Liz

“And as she did, she told her daughter what it meant to be a wife. Gentle. Loving. Obedient. Words that made María tense. And, as if her mother could feel her stiffening, she leaned close and said, “You will learn, it is better to bend than to break.” María stared into the hearth. “Why should I be the one who bends?”
― V.E. Schwab, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

“A man comes toward her down the block. Shoulders hunched, eyes hanging on her body. Her curls are drying wild, her minidress still damp and clinging to her hips, and she knows exactly what he’s thinking. A girl like you, alone at night. Dressed like that, you’re asking for it. His hands twitch in his pockets, and then he’s close enough to meet her gaze, close enough for her to feel the menace rolling off him, the If I wanted to, I could, but she doesn’t shy back, doesn’t make herself small. She looks right into his eyes, and smiles, and whatever he sees, it’s enough to make him flinch and shuffle sideways off the curb, just to get away. And Lottie ambles on, thinking If I wanted to, I could.”
― V.E. Schwab, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

“It is romantic to be cursed, to feel like the world has it out for you. That there is a deity bored enough to disrupt your ecstasy.”
― Hanif Abdurraqib, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension

“You’ve got that look about you.” “What look?” “Well, not to be rude, but you’re all fucked up, aren’t you?”
― R.F. Kuang, Katabasis