L. Alison Heller > Quotes

“Readers are the best people,” Annie said. “Think about it: our hobby is putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes.”
― L. Alison Heller, The Neighbor's Secret

“No one is writing any condolence notes to the deceased’s parents. People blame them for creating a monster and setting him loose on the world. I think that life tends to be more complicated that. He did awful things, yes, but he was so, so young. He had his entire life ahead of him. I seem to be alone in wanting to believe there was hope for his redemption.”
― L. Alison Heller, The Neighbor's Secret

“I noticed the outfit right away. It was old-fashioned, and I heard some people fussing over it, but to me that type of thing always comes off costumey. I remember specifically thinking the choice in footwear very impractical, given that the ground was still wet from the spring snow. After the body was found, the detective said as much, that the shoes may as well have been banana peels. Anyone foolish enough to hike in them on wet rocks, he said, was basically asking to slip.”
― L. Alison Heller, The Neighbor's Secret

“Annie clocked the girl responding to his goofy chuckle, how her obsidian eyes glinted and she swallowed quickly.”
― L. Alison Heller, The Neighbor's Secret

“Life—people—did succumb to patterns and rhythms. The neighborhood was an assembly line. Miniature fungible dolls on a conveyor belt, moving in, moving out. Low-stakes drama and routines year after year.”
― L. Alison Heller, Neighbor's Secret

“Miss Marple would report it without hesitation. Same with Inspector Gamache, but justice looks a little different off the page. I’ve gotten as far as tracing the numbers on my phone. 9–1–1. Hello? I’d like to report a murder. When I imagine the flash of police lights reflecting against darkened houses, my stomach twists in objection. But when I think about letting the foothills absorb the secret, that doesn’t sit right either. I don’t know what to do.”
― L. Alison Heller, The Neighbor's Secret

“If you can concentrate on listening to another person—without your own viewpoint getting in the way, without judging or discarding or thinking of a response—for the simple purpose of taking in someone else’s reality, you start to understand her.”
― L. Alison Heller, The Never Never Sisters

“People talked, before the body was found, about their friendship. Intense, was the consensus. Mercifully brief. If anyone knows the exact nature of what happened between the two of them, no one’s talking about that. We only know that it was unhealthy. A toxic combination that shouldn’t have been allowed. Where were the parents? people whispered. How did they miss the red flags? Obviously, they’ve forgotten how sneaky teenagers can be.”
― L. Alison Heller, The Neighbor's Secret

“Sometimes when Annie took stock of what Hank and Laurel had—big family, loyal neighborhood friends, packed schedules—she understood that the secret of life was seeing your children take for granted what you had once ached for.”
― L. Alison Heller, The Neighbor's Secret