We Set the Dark on Fire (We Set the Dark on Fire, #1)

by Tehlor Kay Mejia

“Until we are all free, we are none of us free.” —Emma Lazarus

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Wanted more, even. But this was just intimidation. Manipulation. The same kind perpetrated by all boys who thought they were stronger than girls.

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“I’m talking now,” she said, and he closed his mouth. “I don’t need you to tell me how impressive I am, or how well-suited to your task. I’m well aware of my own skills. You think you can see something in me first? Give a purpose-starved girl a compliment and turn her to putty in your hands? Think again.

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“Speaking to a girl like an equal,” Dani said. “Was that really so hard?”

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“They’re lying to you about who we are,” Sota said,

somehow making eye contact with everyone at once. “We only want to live.” Behind him, one of the

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This was politics. This was humanity, and the refusal to recognize it.

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it’s a simple story, but I don’t think it’s the real story. I think the real story is greed, and money, and politics. Privilege and prejudice. A system that was created thousands of years ago by people who wanted to reward those like them and punish everyone else.”

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“And the more threatened the privileged feel, the more drastic the measures they’ll be able to justify in the name of ‘safety.’”

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“The past may comfort us,” she said to the fire. “But it cannot feed us.”

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“The bad stuff will be there,” Carmen said, kissing the side of Dani’s neck. “If we want to fight it, we have to find joy where we can. We have to find beauty. We have to take our moments to be happy. Because the joy is

what keeps us strong and reminds us we have something to fight for.”

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