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.

Adults always loved to tell you that your life wasn’t actually real.

It’s a wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.”

And if you’re wondering if I changed—if I really and truly became a better person than I was in the beginning—I’ll tell you that I have good days and bad ones, of course, like everybody else, but I’m growing. I’ll get there.

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