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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Tahereh Mafi
Started reading
July 29, 2022
“I don’t want to be a monster,” I say, perhaps more for my sake than his. “Don’t fight what you’re born to be.”
Anyone If you’re out there Please tell me you can feel this fire.
So power hungry that she killed a small child. She tortured a toddler. She brought a grown man gasping to his knees. She doesn’t even have the decency to kill herself. None of it is a lie.
How many times, I hear a voice whisper in my head, how many times will you apologize for who you are?
how many times?
“My dear girl.” “What?” “I have been waiting for this moment for a long time now.” “What do you mean?” “You’re finally ready,” he says. “You’re finally ready to fight.”
turning back for me anymore. There are no other alternatives. I have not forgotten. “I forge forward or die.” Warner laughs out loud. He looks like he might cry. “I am going to kill your father,” I say to him, “and I’m going to destroy The Reestablishment.” He’s still smiling. “I will.” “I know,” he says. “Then why are you laughing at me?” “I’m not,” he says softly. “I’m only wondering,” he says, “if you would like my help.”
smiles. “You looked truly alive for the very first time.” My hands are suddenly ice cold. “The torture room,” I gasp.
me too
“I don’t know which version of me Adam likes. I’m not the same person I was when we were in school. I’m not that girl anymore. I think he wants that,” I say, glancing up at Kenji. “I think he wants to pretend I’m the girl who doesn’t really speak and spends most of her time being scared. The kind of girl he needs to
A pause. “I can’t blame you, to be honest. It’s hard being lonely. We all get a little desperate sometimes.” “Okay,” I say slowly. “I am just saying,” Kenji says, “that I guess it makes sense you’d fall for him. Like, by default. Because if not him, who else? Your options were super limited.”
god. i feel that. being so alone for so long that you forget what love looks like. that you mistake poison for water.
sky. “I like the way I feel about myself when I’m with him,” I say quietly. “Warner thinks I’m strong and smart and capable and he actually values my opinion. He makes me feel like his equal—like I can accomplish just as much as he can, and more. And if I do something incredible,
Adam steps inside. My heart deflates.
“I don’t think you’re crazy.” The world is blurring away as I watch it through the window. “And I don’t think you’re a psychopath. I also don’t think you’re a sick, twisted monster. I don’t think you’re a heartless murderer, and I don’t think you deserve to die, and I don’t think you’re pathetic. Or stupid. Or a coward. I don’t think you’re any of the things people have said about you.”
Warner says nothing, his chest rising and falling. “I don’t care what anyone else says about you,” I tell him. “I think you’re a good person.”
Warner actually laughs. Out loud.
“Don’t you think I’ve realized,” I say to him, angrier now, “that if I’d allowed myself to get mad a long time ago, I would’ve discovered I had the strength to break through that asylum with my own two hands?”
