A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2)

by V.E. Schwab

People either stole to stay alive or to feel alive. She had to imagine that they ran away for the same reasons.

It wasn’t black, but it wasn’t confectionary either.

“Everyone thinks I have a death wish, you know? But I don’t want to die—dying is easy. No, I want to live, but getting close to death is the only way to feel alive. And once you do, it makes you realize that everything you were doing before wasn’t actually living. It was just making do. Call me crazy, but I think we do the best living when the stakes are high.”