More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Those grown in the midnight soil are never alone.”
“I have wanted you in ballrooms and in parlors, in crowds and behind closed doors. I have wanted you since before we ever met.”
“I dream of another life,” Jocelyn goes on. “One where I wasn’t so afraid.” A sigh. “I was such a coward, Lottie,” she murmurs, and that name cracks something deep inside her. The tears Charlotte has been holding back since she was first sent away now come rolling down her cheeks. To her surprise, Jocelyn reaches up one frail hand to catch the bloodred drop. “Did you find someone brave enough to love you?”
Devastating
“Please believe me,” she says, before the walls go up again. And here is the awful thing about belief. It is a current, like compulsion. Hard to forge when it goes against your will, but easy enough when it carries you the way you want to go.
“Promise me something.”
NO
Why does Charlotte stay? That is like asking—why stay inside a house on fire? Easy to say when you are standing on the street, a safe distance from the flames. Harder when you are still inside, convinced you can douse the blaze before it spreads, or rushing room to room, trying to save what you love before it burns.
She swallows. “Isn’t it lonely?” “It doesn’t have to be. After all, loneliness is just like us,” says Ezra. “It has to be invited in.”
“You lied to me,” says Alice, and this time Lottie sighs. “I didn’t really. I said you’d get your life back. Now you will.”
Oh so everyone sucks
