"A sex tape. A pregnancy scare. Two cheating scandals. And that’s just this week’s update. If all you knew of Bayview High was Simon Kelleher’s gossip app, you’d wonder how anyone found time to go to class."
The opening lines of the novel effectively convey the setting of the story. What we’ve got here is a high school drama for the age of social media. This quote from Bronwyn appears to be setting up Simon to play the role of the villain, but then again, she obviously reads Simon’s gossip, so how trustworthy is she? The opening is effective because while the reader gets some important information quickly, there is also enough ambiguity to allow one to pause for a moment and wonder if the information in Simon's app OR her narration is reliable. Considering the title of the book, that makes for a very good opening.
"'You're all walking teen-movie stereotypes...I'm the omniscient narrator.'"
This quote develops Simon’s characterization as well as serves as foreshadowing. Simon views himself as “above” his classmates, a disembodied voice who knows more than anyone else. This could very well describe his ambition for his app, About That. At the same time, his statement that he is “all-knowing” foreshadows his suicide. He knows in advance that he will die, and that the four other teens will be viewed through the lens of their stereotypes, blamed for his murder, and dragged through the mud.
“We can’t find his EpiPen.”
Simon—the keeper (and teller) of all secrets of Bayview High—is choking with blue lips and bug eyes. And the one thing that is capable of stopping this situation from turning even worse cannot be located. The EpiPen is a life-saving necessity due to Simon’s serious allergy to peanuts. Everybody knows that. What nobody seems to know—later, after it is too late—is why Simon needed the EpiPen when nobody saw him eat anything, much less anything with peanuts.
"I got the idea for killing Simon while watching Dateline.
I’d been thinking about it for a while, obviously. That’s not the kind of thing you pluck out of thin air. But the how of getting away with it always stopped me. I don’t kid myself that I’m a criminal mastermind. And I’m much too good-looking for prison."
Nate gets a text from a friend named Chad with a link to a Tumblr post. Nobody knows who posted it. Nate's friend is laughing; he thinks it a great joke. Nate does not find it so amusing. After all, he was among the small group of students sharing detention when Simon’s allergic reaction came out of nowhere and his EpiPen was nowhere to be found. As a suspect, Nate is not amused at all.
This quote shows the blogger, later revealed to be Jake, framing the other students. He suggests that the killer has a motive that is longstanding, suggesting Simon may have had dirt on them. Furthermore, he implies that the killer is "good looking," an adage that could apply to any of the suspects. Finally, even making the post shows a high degree of coldness and arrogance. While the suspects do not have these traits, Jake certainly does.
“There are four kids involved...and every single one of them except you is backed by parents who are materially comfortable and present in their children's lives. You're the obvious outlier and scapegoat.”
This relates to the themes of the criminal justice system. Although Officer Lopez is a member of law enforcement, she knows full well that the law does not only punish the guilty. Because Nate is young and poor, he lacks the resources to defend himself. The criminal justice system favors those who know its rules and can bend them. She advises him to be aware of his structural position, and to prepare himself for close scrutiny. Her words turn out to contain foreshadowing, as he is eventually arrested.
"If it ever came out that I'd actually done something to Simon, plenty of people would hate me. But there'd also be people who'd make excuses for me, and say there must be more to my story than just getting accused of using steroids. The thing is, they'd be right."
This relates to the theme of the criminal justice system as well as to the novel’s commentary on privilege. Although Cooper is gay, he is also a white male. He knows that people will always make excuses for him, even if he is guilty of murder. At the same time, he knows that people would “be right” if they said there was more to him, a nod to his identity as an LGBT individual. Indeed, when Cooper is outed to his classmates, he suffers the kind of discrimination that was previously unfamiliar, and worries it will affect his chance to play baseball professionally.
"Sexism is alive and well in true-crime coverage, because Bronwyn and I aren't nearly as popular with the general public as Cooper and Nate."
This quote relates to the novel’s interest in stereotypes and structural bias. While Cooper and Nate are viewed as sexy and mysterious when they are under suspicion for murder, Bronwyn and Addy get different treatment. When men are accused of crimes, it is associated with masculinity; even school shooters have fans. Women, however, are viewed as monstrous. This is just one way in which Bronwyn and Addy’s gender presents challenges that are different than Cooper and Nate’s.
"The whole thing barely took a minute—just enough time for one of our classmates to record a phone video that wound up on TMZ that night. They ran it in slo-mo with the song 'Kids' by MGMT playing in the background, like we’re some kind of hip high school murder club without a care in the world. The thing went viral within a day."
The novel is a high-school drama as well as a murder mystery. Unifying both of those elements is the focus on social media and the slippery way that it can transform from a tool allowing a teen to control their identity to an infernal machine defining identity for you. Each member of the “murder club” begins as a kind of stereotype, but each is gradually revealed to be something much more complex, and those hidden reserves of character reflect how social media inhabits nearly every waking moment as a means to exploit and be exploited; to seek fame and become infamous; to share gossip and be gossiped about.
The disconnect between TMZ's portrayal of the four teens and their insecure, fearful realities displays this disconnect.
"You find out who your real friends are when stuff like this happens. Turns out I didn't have any, but I'm glad Cooper does."
This relates to the novel’s themes of gossip and truth. Although Addy and Cooper both conceal the same truth from their friends—they were cheating—they are treated differently. Addy’s friends call her a slut and openly attack her on the track, tripping her. Meanwhile, Cooper’s friend Luis is understanding. Of course, the situations are somewhat different, in that Cooper has been closeted. However, this double omission (cheating and sexuality) does not affect his friendships. When you have “true” friends, Addy implies, gossip can be taken with a grain of salt, and even hidden truths do not end a friendship.
"I think a lot about Simon and about what the media called his 'aggrieved entitlement'—the belief that he was owed something he didn't get, and everyone should pay for it. It's almost impossible to understand, except by that corner of my brain that pushed me to cheat for validation."
This novel thinks about the effect of structural inequality on teenagers. Simon is not in a position of structural inequality; as a straight white male, he benefits more from the dominant social structures than the four teens he frames. However, he is not as popular as Cooper, as handsome as Nate, or as academically gifted as Bronwyn. He believes he is entitled to everything they have, and when he does not get it, he kills himself and seeks revenge. This can be seen as evidence of the way that “toxic masculinity” harms everyone, including men themselves.
