The Impossible Knife of Memory: Chapters 70–94

by Laurie Halse Anderson
After years of instability, Hayley and her father, Andy, return to Andy's hometown to make a fresh start. But Andy's PTSD from the Iraq War and Hayley's own traumatic memories threaten their ability to rebuild their lives.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–27, Chapters 28–48, Chapters 49–69, Chapters 70–94
25 words 18 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. armistice
    a state of peace agreed to between opponents
    “The armistice, the end of World War One,” Finn answered. “At eleven o’clock in the morning of November 11, 1918, all the troops on both sides stopped fighting. That’s the day we honor vets.”
  2. waver
    move back and forth very rapidly
    My dad in uniform, that’s what I kept seeing, his eyes wavering between confidence and panic.
  3. contemplate
    consider as a possibility
    The mirror showed an eruption of stress zits that made me seriously contemplate walking around with a knit cap pulled down to my chin.
  4. fascist
    relating to authoritarian hierarchical government
    They made us memorize and puke up more facts, write more useless essays according to a fascist essay formula and, above all, take tests to prepare for taking even more tests.
  5. conscientious
    guided by or in accordance with a sense of right and wrong
    My conscientious objection to most homework had put my grades in the toilet, but the only class I had outright flunked was precalc.
  6. incompatible
    not in harmonious or agreeable combination
    You’re both so weird and incompatible with anyone else that you’re perfect for each other.
  7. chisel
    carve with an edge tool
    While we were at school, someone had broken into his mom’s condo and stolen her emergency credit card (chiseled out of its hiding place in a block of frozen ice at the back of the freezer) and a pound of sliced ham.
  8. carnage
    the savage and excessive killing of many people
    I couldn’t stop the pictures in my head, explosions like a flash-bang grenade was going off behind my eyes: carnage in the street, bodies on the floor of a pizza shop, a movie theater, the county fair.
  9. grandstand
    a covered structure with tiers of seats for spectators
    Sat on the couch and watched the Hatboro-Horsham Marching Hatters perform in front of the grandstand.
  10. hysterical
    characterized by a state of violent mental agitation
    Gracie called at ten and gave me the blow-by-blow description of the battle between her parents that had caused the cancellation of the dinner. Instead of being hysterical, she spent the night finishing her applications to four universities in California.
  11. eddy
    a miniature whirlpool or whirlwind
    I became a little unstuck in time after that, drifting like a dead leaf caught in the current of a half-frozen river, bumping into rocks, spinning in slow eddies, not worrying about the waterfalls ahead.
  12. smolder
    burn slowly and without a flame
    He’d been burning his uniform. Scraps of his jacket and pants lay at the edge of the fire. The half-melted boots smoldered in the middle.
  13. sliver
    a small thin sharp bit of wood, glass, or metal
    I spent the next morning picking out glass and broken dishes from the carpet. Thousands of slivers as thin as pins, sharp on both ends, pricked my fingers.
  14. tangent
    a line that touches a curve at only one point
    In school, they were studying Homer, tangents, tonal systems, Dred Scott, and finger whorls.
  15. artillery
    large but transportable armament
    The guns sounded again, a heavy burst of artillery, and then a couple of men laughed.
  16. gaunt
    very thin, especially from disease or hunger or cold
    He had the scabby face of a tweeker, gaunt and haunted. “Not hungry.”
  17. stupor
    a state of being half-awake
    Dad would come out of his stupor to defend me and then things would get bad and bloody.
  18. bile
    a digestive juice secreted by the liver
    A wave of nausea hit me hard. I coughed, swallowed bile, and did the one thing I swore that I’d never do.
  19. gurney
    a metal stretcher with wheels
    In the end, they called an ambulance because Dad was so dehydrated. They put an IV in his arm, strapped him on a gurney, and loaded the gurney in the ambulance.
  20. modest
    humble in spirit or manner
    “Who do you think trains the Navy SEALs how to get through the water? Me,” he said modestly.
  21. backlog
    an accumulation of jobs not done or materials not processed
    The nurse was excited because the hospital had cut its backlog in half. Now it only took three months instead of six.
  22. valiantly
    with heroic courage or bravery
    I learned to love the smell of chlorine because every day after school, I’d change into a T-shirt and shorts, sit in the visitor’s gallery that overlooked the pool, and read while Finnegan Braveheart Ramos valiantly guarded the lives of the Belmont Boys Swim Team.
  23. register
    enter into someone's consciousness
    It took a few minutes to register how much time had passed and that a blanket was wrapped around my shoulders and Finn was helping me hold a cup of hot something.
  24. unravel
    become or cause to become undone by separating the fibers of
    I screamed so loud it felt like my skin split, starting at the top of my head, ripping down the front of me and down the back, unraveling the thin threads that had held me together for so long.
  25. badger
    annoy persistently
    The original plan was for me to take the spring and summer off and finish up the classes I missed next fall, but as my knee got stronger, I got restless and badgered Benedetti until she helped me cobble together classes and an independent study to get enough credits to graduate on time.
Created on Mon Jan 04 13:15:01 EST 2021 (updated Fri Jan 08 12:35:59 EST 2021)

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