“Everyone is faking it, all of them pretending to be something they’re not. The whole world is built on lies and deceit.”
This quote points to the extent of deceit and hypocrisy among the characters in Shari Lapena's The Couple Next Door. In the novel, most of the characters are hypocritical. Anne has to hide her anger towards Marco; on the other hand, Marco pretends to not be involved with his daughter's kidnapping. Additionally, Richard driven by his greed kills Derek so that he can have all the money to himself. The narrator thus uses this quote to allude to the extent of moral decadence and hypocrisy in the novel.
“She knows how judgmental mothers are, how good it feels to sit in judgement of someone else.”
This quote brings to the reader's attention Anne's guilt following her action of leaving her six-month-old baby in her home all alone without a baby sitter. Additionally, it also sheds light on the condemnatory and disapproving behavior of the mothers in Anne's group. Also, the quote presents the ironical nature of Anne's actions, that is, leaving her daughter in the house alone despite being aware at the same time of how irresponsible of her it was to do the same.
“The wife is always the last to know, right?”
The quote alludes to Anne's implicit lack of trust with regard to her husband (Marco) as well as Marco's secretive, deceptive and hypocritical character. This is after Anne finds Marco's extra phone hidden in their house with a pattern as a security code to restrict access to its contents.
