How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
…"[The opal miner] started this all off, like someone lighting a fuse on a firework. His death lit the touchpaper. The thing that's exploding right now, that isn't him. That's somebody else. Something else." (3.60)
We get pretty scared when Lettie goes all vague on us. That's not to say that she's typically forthcoming with a ton of information, but when she starts throwing around phrases like "something else" without clarification, we can pretty much assume it's a bad thing and she's trying to protect us from wetting our pants in fear.
Quote #5
Ursula Monkton smiled, and the lightnings wreathed and writhed about her. She was power incarnate, standing in the crackling air. She was the storm, she was the lightning, she was the adult world with all its power and all its secrets and all its foolish casual cruelty. (8.101)
One of the definitions of supernatural states that it is "departing from what is usual or normal especially so as to appear to transcend the laws of nature." Yeah, we're pretty sure this manifestation of Ursula Monkton qualifies.
Quote #6
"I'm not saying you're not. But snippage … well, you couldn't do that. Not yet. You'd have to cut the edges out exactly, sew them back without the seam showing. And what would you cut out? The flea won't let you snip her. She's not in the fabric. She's outside of it." (9.38)
This "snippage" stuff seems pretty difficult, but it's nice to see that all of the amazing skills these women have seem to be earned rather than just inborn. Part of it definitely has to do with their heritage, otherwise one wouldn't know where to find an authentic mandrake root, but Lettie's been around for longer than we can imagine and she's still not ready for "snippage."