“If he touches her, I swear I’m going to rip out his guts with my bare hands and send them to his next of kin for lunch.”

The first line of the text begins the characterization of Tennyson. He feels anger toward Brontë’s date with Brewster and is unafraid of physical violence to resolve his anger. He also shows how he is overly protective of Brontë, unwilling to let her live her own life and make her own mistakes.

“She does nothing much motherly or wifely anymore since Dad did some unmentionables during his midlife crisis.”

Although Tennyson jokes about his parents’ marital troubles, it also foreshadows one of the central conflicts of the text. As their relationship becomes more strained, it will not only impact Tennyson and Brontë’s lives but, more importantly, it will take an emotional and physical toll on Brewster as he calms their troubled relationship.

“[Brewster] looks like a vagrant in training. I hate him. I hate the concept of him. He’s a freight train of bad news barreling at my sister.”

This quote reflects Tennyson’s shallowness and immaturity at the start of the novel. He knows nothing about Brewster and hates him simply for his looks, assuming that he is not good enough for his sister. Ironically, Brewster becomes the exact opposite of Tennyson’s early image of him—sacrificing himself to save Brontë’s life.