"The universe is against us, which makes sense. So we get another McFlurry and talk about how fat we are for a while."
This quote, from the perspective of the main character, Lizzy, reveals her state of mind about her weight in high school when the book first starts. She believes (along with Mel, her also-overweight friend) that the universe is against them, and their weight is a curse laid on them by destiny. She hasn't yet grasped the fact that the size of one's body doesn't matter as much as one's inward character, which is a lesson she learns at the end of the last story.
"There was always that shadowy twin, thin when I was fat, fat when I was thin, myself in silvery negative, with dark teeth and shining white pupils glowing in the black sunlight of that other world."
This epigraph, taken from Margaret Atwood's novel Lady Oracle, reveals the central message of the book's plot. It foreshadows Liz's transformation from fat to skinny and back again, all the while looking for what would truly make her happy. This quote reveals the "grass is always greener" aspect of body image: no body shape will make you truly and completely happy, as Liz finds out while watching the woman pedaling in the gym as it burns down around her.
“Even though I know that woman must hear the sirens through the glass enclosure of the Malibu Club, she keeps pedaling. As I watch her through the glass, breathing in Char’s smoke, I feel dangerously close to a knowledge that is probably already ours for the taking, a knowledge that I know could change everything.”
These are the last lines of the novel, and they indirectly reference the entire point of the novel. This final sentence is as close as Liz gets to the realization of this everything-changing knowledge, which is this: people are so caught up with keeping up their physical appearances that they waste their lives and miss out on the things that are truly important, choosing to sacrifice to maintain their perceived beauty as their lives deteriorate and finally end. Body type has absolutely no bearing on your happiness when it is placed in the right source.
