His heart feels like the raw meat it is. It feels like something peeled and bleeding. It feels the way it feels when his mother left.
-- Third-Person Narrator (Violets)

Importance: This is the first time that the narration elaborates on Futh's feelings regarding his mother's abandonment. It also connects his feelings about his separation from Angela to his feelings about his mother's abandonment. Since Alison Moore rarely provides insight into the character's emotional lives, this vivid simile provides the reader with a striking sense of the pain that Futh feels. His heart's protective surface has been stripped away, and it is raw and bare to the pain that sears him from within.

He is turned toward her, the ends of his fingers resting on her arm, just touching her, his butterfly still reaching for her spoiling rose.
-- Third-Person Narrator (Breasts)

Importance: This scene describes the sexual encounter between Ester and the question mark in room ten. Their tattoos...