Hello Stranger: A Novel

“It’s a disorienting thing to know there’s something wrong with you. It made everything about my life seem different. Worse. False. Like I’d been misunderstanding everything all along.”

Sadie expresses her emotional turmoil after the diagnosis of her face blindness and her sense of confusion and destabilization, as her condition makes her question her understanding of the world. The juxtaposition of "worse" and "false" highlights that her perception of herself and her life has shifted toward negativity and self-doubt. Sadie reveals her deep fear that her reality has been distorted, not just by her condition but also by her mind. This passage symbolizes identity and perception as Sadie struggles to reconcile who she is with the changes she faces due to her medical condition.

“I felt the bitter longing that always seeped through me whenever I really missed my mom. It stood off to the side of all other feelings, damp and cold- as if my soul had been rained on and couldn’t seem to dry out.”

This passage employs vivid imagery and personification to convey Sadie’s deep, lingering grief over her mother’s death. The sensory language evokes the inescapable weight of tangible sorrow and emotional pain. The metaphor of her longing standing alone separates it from the rest of her emotions, emphasizing that her grief exists in a persistent, isolated state. The comparison of her soul to something “rained on” personifies her sadness, as if it’s a physical presence that has soaked into her being, leaving her perpetually cold and damp.

“My entire life up until now had been a before. And now I was in the after.”

Using a stark temporal division to highlight a profound shift in Sadie’s life, the contrasting wording symbolizes a pivotal moment that irrevocably alters her reality. This marks a clear separation between her past and present. The brevity of the statement reflects the suddenness and the weight of this transformation, as she views her current situation as a new chapter, with everything that came before feeling distant or irrelevant. This division emphasizes the emotional impact of crossing into an unfamiliar phase of life.

“I squinted and concentrated and tried to make the pieces click for so long that frustration finally burst up out of my body like a geyser.”

This vivid simile and personification emphasize the intensity of Sadie’s frustration. The comparison to an explosion illustrates the sudden, uncontrollable eruption of emotion with force and volatility. The sensory language conveys Sadie’s physical strain, reflecting how hard she pushes herself mentally. Painting, which once came so naturally, is now a puzzle or problem that eludes her, symbolizing her struggle to comprehend or resolve something in her life.

“[W]e tend to decide on what the world is and who people are and how things are—and then we look for evidence that supports what we’ve already decided. And we ignore everything that doesn’t fit.”

Dr. Nicole explains cognitive bias, mainly how people often form fixed perceptions and selectively interpret reality to fit their beliefs, an ordinary human flaw. She wants Sadie to understand the sweeping scope of these judgments and how people shape their understanding of everything around them. The contrasting language demonstrates how selective attention distorts reality, reinforcing existing preconceptions rather than challenging them. Dr. Nicole urges Sadie to avoid limiting and skewing her understanding of the world by not seeing beyond her biases.

“So weird to think that this feeling had been there all along—hibernating in a box under my bed, just waiting for me to wake it up.”

The metaphor and personification express the reawakening of a long-buried emotion when Sadie slips on her mother’s roller skates. These feelings were dormant and hidden away, emphasizing how Sadie has suppressed her grief over time. The passage personifies the emotion, giving it a sense of agency and certainty as if it has been patiently waiting for the right moment to resurface. This passage highlights the complexity of emotions and how they can reemerge unexpectedly.

“But the acoustics in my head weren’t great. The voice sounded tinny and echoey like I was at the bottom of a well.”

The vivid auditory imagery and simile describe Sadie's internal experience of disconnection as she gets physically closer to Joe and attempts to distance herself from her growing feelings emotionally. The passage compares her thoughts to an unfamiliar sound, underscoring her confusion and difficulty processing emotions. Describing the voice in her head enhances the sense of distortion. This quote emphasizes her alienation from her inner voice and reinforces this disconnection, establishing a feeling of being trapped far from clarity.

“How long had it been since I’d had someone to hold on to?”

