Amelia Unabridged

by Ashley Schumacher

Books are something to be stepped inside of, to be occupied and lived in.

Reading, for me, has always been more like playing a video game than watching a movie, an active experience that used to leave me physically and emotionally wrought.

I’ve lived in books. I’ve eaten and breathed books for so long that I took it for granted. I assumed that, if they saved me once, they would always be there to pick me up,

I want to believe everything has a purpose, no matter how terrible. That the fairy tales were right, the stories are true, and at the end of all the muck and despair, light can be found.

One of the things I love—loved—about books is that no matter how dreadful the characters’ plights or how insurmountable the conflicts, everything turns out for the best in the end.

“The dead can hold more sway than the living.”