"Your Dad is a Mad Man"
When Levi realizes that Cath's father is an advertising executive he excitedly references the popular television series "Mad Men" that follows the lives of advertising executives in the early 1960s. This is ironic as her father actually is a mad man who has just been released from a psychiatric hospital.
Cath and Wren's Life At Home versus College
Cath observes that it would be weird for their high school friends to see one of them turn up somewhere without the other. Ironically their college friends would find it weird for them to arrive somewhere together, demonstrating the 180 degree difference in their life at college from their life at home.
The Twins' Mom Leaving On September 11th
Cath finds this fact both embarrassing and indicative of her mother's total lack of empathy for the rest of the world; however, ironically as September 11th saw thousands of lives destroyed on a large scale, Laura's leaving on that day had a catastrophic effect on her daughter's lives too, crumbling their sense if normality to its foundations, and destroying them emotionally in a way that traumatized them for the rest of their life.
Cath's Passion For The Written Word and Levi's Problems With Reading
Cath lives for the written word, taking a fiction writing course, voraciously reading, and writing fan fiction for her favorite fictional character, Simon Snow. Ironically Levi is just as passionate about not reading, going so far as to record his lectures rather than making notes; their opposite views on reading ironically are the catalyst for bringing them together in a relationship.
Cath and Wren's College Experience
The twins' college experience is ironic in many ways; Wren, outgoing and popular, successful and very popular with boys, was excited for the next chapter in their lives and anticipated a successful college experience. By contrast Cath dreaded the experience, hated new things and was inept when it came to making friends. The irony of this was that Wren barely completed the year, had an irreconcilable argument with her room-mate and also developed an alcohol problem, whilst Cath had a best friend, a boyfriend and a GPA of 4.0.
