Content Warning: This section of the guide includes descriptions of emotional abuse.

“Creating a new life (or lives) takes a devastating amount of energy, of imagination.”

Here, Annie introduces a key element of the book’s thematic consideration of The Gulf Between Public and Private Selves. The sheepish afterthought that appears in parentheses creates a casual and open tone, and the asyndeton in the parallel phrases “of energy, of imagination” creates a contemplative effect, as if Annie is searching for just the right words to describe her own situation. These elements hint that Annie is eager to unburden herself and to close the gap between her authentic self and public misperceptions. The passage also suggests that the effort to keep these two things separate has utterly drained her.

“What you need to know about me and Amanda is that no friendship like ours had ever existed. We basically redefined the medium, elevated it to an art form.”

Annie’s hyperbole whimsically acknowledges both her youthful feeling of exceptionalism and her adult understanding that the feeling she and Amanda shared is a very common experience. While her metaphorical comparison of the relationship to “art” is a part of this hyperbole, it is also nod to her lifelong habit of performing multiple identities—often to her own detriment.

“[Make] your outside match how you feel on the inside.”

The young Amanda is portrayed as a confident person whose sense of style is widely admired. While Annie finds Amanda’s advice about clothing to be initially confusing, this philosophy introduces the novel’s central preoccupation with