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“History and memory are unreliable narrators, especially in Bourne.”

This quote speaks to the town’s history with Belsum Chemical, the lies and unethical practices of which have irreparably damaged Bourne’s water supply and harmed its population. The statement also emphasizes that it is difficult to know Bourne’s true history because many secret business dealings have never been represented accurately.

“Plus idioglossia. It comes from the Greek -idio, meaning personal, yours alone in all the world; glossia meaning tongue. If you’re a doctor, ‘idioglossia’ means speech so unformed or distorted it’s unintelligible. I can’t articulate much more than a single, wide syllable, and even that you probably wouldn’t understand. But if you’re a linguist, idioglossia means private language, one developed and understood exclusively by a tiny number of very close speakers, the secret language of twins. It is raised, in our case, to the power of three.”

Here, Mirabel describes the way that her congenital abnormality has impacted her speech. Despite her difficulties with speech, she is perfectly intelligible to her sisters, and this speaks to the theme of resilience and self-determination. Mirabel might not speak like other people, but this does not limit her communication or her intellect. Indeed, she is a true genius, and with the aid of her voice software, she is even able to communicate with people outside of her immediate family.

“There’s a ban at Bourne Memorial High School on the word ‘normal’ and I get their point, but it’s not like kids don’t know how adults see them, here and everywhere.”

This quote highlights Frankel’s interest in critiquing the mainstream, ableist usage of the word “normal.” As she illustrates in this text, everyone is an individual in their own right, and such arbitrary classification systems are outdated and not particularly useful. In spite of that, individuals who do not conform to stereotypical understandings of “normal” are often stigmatized, and the school in Bourne is trying to create a culture in which that kind of discrimination is simply not tolerated.