The novel begins with passages from EARTHSEED: THE BOOKS OF THE LIVING and then we learn from the first-person narrator that these verses have been crafted by her: "For whatever it's worth, here's what I believe. It took me a lot of time to understand it, then a lot more time with a dictionary and a thesaurus to say it just right--just the way it has to be."
When she awakes one morning, Ariadne inquires about her sleep and Helen pulls back her sheets to reveal "untouched jingle bells still wrapped around her ankles...but under the bells, [her] feet were dirty, swollen, and red from what looked like weeks of walking" (Starcrossed 373)
“But anyway thats sience and I got to try to be smart like other pepul. Then when I am smart they will talk to me and I can sit with them and listen like Joe Carp and Frank and Gimpy do when they talk and have a discushen about importent things. While their werking they start talking about things like about god or about the truble with all the mony the presedint is spending or about the ripublicans and demicrats. And they get all excited like their gonna have a fite so Mr Donner got to come in and tell them to get back to baking or theyll all get canned union or no union. I want to talk about things like that. If your smart you can have lots of frends to talk to and you never get lonley by yourself all the time.”
Hardships each character went through (Opaline - imprisonment in a psychiatric hospital, Martha - abusive husband, Henry - abusive father), the "bad guys" not winning or "getting what they deserved," and characters I liked getting their happy ending
"There is something more, if I could find a name for it. God bless me, the man seems hardly human! Something troglodytic, shall we say? or can it be the old story of Dr. Fell? or is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that thus transpires through, and transfigures, its clay continent? The last, I think; for, O my poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan's signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend."
Hannah looks at the text messages as they roll in from Davey, trying to fight the smile on her face, I found myself saying I literally did that twenty minutes ago. "He’s online and replying. 'Is it weird I’m messaging you again? After I sent it, I thought this might come across as weird.' It takes me a moment to think and I reply honestly, 'This is kind of weird. But good weird. Yeah, that’s what I was hoping for. How’s your day going?'"