Though Sadie tries to distance herself from her attraction to Joe emotionally, riding his Vespa puts her in forced proximity to him as she wraps her hands around him, and she can’t deny the sensation feels good. The moment of physical closeness causes Sadie to realize her need for physical and emotional intimacy. However, just as speeding around on a Vespa can be dangerous, opening herself up to vulnerability frightens her.

“He didn’t even know how much I was counting on him to be the fantasy-man mirage that kept me moving through my personal emotional desert.”

When Sadie perceives Dr. Addison has stood her up, she realizes her emotional vulnerability and reliance on her fantasy of him. Likening Dr. Addison to a mirage highlights how she has idealized him, turning him into an illusion representing hope and comfort in her life. Ironically, Dr. Addison isn’t who she thinks he is. The hyperbolic phrase accentuates how much she has invested in this fantasy, underscoring the pain of disappointment when reality doesn’t meet her expectations.

“And that’s when I smelled Poison.”

This passage uses sensory imagery to evoke a sudden and striking realization through scent. By focusing on the specific smell of Poison and referencing the well-known perfume, the moment represents an emotional trigger connected to Parker. It symbolizes the ways Parker has poisoned Sadie’s life. Smelling Parker even though she can’t see her adds a layer of tension and foreshadowing, as Sadie knows it means trouble is ahead. This quote contributes to Overcoming Emotional Obstacles in Relationships, as Sadie must navigate challenging interpersonal dynamics with individuals like Parker.

“That’s the dark underbelly of hope that nobody ever talks about. How it can skew your perspective. How it can keep you in long past when any reasonable person would’ve been out.”

Through metaphor and personification, this passage explores the dual nature of hope, suggesting that, while often viewed positively, it can also have negative, hidden consequences. The metaphor implies that hope can be deceptive, blinding people to reality, and personifies hope as something that distorts judgment and can lead to irrational decisions or prolonged suffering. Sadie’s attitude emphasizes hope’s power to make her hold on to situations, even when they are no longer healthy or sustainable.

“I felt like the day was positively bullying me.”

Personifying the chaotic day as if it were a being capable of torturing her gives Sadie somewhere to place the blame for all that’s going wrong. This gives her a feeling of agency when everything feels out of her control. Sadie attributes human traits of aggression and dominance to time, illustrating how external circumstances weigh heavily on her. She feels targeted, powerless, and persistently attacked by the events of her life and must find Resilience Through Overcoming Challenges.

“[T]ell the story of this moment in your life. Try to capture your world right now, cracked open, exactly the way it is. Capture the chaos and the uncertainty and the longing.”

Sue emphasizes to Sadie the importance of authenticity and vulnerability in her art. She encourages her to embrace the rawness of her current experience, acknowledging that life’s imperfections are what make it meaningful. Though it’s an act of emotional exposure, it’s freeing. Pursuing authenticity in her art allows Sadie to confront her challenges and uncertainties head-on and express complex emotions rather than hiding behind a polished façade.

“[T]he whole experience was full-immersion pleasure—both physically and creatively. Shimmering with possibility. Rich and buttery with satisfaction. Igniting my attention in some very special way.”

Sadie has an emotional and physical response to touching Joe’s face, and it becomes an all-encompassing experience that captivates her body and mind. The passage uses tactile and taste imagery to evoke a sense of warmth, indulgence, and comfort, underscoring how fulfilling this moment feels for Sadie. The sensory language conveys the spark of attraction and emotional awakening that this touch triggers, revealing a deeper connection with Joe beyond physical touch. It highlights the blossoming of new possibilities in both Sadie’s emotional life and her creative world.

“Dr. Addison had only ever been a romantic daydream […] the notion of a love match. He was the suggestion of future happiness. He was pure fantasy.”

Symbolically, Dr. Addison represents unattainable ideals and embodies Sadie’s romanticized vision of happiness and love. The fantasy was never a real option but rather a projection of what Sadie hoped to find in love. This underscores how people sometimes cling to illusions rather than face reality. The irony lies in the fact that, while Sadie pinned her hopes on an idealized version of Dr. Addison as the magical solution to her problems, she was unknowingly connecting to the real version of him through Joe. Thus, Sadie’s face blindness forces her to recognize how she is disconnecting from reality. This teaches her to release illusions and embrace more grounded, authentic relationships, Exploring Identity Beyond External Appearances.

