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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Jason Pargin
Read between
November 13 - November 26, 2023
guy you’re trying to deter, a stern woman was the last voice they’d ever obeyed: a schoolteacher, a mother, or whatever female family member had gotten stuck with raising them.
The last few times she’d heard this alarm it had turned out to be paparazzi—usually drones, once a helicopter—hoping to catch some kind of crime or other depravity occurring at the estate, as if Zoey’s people would do that kind of thing out on the lawn.
She briefly considered pulling open her robe and flashing them but figured tabloid readers probably wouldn’t be impressed by that a third time.
Anyone attempting a breach like this had either done zero research or was just delegating their suicide.
When a professional shark wrestler gets bitten in half by a Great White, that’s not irony, that’s somebody getting precisely what they signed up for.
He was wearing the clothes of a man headed for a funeral and the expression of a man who was about to cause one.
She looked to Will. Zoey couldn’t read his expression, not now or at any other time. In general, if you ever thought you could read Will’s expression, it was only because he wanted you to, which meant you still weren’t doing it.
Now, I know you think all of the rich people in this city are monsters, but I’ve been dealing with them personally ever since I got here and I can assure you they are actually much worse.
Zoey felt the familiar sensation of being simultaneously comforted and terrified that Will was, somehow, several steps ahead.
What if it turned out that you’re being used, that some power-hungry schemer is playing you like a, well, not a violin, that’s too sophisticated an instrument. Like a squeaking dog toy.”
Wu gave Will a humorless grin. “No matter what you do, you just have endless faith in your ability to smooth it over afterward, don’t you? As long as we keep focusing on the next thing, we’ll never stop and examine what happened before. Ever forward, right? Like a bullet train.”
Zoey’s people, on the other hand, walked right in through the main entrance of Chalet as if they owned the place, because they did.
there usually were plans in place but, in the end, the endemic chaos of the universe would always have its say.
“So what you’re saying is that it’s entirely possible that whether or not America has a fascist president in ten years may depend on how quickly we can empty these trash cans this weekend?”
“Welcome to the wonderful world of politics,” said Budd. “A vocation you can’t do when drunk but can’t cope with when sober.
Street streamers are calling the perp the Sex Butcher, because the first name they come up with is always the one that sticks, so in the race to be first they never have time to make it creative.”
The talented ones could flash a smile that said, “I have the power to crush you, but I will not, because I am here to crush others on your behalf.”
Nonetheless, the high-powered human augmentation horse was out of the barn and, as Will was fond of saying, if you can’t make a dangerous market go away, then you’d better damned well try to corner it.
DeeDee was not a people person but, it turned out, had developed a method over the years for finding like-minded friends: she attended meetings of powerful men and sought out other women who looked as fed up as she was.
He took a drink and then, before he could put it away, Zoey grabbed it and took a nip of her own. She knew Will secretly hated when she did that, which she supposed was much better than Will secretly loving it.
Wu, appearing to have little interest in the conversation, glanced around and said, “This venue is a security nightmare. They’re not checking anyone coming in.” Damon said, “The boat is VIPs-only, all of the staff have been thoroughly vetted.” Wu nodded toward the tourists carousing around the artificial beach encircling said boat. “They haven’t. But of course, we’re still completely safe unless it turns out mankind has invented some kind of weapon that can kill from a distance.”
“I’m just gonna say it: If you elect me mayor, I promise you that within a month, you will forget this election ever happened. Within a year, I won’t remember I’m mayor. I will be invisible to you, because damn it, I have a life to live. I’ve got a business to run. I say government should be like a hot-water heater: if it’s working right, you never even think about it.
You say what you’re supposed to say but you don’t do a good job of making your face do the right thing when the fools are talking. That’s what everyone likes about you.
“It’s always fascinating, watching men transform from werewolf mode back into human after the fluids have left their body. It’s like all of the reason and anxiety comes flowing back in.”
But you know, when people talk about how they wish they could live in the past, when they fantasize about the knights and castles era or the Old West, I think that’s what they’re wishing for, to be rid of that pressure. They’d be willing to give up modern medicine and clean water for a chance to be free of all of this, the nonstop performance that comes with knowing everything you do, day and night, is for an audience.”
“And that’s why you stick with him, you think smoke and mirrors is better than a pile of corpses.” “I guess. But sometimes I can’t stop thinking about the fact that in the Philippines, to really sell the illusion, they had to snatch up a real guy and drain his real blood. And then you think, maybe those villagers weren’t ignorant, maybe they saw that and realized one of two things was true: they were either being stalked by a vampire, or by something much worse.”
“So I just have to annoy a man for several minutes and then leave? I have some experience with that.”
