Comparison to a Toy (Simile)
“I was like one of those drum-playing rabbits you see on TV commercials. Except they'd forgotten to put the supercharged batteries in me so I was on the downhill slide.”
Tom uses this simile to give us insight into how he feels like he's presenting a false face to the world when battling the crippling effects of depression.
Icy Air (simile)
“There was tension between Kath and Mum. It was like the air went icy when they were near each other.”
Tom uses a simile that leans heavily on imagery here, describing the air as frozen between his mother and Kath. While it's obviously not actually cold, the simile points to the way that their relationship has become much less warm since the events of the previous August.
An Accident Waiting to Happen (Metaphor)
“Daniel Brennan was an accident waiting to happen.”
The people of Mumbilli use this phrase in the days after the accident to describe how they always felt that Daniel was eventually going to do something reckless. Although Tom doesn't initially consider this to be true, he comes to realize that Daniel's anger issues meant that without intervention, Daniel was bound to end up getting in trouble.
Burning Darkness (Metaphor)
“The way his eyes burned darkness and hate, and the way his top lip curled and spat obscenities that shocked and wounded.”
While it's a bit hard to imagine exactly what eyes burning darkness and hate would look like, Tom's use of metaphor here shows us exactly how angry Daniel was that night, and how the anger Daniel was dealing with was something deep and difficult to control.
Kylie's Hair (Simile)
“Kylie spent hours in the bathroom. At first, I thought she might've been throwing up but she was doing stuff to her hair. What, I couldn't tell you. It looked like she'd stuck her head in a fan then dipped it into a cement mixer.”
Tom uses this comedic simile to emphasize how much he feels like Kylie has changed over the past few months. Although he's only directly discussing her hair, the messiness of her hair also reflects the messiness of the emotions that both she and Tom must process.
