More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Well, I only learned reeling and writhing,” Brian said conversationally to the top of her head. “And then the different branches of arithmetic—ambition, distraction, uglification, and derision.”
You might get to know characters in books, Ollie thought, but getting to know a human was an entirely different thing.
Even bad things can lead to good. Maybe in sad times, it helps to think of that.”
Wherever you go in this big, gorgeous, hideous world, there is a ghost story waiting for you. Maybe made-up or maybe not,
“Did you need some quiet time?” Ollie suddenly wanted to yell. Quiet time, always quiet time, as if she could make her own head and heart be quiet.
Maybe, she kept thinking, when she came back from one of those other worlds, when she woke up from book dreaming, she would come back to a world where her mother wasn’t dead.
“Alice in Wonderland,” said Brian. “Remember? ‘How do you know I’m mad?’ asked Alice.” “‘You must be,’” Ollie said, finishing the quotation slowly, “‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’”
That’s what her mom had always said on hiking trips. If you’re ever lost, think of your basic needs first. Are you hungry, are you thirsty, are you hurt?
Coco didn’t cry because she was weak. Coco cried because she felt things.
It was witch-soul dark in the barn,
“How is she the clumsiest person ever on the ground, yet a squirrel when she’s climbing?” muttered Ollie. Brian grinned. “You’re kind of grumpy most of the time, but when things get bad, you’re the bravest. People can surprise you, Ollie-pop.”
They were like swimmers about to jump into icy water and no one wanted to go first.
Don’t panic, Ollie’s mom had always told her. That’s the first rule of survival. Never panic.
