More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Proserpina was last because Proserpina was always last. Not because she was disliked or because she was timid, but because she was dreaming on her feet while everyone else was walking.
A kiss that was almost a bruise, almost a bite, and how he wanted both, he wanted kissing and bruising and holding and biting—and he wanted to shelter them from the rain and force them to kneel in the mud too, and he didn’t know what it meant or why it was happening or even why they were letting him yank them close.
And in a clearing in the woods, in a church ruined by thorns and time, something stirred. Something called all six of them by name.
“You’re very easy to talk to, you know.” It’s something I’ve heard all my life, and I’m used to it, even if it sometimes makes me feel a little lonely. The person that everyone talks to, but who never gets that comfort in return.
But I’m so susceptible to this kind of touch; I bloom like a rose when I’m handled like a weed,
Is this how people really used to find people before iPhones? By asking other people? Out loud? With mouth-words?
Thornchapel knows my name and the crooked corners of my heart, and it wants me to make promises that I’m going to keep.”
He knows the things the village knows.
WHAT THINGS JESUS
St. Sebastian, the unbeliever, who still comes in and prays and kneels and sighs. Who sits and stares at the tabernacle as if he expects God himself to crawl out and apologize to him.
Auden finally speaks, his voice low and tight and furious still. “I hate him because he deserves it. I hate him because once upon a time, I gave him a piece of my heart.” He closes his eyes, a muscle in his jaw jumping. “And then he fed it to the wolves.”
“It’s not about selling things. It’s about building a presentation of yourself that you can use for anything. For potential employers or potential lovers or potential friends. It’s a place where you can compile the most salient expressions of yourself—expressions that you choose, you curate—and create a living biography. A testament to your life and the space you deserve to occupy.”
The adults are smiling in the picture, all of them smiling like they have a secret. And they’re here in the library, standing in front of the huge windows, bathed in light and alive. My mother is near the center of the group, something narrow and circular glinting in her hand that she’s trying to put around Auden’s father’s neck. My own father watches fondly, one hand at the small of her back, his other hand laced with Rebecca’s father’s. Auden’s mother watches her husband and my mother with a pained smile, but the way she leans into Becket’s parents suggests familiarity, just as the way they
...more
hate that I want two people at the same time—hell, five people, if I’m being honest—although
there’s something fundamentally beautiful about pain and pleasure mixing together, because that’s real life, right? Being alive means the harsh is mixed in with the good, and every time I get to choose the harsh for myself, it loses its sting. Every time I taste the bitter and survive, I’m all the stronger to enjoy the sweet.”
‘unfaithful flock’
“Well, Mass has ritualized cannibalism, so I’m not sure which is more civilized in your view,”
Ahahahahhaha
“Sometimes I wish you were engaged to him like Ralph wanted,” Saint confesses in a hoarse whisper. “And that he was here right now. Seeing us like this.”
“I’d starve for you.”
“Let’s go to the thorn chapel, Proserpina,” he says. “Let’s finish this.”
“Why don’t you both come in with me?”
