Appearances Quotes in Here Be Monsters! An Adventure Involving Magic, Trolls, and Other Creatures; The Ratbridge Chronicles Volume 1

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

"Seeing as the boxtrolls and cabbageheads can get on and off the ship, we dress up as boxtrolls. Then the Squeakers won't pay any attention to us." (34.44)

Kipper has a bright idea (for once) relating to disguises. He's noticed that the police don't make any effort to stop the boxtrolls and cabbageheads from running on and off the ship, while the rest of the crew (humans and rats) are being watched for suspicious activity. So why not dress everyone up as boxtrolls, and use the police's prejudice about appearances against them?

Quote #8

Willbury nodded again, and the rabbit women beamed. Then the one in brown gave Kipper a funny look. "You look rather big for a boxtroll." Then she looked down at Tom. "And you look rather small." (36.19)

We've got to hand it to the rabbit women: They're smarter than the Ratbridge police. They look at the humans and rats in boxtroll disguises and think that something might not be right here. Of course, they're willing to believe that these funny-looking boxtrolls are just a different kind of boxtroll, so they're also taken in by the disguises… but hey, nobody's perfect.

Quote #9

"What do you boxtrolls know about human?" Then he paused and eyed up Willbury. "Well, maybe you're a little more human than I thought!" (44.17)

After getting away with fooling the Ratbridge police and the rabbit women, maybe Willbury was starting to think that the boxtroll disguises were perfect. However, Snatcher sees through appearances, and catches on to the fact that they're not actually boxtrolls, but rather humans and rats in disguises. Maybe it's because Snatcher's a master of disguise, or maybe he's just hard to fool.