“Every real human interaction is made up of a million tiny moving pieces. Not a simple one-note situation: a symphony of cues to read and decipher and evaluate and pay attention to.”

Sadie’s experience teaches her to appreciate the complexity of human interactions. The passage highlights that every conversation or relationship involves subtle, interconnected elements by comparing social exchanges to symphonies. Human interactions are dynamic and layered, much like the intricate harmonies of a musical composition. Each gesture, tone, and expression carries meaning that must be interpreted, requiring careful navigation. Losing the ability to read facial expressions reveals to Sadie that communication and interactions are never straightforward but are filled with nuance, much like humans.

“They had decided decades ago who Parker and I both were—and those decisions had hardened into stone by now.”

Though Parker is Sadie’s primary antagonist, she realizes their family’s opinions about the stepsisters were formed long ago, and they have been unable or unwilling to update these judgments as Sadie and Parker have grown into adulthood. Comparing the decision to hardened stone evokes a sense of immutability, reinforcing how powerless Sadie feels in her family dynamic. This imagery conveys the emotional distance between Sadie and her father and stepmother. It illustrates how their inability to see Parker’s true intentions harms Sadie.

“I thought the only way to be close was to stay far away.”

Paradox and juxtaposition express the complex emotional truth in Sadie’s epiphany. She verbalizes the tension between emotional intimacy and physical or emotional distance and how maintaining distance is a form of self-protection. While distance can protect from emotional hardship, paradoxically, without the pain of intimacy, humans can’t grow closer.

“I didn’t want people to feel sorry for me—or to be broken or changed or different. I didn’t want to not be okay.”

Sadie fears people perceiving her as weak or different. The repetition emphasizes her strong desire to control how others see her and her discomfort with people pitying her or seeing her as fragile. The passage uses a triad of negative attributes to convey her fear of others viewing her as less capable. This repetition of adverse conditions highlights her internal struggle with identity and acceptance of her situation. The final line uses a double negative to emphasize her desperation to maintain normalcy and self-sufficiency. This captures the tension between Sadie's internal turmoil and her external desire to appear strong despite her challenges.

“And there I was. Me. Peering curiously at the mirror. All put back together as if I’d never been apart.”

This passage captures Sadie’s reclamation of identity as she can see her face again. It’s the same face, yet the person behind it has changed. She is simultaneously surprised and affirmed that she can recognize and accept her identity after a literal and metaphorical fragmentation period. This passage signifies Sadie reclaiming her identity through the joy of seeing herself again, reinforcing the novel’s explorations of resilience and self-acceptance.

“I’d lost everything, in a way. But then found other things. In other ways.”

Sadie has experienced profound changes that have made her feel like she is starting from scratch. However, the contrast reveals a shift in her perspective to a sense of hope and resilience, an active search for meaning, and new beginnings. The passage conveys the duality of her experiences, illustrating that loss does not negate the possibility of discovery. It shows that while some aspects may be lost, new things can emerge.

“I’d seen them all before—in pieces. And here they were, miraculously together and adding up to far more than the sum of their parts.”

Until now, Sadie has had fragmented perceptions of Joe as she’s had glimpses of his character, but they were insufficient to form a complete picture. The full recognition of Joe's face and Sadie’s awakening to the richness of his identity feel magical as they reveal something more profound about him. The mathematical imagery expresses how her holistic view of Joe transcends his features. It reinforces that true understanding comes from seeing the complete person rather than isolated traits.

“Standing at the rim of this realization like it was the Grand Canyon— astonished and breathless and awestruck.”

Sadie emotionally reacts to the realization that Joe is Dr. Addison, and comparing it to a meteoric crater compounds its significance. It is as if Sadie is on the verge of a significant discovery, peering into a beautiful and overwhelming revelation, much like the awe-inspiring view of the Grand Canyon. The wording emphasizes different facets of her reaction, such as surprise, disbelief, and a sense of wonder, highlighting the complexity of her feelings as she comprehends the enormity of this new understanding.