The House at the End of the World

by Dean Koontz

Dr. Wynn-Sperry encourages patients to develop high self-esteem, to regard feelings of guilt and regret as relics of an oppressive culture that is dying, and to lean in to life with an aggressive expectation of fulfillment.

Life has taught her that it’s mentally exhausting and spiritually depressing to waste energy and time fanning the flames of anger when the reason for her outrage is someone who can’t be affected by anything she does or some malignant force in society that, when challenged, will engulf her and dissolve her in a metastatic frenzy. Patience, steadiness, and hope are healthier than anger; therefore, in spite of evidence to the contrary, she still trusts that the world has been shapen to a purpose and that the purpose is not the triumph of evil.

the trouble she thinks she’s in is much less terrifying than the trouble she’s really in.

Paranoia can be a serious mental illness. It can also be the proper state of mind for prey in a universe of predators.

Fear is useful when it’s on a leash, Avi once said, but it’s always a bad dog when you let it run free in your mind.

“If you’re concerned about the environmental effects of the flatulence of cattle, don’t be. It’s a myth. What’ll kill us all is the flatulence of politicians.”

There are reasons to suspect that Marge is an officer in the military, though it’s probably the Russian military, in which you’re allowed to smile only when you shoot someone or successfully invade another country.

perhaps this is a time when anyone searching the current darkness for an honest man is sure to wear out as many lanterns as he can afford.

However, those who believe in revolutionary change and great leaps forward always thrill to the promise of the new to a degree beyond all reason.

The prince of this world is the father of lies, and his followers are legion.

Fear is useful when it’s on a leash, but it’s always a bad dog when you let it run free in your mind.

“If anyone will listen. They say everyone is entitled to his own facts. So then, what is truth?”

“And people who love every one of them. Although no one will ever write a hit song about most of them, there’s beauty and magic in every place if you know how to look.”

All that would be background to a story about grievous loss and the improbable hope that can grow from it in a heart that remains open to grace.