How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I tried to find that bunny in my memory, tried to inventory the bathroom and the things in it, but I came out with nothing, a handful of water. (8.44)
This is a vivid image of memory being like water slipping through Libby's fingers. Of course, this being a Gillian Flynn book, this is a handful of toilet water we're talking about. Maybe it's for the best that Libby can't hang on to her gross memories….
Quote #8
Since I was seven, I pictured [Ben] in the same haunted-house flashes: Ben, black-haired, smooth-faced, with his hands clasped around an axe, charging down the hall at Debby, a humming noise coming from his tight lips. (10.1)
For Libby, this is a very clear memory. But it's completely made up. As we see from the Ben and Patty chapters, this never happened. Perhaps when Libby was being coached for trial as a kid, she started to believe that this actually happened, and it became cemented in her memory.
Quote #9
I rummaged through more notes, putting the boring, inane ones aside for the Kill Club, missing my sisters, laughing at some of them, the strange worries we had, the coded messages, the primitive drawings, the lists of people we liked and didn't like. I'd forgotten we were tight, the Day girls. (14.26)
As she's grown older, Libby has held on to the negative memories and forgotten the positive ones. Perhaps if she'd confronted the physical artifacts of the past sooner, she would have been reminded of these nice things as well.