The Afterlife of Holly Chase

by Cynthia Hand

You can try to keep the worst things down inside you. You can shove them away, not think about them, not deal. But they bubble up to the surface. They always do.

“Stories let us see and hear and feel what someone else does,” she explained. “They build bridges to the other islands. That’s why stories are so important. They create true empathy.”

It’s never too late to become what one could have been.

But love doesn’t always have to be about the happy ending. Love can be about beginnings, too.