01UndatedDearest Jessamin,I have not had a letter from you in a month. (You are a terrible daughter.) I blame the slowness of the boats and hate the distance between us. (How could you leave me?)Your cousin Jacabo responded to my inquiries after your well-being with only the vaguest of terms. (I threatened Jacky Boy if he did not update me on your life.) I take this to mean you have seen him regularly and have also forbidden him from updating me on your life in the big city. (Why are you spending your time with him when he is clearly not running in the right circles?)How are your studies? Have you met anyone interesting? (Why have you not given me news of your father?)I suspect you do not write because you have found someone. (Please, please tell me you have found someone.) I know it. (I beg the spirits for it each night.) A mother can feel these things. (I will drag you back to the island and force you into marriage if you do not take care of it yourself.) Please tell me whether he is of a good family and when I can expect happy tidings to share with my friends. (Do not do anything I cannot crow about to the neighbors.) I knew you would not be on your own for long. (Give me grandchildren. Soon.) Dear Henry has asked after you, though, so if you are lonely you know you have many options here. (I pestered Henry until he finally asked after you and took it as a sign he still wishes to marry you.)Write me soon or I will perish for want of daughterly affection. (You are a terrible daughter.)All my love, (All my love,)MamaKiersten White / quote ↗
02UndatedChristmas Eve is my favorite... I think the anticipation is more fun than anything else. I kind of lost that. The idea that something - food, traditions, an arbitrary date on the calendar - can be special because we decide it should be. We make it special. Not just for ourselves, but for others.Kiersten White / quote ↗
03UndatedThe door opens with a rusted jingle, and an animatronic Santa insults my moral virtue three times. Ho, ho, ho.Kiersten White / quote ↗
04UndatedFabulous" Jack said, reaching down and plucking a crimson flower. A small scream sounded from it as he severed the stem. He smiled maliciously, then started stomping with abandon through the beds of blossoms, a chorus of tinny, shrill screams punctuating every step.Kiersten White / quote ↗
05UndatedMarry me, Lada. It is the perfect solution." Lada laughed. Mehmed's smile grew, until he realized her laugh was not a sweet breeze of delight, but a brutal desert wind carrying stinging sand in its wake. "I will never marry.Kiersten White / quote ↗
08UndatedCole gets up and then says, “Adam. Five texts. I can read them to you.” He pauses. “Unless they’re personal.” I roll my eyes. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m pretty sure he’s desperately in love with my sister.” Cole snorts. “He’s crazy.” “He’d have to be, right?Kiersten White / quote ↗
10UndatedCrazy must run in your family,” he says.“You do know Fia!” I blurt, then bite my lip.Kiersten White / quote ↗
12UndatedI closed my eyes. I used to think I was protecting the world, too. But it wasn't that simple. Nothing was. Who were we to decide that anyone or anything didn't deserve the spark of life they had been given?Kiersten White / quote ↗
13UndatedA brother,” she said, her voice soft.The baby started to cry, a weak, garbled sound that worried the nurse. Lada’s scowl deepened. She slapped a dimpled hand over his mouth. The nurse pulled him away quickly, and Lada looked up, face contorted in rage.“Mine!” she shouted.It was her first word.The nurse laughed, shocked, and lowered the baby once more. Lada glared at him until he stopped crying. Then, apparently satisfied, she toddled out of the room.Kiersten White / quote ↗
15UndatedIf you are too weak to stand being hit and too stupid to avoid it, then you deserve more pain.Kiersten White / quote ↗
18UndatedI wash myself clean of guilt, of pain, of fear, of emotion. I am the ocean. I am empty. I am nothing.Kiersten White / quote ↗
19UndatedI don’t want to think about things like normal and safe, things I can’t have.Kiersten White / quote ↗
21UndatedMy bed is massive (I drown in it, and it doesn’t matter how big the bed is, my nightmares more than fill it)Kiersten White / quote ↗
22UndatedI think happy thoughts and feel happy things and I do not let myself near the swirling black edges of the hole that is my soul when I look at them.Kiersten White / quote ↗
23UndatedThere is no such thing as cheating. There is only winning or losing.Kiersten White / quote ↗
24UndatedWhere did you find that one?""I have no idea. I'm a magnet for crazies, I guess.""They must be able to sense a kindred spirit.""Your one to talk. Don't you have more hordes of the undead to lead in a glorious revolution?""Zombies not undead. There's a fine distinction. And no. Right now I'm scouting new talent. The glorious revolution comes tomorrow.Kiersten White / quote ↗
