The first time my mom told me liars didn't go to heaven was when she tried to get me to confess to hitting my eight-year-old brother.
-- Rachel (chapter 1 paragraph 1)

Importance: This quote sets the tone for entire novel. This one sentence reveals how the family members interact with each other. Rachel's mother tries to raise good children, She tries to teach Rachel that it's not good to lie. Readers wonder how much this threat, the idea of not getting into heaven, deters Rachel from lying or any other type of bad behavior, because Rachel says that this is what her mother said the first time. That means that she must have had to say it several other times. Readers later find out that that indeed, this threat didn't keep Rachel from lying. Maybe Rachel and her brother aren't as good as their mother thinks they are.It also introduces the concept of believing in...