A Study in Charlotte (Charlotte Holmes, #1)

by Brittany Cavallaro

I felt like I was being pulled through a dark, dank wardrobe into some boozy Narnia.

“That’s the weird townie dealer,” he whispered to me. “He’s selling drugs.

I think he cracked the case

She was altogether colorless and severe, and still she managed to be beautiful. Not the way that girls are generally beautiful, but more like the way a knife catches the light, makes you want to take it in your hands.

wondering if I flung myself out the window, would it properly kill me or just break both my legs.

Me from age 12 to 16

Truth be told, I liked that blurriness. That line where reality and fiction jutted up against each other.

Gray’s Anatomy

wait this is a real book???

Really, with role models like him, it was surprising I wasn’t already in jail.

MRS. Dunham came by my room and politely told me that if she had to speak to my panicked mother one more time, she would very publicly set herself on fire.

Me if I had actually become a teacher

“Fine. I’ll just go pack my things. You know. For jail.”

Me when I want to exaggerate:

I’d never seen such a radioactive-looking tan.

I wanted the two of us to be complicated together, to be difficult and engrossing and blindingly brilliant.

I began wondering if there was some kind of Watsonian guide for the care and keeping of Holmeses.

subject line I Need Your Help, postscript Still haven’t forgiven you and won’t),

not the angsty email addressing

He could go straight to hell.

Just saying what were all thinking

We weren’t Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. I was okay with that, I thought. We had things they didn’t, too. Like electricity, and refrigerators. And Mario Kart.

A final note on Watson. He flagellates himself rather a lot, as this narrative shows. He shouldn’t. He is lovely and warm and quite brave and a bit heedless of his own safety and by any measure the best man I’ve ever known. I’ve discovered that I am very clever when it comes to caring about him, and so I will continue to do so.