“From what I'd witnessed, Alona Dare was single minded, determined, and ruthless. If high school was a zoo, she was the lioness running the hunt on the hapless tourists who'd wandered into the wrong enclosure.”

“The Drake farmhouse was like the chimpanzee enclosure at the zoo when feeding time was late.You know, if all the chimpanzees were undead.And insane.”

“When is the last time you were a tourist?” she asked archly.He just looked at her. Charles, she had to agree, was not tourist material.“Right,” Anna told him. “Buck up. You might even enjoy it.”“You might as well have ‘hapless victim’ tattooed across your forehead,” he muttered.”

“You must have your wits about you. No wandering minds allowed.”

“She would be a mentor and an inspiration to girls like herself, the quiet ones who'd sleepwalked their way through high school, knowing nothing except that they couldn't possibly be happy with any of the choices the world seemed to be offering them.”

“What does a boy who' witnessed what Charlie's witnessed know about trust? How does a boy like that discern right from wrong?”