Specificity
Metaphors and similes sometime work best when they are a bit on the vague side. On the other hand, precise specificity in the imagery can really make the comparison offered through the simile really hit the mark. This is an example where it is practically impossible to hear something in your mind:
“Like three times a day the fridge makes this noise like a skeleton trying to eat a bag of quarters, but we’re pretty sure it’s fine,” Niko says.
Universality
On the other hand, a vaguer sense of universality can also work in the mode of metaphor. Who hasn’t felt the way being described in the following example at one time or another? And if by chance you are one those who haven’t, good for you!
“There’s this feeling August has had everywhere she’s ever lived, like she’s not really there. Like it’s all happening in a dream. She walks down the street, and it’s like she’s floating a few inches off the pavement, never rooted down.”
Jane
Jane is the mysterious young woman trapped on the subway, caught between the past and the present, of both but belonging to neither. The protagonist, August, is instantly captivated by her and quickly falls head over heels. Metaphor offers partial insight into this obsessive affection:
“Jane is lightning on long legs—the dark never stood a chance.”
Hero Worship
That obsessive affection is based not just on looks or physical attraction, but on something deeper and central to Jane’s personality. It is her character that draws August from mere love to hero worship:
“…you’re movies and destiny and every stupid, impossible thing…because you fight and you care and you’re always kind but never easy”
Before Jane
Life before Jane for August was also an example of being stuck in time. She was dragged by her obsessive mother into finding out what happened to her missing uncle. This became a private investigation that consumed most of August’s childhood:
“There was a time when Uncle Augie loomed like Clark Kent in her childhood, this mysterious hero to be chased through squares of public record forms like comic book panels.”
