellations on the ceiling and connects it to the perspective shift he now faces. With the knowledge of their own mortality, he wonders if humans have somehow stepped into a role that only the gods previously occupied.

“The world had somehow tripped and tumbled through the looking glass, and Amie had read enough novels to recognize that this was the part of the story where nobody knows what the hell was going on, where the characters made rash decisions whose consequences would only be revealed chapters later.”

Amie has decided not to look in her box, a decision she will keep until her death. As such, she has a unique perspective throughout the book. This quote establishes Amie as someone who sees life through the filter of the books she has read, often using them as a way to understand the real world. Here, she uses her knowledge of fictional plots to determine how she should act.

“On Sunday evening, when Maura was at her support group, Nina thought about the man in Verona, and what her coworker had said. It was an unsettling thought that someone was essentially immune to dying until they reached the end of their string—especially strange for those, like Nina, with long ones.”

Throughout the novel, and especially in the opening chapters, Nikki Erlick explores the effect of the short strings from a wide range of perspectives. This quote is the first to consider the impact of a long string. When Nina hears about the bride and groom that jumped off the bridge because the bride had a short string, she understands the groom’s