Zoey Is Too Drunk for This Dystopia (Zoey Ashe #3)

by Jason Pargin

“I’ve known a whole lot of predators, Zoey. Done time with a few, worked with a few, got rid of a few. One thing I’ll tell you right now: they don’t get that message. These guys, the way their brains work, they don’t think they’re gonna get caught. That’s their whole thing, they can’t conceive of a future beyond satisfying this desire or that.

cruelty is more addictive than any drug ever sold on these streets. Your average citizen just wants a righteous excuse before they dose.”

power goes to the ones who want it most and the ones who want it most tend to be more conniving and diabolical than any of the supposed street thugs they’re trying to scare you about.

he said games teach a really bad lesson, which is that every problem has some neat solution. You enter a room, there’s a door, that means there must be a key that opens that door, and there’s a sword in that room and that must mean you’ll need it to kill the dragon later. But in real life, you don’t get that.

When you see even the worst monster among us and realize they’re just a needy mammal at heart, it’s hard to see anyone as truly bad. Understanding this just takes away the fear of talking to them,

I think the most common mistake we make in dealing with people is in assuming that while our own feelings are a mess of contradictions, everybody else is operating with a clear agenda and any inconsistencies must be due to some kind of ruse.”

“Well, now, there’s where I do have to disagree. A man’s character is all he has. If reputation is the only thing keeping a man in line, well, then all he has to do is build himself up a following that’ll turn a blind eye to anything but an atrocity committed live in front of their eyes, and maybe even that.