A Little Hatred (The Age of Madness, #1)

by Joe Abercrombie

“War?” “It’s when a fight gets so big almost no one comes out of it well.”

“Guilt is a luxury reserved for those still breathing and with no unbearable pain, cold or hunger demanding all their fickle attention. Long as guilt’s your big problem, girl…” Rikke saw the faint gleam of Isern’s teeth in the gathering darkness. “Things can’t be that bad.”

She didn’t like it any, but a choice between getting hurt and doing the hurting weren’t no choice at all.

“There’s no forgetting. I’m hemmed in by the memories.” And he flapped an arm about as though the shadows were full of an invisible crowd. “Besieged by the bastards. The hurts and the regrets. The friends and the enemies and those who were a bit o’ both. Too long a lifetime of ’em. You can’t choose what you remember. But you can choose what you do about it. Time comes… you got to let it all go.”

They tell you drink makes you happy, but what they mean is it makes happy folk happier. They don’t tell you that it makes unhappy folk more fucking unhappy than ever.