What Happened to Rachel Riley? Quotes

“But why is it on the girls? Why is it just expected that we'll be the ones to say something and get all mad? Why can't we just depend on boys to not slap butts and snap bra straps?!”
― Claire Swinarski, What Happened to Rachel Riley?

“Who was I supposed to tell? What was I supposed to say? That kind of stuff -- it happens all the time." It did. A million and one times. Comments on butts, jokes about bra straps. ... These things were just folded into our everyday lives, part of walking and breathing and doing math homework and eating lunch. Boys taking, and girls laughing. Having to pretend to be on your phone as you walked home in the dark,”
― Claire Swinarski, What Happened to Rachel Riley?

“This is the part they leave out, in focused attempts at justice: that you will occasionally want to push it all aside and curl up for one big nap instead.”
― Claire Swinarski, What Happened to Rachel Riley?

“Everyone assumed she’d get in. That meant she knew, when she burned down the Kincaid Farms Event Barn, that she wasn’t likely going to have to put up with kids being mad at her for long. And what had she said? That it didn’t matter what you did. Nothing was going to make them stop. So why would she have written a note to Blake, saying she was going to tell on him? Answer: she wouldn’t. One other thing, too, that had been gnawing at me. How had Rachel gotten into the barn? It had a huge, heavy door. I’d seen it, at Harvest Fest and the day I tried to find Sierra. Had she broken a window and climbed in? But Rachel was short—one of the shortest girls in the eighth grade. Small, too. She’d need help—someone to lift her, or something. Could she have started the fire from the outside? But then how could it have possibly been an accident? But if she did have help, wouldn’t everybody know about it? You can have evidence, or you can have a gut feeling. Sometimes both. This was my gut, pure and simple: Rachel Riley was covering for someone. Someone else was there the night of June 4, and only Rachel Riley knew who.”
― Claire Swinarski, What Happened to Rachel Riley?

“I know everyone at school loves to share every second of their lives on Instagram, but eighth grade might be a whole lot easier if nobody were looking.”
― Claire Swinarski, What Happened to Rachel Riley?

“I know you wish the world were a fair place, Anna. But sometimes, it just doesn't work that way. Sometimes, fairness has to be demanded instead of waited for.”
― Claire Swinarski, What Happened to Rachel Riley?

“You know who you can depend on in this school? This whole stupid world? Your very own self. And that’s about it.”
― Claire Swinarski, What Happened to Rachel Riley?

“You can’t depend on people to not do bad. You can only depend on yourself to do good.”
― Claire Swinarski, What Happened to Rachel Riley?

“You can't depend on people to not do bad. You can only depend on yourself to do good. You have to rely on your own self.”
― Claire Swinarski, What Happened to Rachel Riley?

“You can't really feel safe in this world, is what I was learning. Protection is flimsy. The people who are supposed to shield you from danger might not.”
― Claire Swinarski, What Happened to Rachel Riley?