How does the author use metaphor in the novel, Unteachable?

The author uses similes and metaphors often throughout the text. For instance, at one point in the novel Maise describes her mother’s voice as a “raven screech” she also says the light that hits her face when the windows are opened in her bedroom as “holocaust sunlight.” During a rainy day Maise describes the world as looking “like an ashtray full of soft soggy grayness.” Instead of saying that her mother breaks things when they have arguments, Maise says these arguments cause “molecular destabilization of household appliances.”