“Humans have eyes that face forward, like any predator,” replied Will, in a tone like this was a classic axiom and not something a serial killer would say while chasing you through a lair full of mannequins.
Echo said, “And this has been today’s edition of ‘Will Blackwater Tries to Make Someone in Distress Feel Better by Triggering an Existential Crisis.’ You always know just what to say, Will.”
She glanced over her shoulder at Wu. “I have a question. If somebody came and attacked me right now, would your guy back there with the sword stop it? Or does he only stop it if they come for you?” “I would stop it,” answered Wu. “Not in my capacity as Zoey’s personal security, but as man in position to do something.”
the advantage of bullies isn’t in their strength but in what they are willing to do, being unafraid of consequences or of breaking the rules.
You’re driving yourself crazy asking where’s the exact solution, as if the universe is presenting all of this as a series of obstacles to test you. When in reality, all you can do is manage the problems and minimize damage.”
You could build a Utopia right here on earth, Zoey thought, as long as the inhabitants were rich enough and surrounded by a tall enough fence.
Aviv got up from the sofa and made like he was going to try to kiss her.
Aww someone's caught feelings 💕
“Men don’t know their type until they put their hands on it.”
And I am saying, with one hundred percent sincerity, with no subterfuge, that watching you stand up to these goons day after day, the monsters and the Suits, is the sexiest goddamned thing I’ve ever seen.”
Echo took a deep breath. “On the East stage, it’s Cloe’s Clown
Clones, God’s Thong, Dog Juggling, Saanvi Singh’s All Jug Band, Dough Ray Meat, Soundturd, 10 Gallon Italian, Yak Jesus, Tiny Little Rat Farts, Lance Dancepants, Funeral Giggles, Cello Mold, Dick Masters and the Dickmasters, Turdvana, The Jessie Stankbones, FOONT!, Beefslap, Live Tuna Sandwich, Beard Cannon, Stinky Geyser, Cornhole Brunch, Beak Soup, DJ Teats, Steve Books and the Readers, Help Us Dolphins, Tangerine Boris and His Ladies, Screaming Morons Vs. The Collective Evil of All Human Society, Cameo 2, Mitch’s Vibrating Tits, AquariYUM!, Tennessee Layover, Normal Doug, The Trustworthy
...more
Zoey groaned. “My god, how are some people so good at arriving at the exact wrong time?” Will took a drink from his flask. Zoey gave him a look and he silently handed it to her.
“No. You say that, but whenever I hand you a cup of coffee that you didn’t make yourself, you take a sip and get this little disapproving look on your face.” “I do not!” Budd said, “You do. It’s, like, ‘Ew, these beans were grown at the wrong elevation and breathed on by a depressed donkey.’”
And when Zoey isn’t happy, Will isn’t happy. And when Will isn’t happy, ain’t nobody happy, until things get put right.”
“Shut up. Look, I know how men let their emotions get away from them in situations like this, but in your hysterics you have wound up with this
crazy idea that my life is more valuable than yours, when you have two children waiting for you at home.” “I have three children.” “Three! And your plan was to sacrifice yourself because, what, I employ you to do that? Good god, what has capitalism done to our brains?”
But don’t give me that nonsense about how you’ll never walk again, considering that my company owns technology that can give you super-legs that will allow you to kick an entire moose across a golf course.”
Grief is funny in a situation like this. When it’s sudden, I mean. Out of the blue. At first, it’s just shock, like an ambush. But once that’s passed, you realize the ambush isn’t really over, the grief hides and waits, ready to jump out at the most random times, for years and years.”
Budd died to the most powerful weapon in the known universe: a compelling lie.
Distilled hatred bottled with love on the label.
So, ah, Jesus cries at the sight of death, is my point. And that’s crazy, because he’s God, he’s all-knowing and all-powerful, but even he, even he, when he sees the dead body of a friend in front of him, crumbles. He can’t handle it. See, they don’t have that up in Heaven, the dying. He cried because until that moment, he didn’t know. Do you see what I’m saying? Until he saw it, God didn’t know what death was. Not really. He had to experience it like we do. And when he finally did, his ass couldn’t handle it.” “And then he undid it,” added Echo.
And that was where Budd landed on God, that he may be all-powerful, he may be all-knowing, but when he came down here to our world and tried to play our game, he couldn’t hack it. He couldn’t take the thing he saddles us with every day, this death, this losing people. This never getting to say goodbye. When he came down and tried to play the game he created, the sheer random cruelty of it knocked him flat.”
you can’t waste your life worrying about stuff that’s not gonna happen until thirty seconds from now.
