Keep It in the Family

“Theirs is a mismatched partnership, yet they’re made for one another. Only together can they be their true selves. Outside in the real world, where they have no control over their environment, they are forced to adapt and perform. They are quiet and unassuming and I expect most people forget who they are soon after crossing paths with them. They get away with what they do by hiding in plain sight and by being ordinary. Nobody sees in them what I see because they have no reason to look. Only I notice the hollowness of their eyes.”

This quote comes from a young Debbie’s observation about her parents. Although Debbie does not quite know what makes her parents evil, she senses something sinister in them that prompts her to wonder about the machinations of their relationship and the way that others perceive them. Her reference to “the hollowness of their eyes” also highlights the sinister nature of her parents’ mindsets even as they put on a show of normalcy for the world.

“Like those before him, he holds on to the hope of a miracle. He doesn’t realise that, to them, he is not human. He is an everyday, ten-a-penny object. And it doesn’t really matter how carelessly you treat an everyday object, because if it breaks, it is easily replaced. That’s what will happen to him. It might take them weeks or months, but eventually, another one just like him will come along. One always does.”

This quote comes from Debbie’s early observation about a young boy murdered by her parents. Alternately empathizing with his humanity and referring to him as an object, the young Debbie reveals her distorted perspective, and the detached and callous nature of her thoughts foreshadows the fact that she will grow up to follow in her parents’ footsteps.

“No one under this roof believes in compassion. Empathy is an alien emotion here.”

Young Debbie’s cold assessment of the harsh emotional climate in her childhood home establishes the tone of the novel and hints at the serial killer she will one day become. This quote comes from a longer passage in which Debbie dehumanizes her parents’ victims and mocks them for expecting compassion.