Mortal Engines (The Hungry City Chronicles, #1)

by Philip Reeve

Strange, how when he lived there he had believed everything the Goggle-screens told him about the city’s elegant lines, its perfect beauty. Now he saw that it was ugly;

At the sight of her ruined face the men on the dais froze, as if her gaze had turned them all to stone.

“You aren’t a hero, and I’m not beautiful, and we probably won’t live happily ever after,” she said. “But we’re alive, and together, and we’re going to be all right.”