Crypt of the Moon Spider (Lunar Gothic Trilogy, #1)

by Nathan Ballingrud

He says you have failed to attend to the responsibilities of a wife. He believes such behavior is corrosive to your marriage.”

“Your husband doesn’t believe you’re going to get better. He doesn’t believe he’ll ever see you again. He’s left you here to wither and die.”

we reach into your brain and scoop out what’s rotten. We then stitch something better into its place.”

The thought crawled out of the wet black loam of her brain like some horrid new insect. It scrabbled unchecked through her mind, eating everything clean and good in her, laying clutches of wet, mucousy eggs in its stead.

She wondered if the top of her skull had been knocked loose, imagined it rolling like a dropped coin down the hallway.

It had been cored from his head like a bruise from an apple, and he had nothing left but the memory of its shape. And even as he acknowledged this, that memory too began to fade.

“Your father tells you pretty dreams because he thinks girls need them. They don’t. What they need is the truth. When you get older you’re going to marry a man—with means, if we’re at all lucky—and make a family. And God help you if you ever become a burden to them.”

“When what you need outweighs what you offer. Make no mistake, child. Your life does not belong to you.”