The Liar's Girl Quotes

“And I actually think that’s probably not that unusual a reaction. I mean, that’s why cars slow down when they’re passing a traffic accident, right? Or why people watch true-crime documentaries, or read books about Ted Bundy. This stuff is, in a weird way, exciting. Right?’ ‘You think that’s what Liz is?’ I said. ‘Excited?”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“We let our fathers carry our stuff up into our new rooms and our mothers make up our beds with new linen, something we probably wouldn’t do in a few months’ time after a single gender studies module convinced us we knew more about the world than our parents had learned from decades of living in it.”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“Not just because of what I’d said to Liz, but because this feeling now – this pain – wasn’t pure grief. It was shame, too. Regret. Guilt. Embarrassment. It was about me. My pain was egocentric. Thinking about myself first and foremost, even now. Which only made me feel more of those things. At some point”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“She doesn’t understand, that’s the problem. Young girls today, they’re so careless. They don’t realise what kind of creeps are out there, what those monsters might do with all this information they’re volunteering, posting out there in the world. He’d tried telling them, taking them aside and explaining it to them, but then they just mistook him for being one of those.”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“Momentum was what was with me. Figuring out the waitlist connection, talking to Heather, putting everything together – it felt like a rush, a flood of adrenalin that was still pulsing through my veins, urging me not to sit”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“On the flight on the way here I’d overheard the passengers seated in front of me talking about how affordable rental properties were so scarce in Dublin, people on shift-work were time-sharing bedsits.”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“It’s when you have a friend,’ Amanda said, ‘who is really nice, like, most of the time, but then they’ll suddenly say something mean or rude, like a little jab, a little sting, and then they just carry on as if nothing has happened and you’re left there thinking, Did something just happen or am I imagining it? Didn’t you ever see Bridget Jones?”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“I was just so tired of this, of Liz’s little mood swings. When she was happy, she was such fun to be around. We were best friends, really. I felt better after seeing her.”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“You know what’s funny?’ He laughed now, a soulless, mechanical sound. ‘All this time, I’m sitting here thinking that I hurt you, and it turns out that you fucking did this to me.’ His face crumpled. ‘You did this to me. I loved you and you’re the one who did this to me …”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“It was about the size of a half-dozen egg carton, and just as clunky. Sharp corners, thick buttons, sliding switches (switches!) and a matchbox-sized screen. Its dull grey case was heavily scratched and the strap was missing. I pressed the ON button but nothing happened, the batteries inside long dead.”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“Jesus Christ.’ I stood up and started making a loop around the table, just because I couldn’t stay still any more. ‘Are you serious? Your big concern here is that I don’t have a boyfriend? Not everyone wants the same things, Mam. And guess what? It’s not the fucking Fifties.”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“Because of bad memories. Because of the constant threat of someone realising who I am and asking me about him. Because every girl I went to school with, it seemed to me, had efficiently done all the things you’re supposed to do by now – get coupled up, borrow the price of a house, add to the population – leaving me standing out like some unwanted, spinster thumb. Because”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“I was therefore absolved of all responsibility when it came to determining his guilt. All I had to do was accept the verdict of the ones who were responsible for such decisions and as nonsensical as it had once seemed to me, I didn’t see that I had any choice but to do exactly that. ‘I don’t see why – or how – him suddenly changing his mind ten years later changes anything.”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“Did he really think I’d escaped all this intact? That I could love him and he could kill people and then I could just go on and live a normal life? That I could have those things now, no harm done? Didn’t he realise what he’d done?”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“Because you might manage to save a life this time, instead of being responsible for the taking of five because you were too stupid, too naïve, too in love to see that the boy in your bed was a murderous psychopath.”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“was armed and ready to blame Detective Malone. He’d guilted me into it, made me feel like I’d have those girls’ blood on my hands too if I didn’t fly back here and talk to Will. And coming here was the right thing to do. Wasn’t it?”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“If you mean deaths in the parish and the year on next-door’s car, then yeah. As for actual news, no.’ I looked from one detective to the other. ‘Why don’t you just tell me what’s happened because obviously something has?”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“I went here.’ I took another sip of my drink, forgetting that it tasted like something they make you drink in a hospital”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“You know “lucky charms” is more of an American thing, right? A breakfast cereal? We don’t actually say that.’ ‘Is a rant about “Patty’s Day” coming next?”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“He can’t let her go by herself. And he won’t, because he’s a gentleman. A gentleman who doesn’t let young girls walk home alone from parties when they’ve been drinking enough to forget their coat, bag and – he lifts the flap on the little velvet envelope, checks inside – keys, college ID and phone too.”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl

“Jen is growing uncomfortable. Her brow is furrowed. He watches as she clasps her hands between her thighs and hunches her shoulders. She shifts her weight on the couch. Her gaze fixes on each of the three smokers in turn, studying their faces. Does she know any of them? She turns her head to take in the rest of the room— And stops. She’s seen them.”
― Catherine Ryan Howard, The Liar's Girl