Aster

“They were just passing the time, playing their roles, like bad actors saying their lines too quickly, without conviction, because they wanted to walk off stage and go home. It didn’t matter how she performed. It didn’t matter if she didn’t change. All that mattered was staying in character and knowing your place. Nod, smile, promise to try harder, be grateful for the opportunity – always grateful.”
― Luiza Sauma, Everything You Ever Wanted

“Even she didn’t know who she really was: the fun, capable colleague, or the revolting madwoman lurking under the surface. There was no singularity, no undeniable truth, no middle ground. She felt both sane and deranged, joyful and miserable, competent and crippled.”
― Luiza Sauma, Everything You Ever Wanted

“To be so lucky and so miserable, it was insufferable. I should be put down like a dog, she thought. I need to leave London. I need to leave the country, the planet, the solar system.”
― Luiza Sauma, Everything You Ever Wanted

“The mother-shaped hole became a cutout of the blackest black. Something I could only see around. If I tried to look directly at it, I saw emptiness.”
― Emily X.R. Pan, The Astonishing Color of After