ash > Recent Status Updates

“The two girls inside me — the girl before, and the girl after — want different things. One wants war, to make others suffer the same as she has, to not be alone in her misery. The other one just wants a quiet life of crosswords and peace. One wants to mail the tape back to where it came from. One wants to pull the trigger.”

“Everyone has their string people—the people they are tied to, whether it be through blood or trauma or friendship. It’s a luxury I didn’t realize I had. A comfort blanket that was so constantly there, I never even noticed how warm it kept me at night. I never considered I might lose it.”

“It’s called Batesian mimicry. When harmless prey appears dangerous to predators. A viceroy butterfly is not toxic, but it evolved to look like a monarch butterfly, which is poisonous to birds.”

“I was terrified by how religion had been used... Complicit women training little girls to be obedient while making excuses for the bad acts of boys and men. Their religion pushed God so far away from me. I had stopped praying.”

“The ultimate survival game is for girls to survive into adulthood. For the prey to avoid the predators... Some girls don’t survive.”

“He wants to set himself on fire, but he can’t afford for anyone to see him burn.”

“I’m trying to give you some advice, from one old man to a much younger version of himself.” “You’re thirty-nine.” “My liver is ninety-three.”

As someone whose liver is also 93, this is hilarious 😂

“Roman doesn’t pull out.”

NO HE CERTAINLY DOES NOT

This book should be called, “City of Bodies Left Behind by an Unhinged Roman Devlin.”

Because GODDAMN

“The part of our lives that we spent together would be over soon... It seemed unfair to her, and maybe all mothers, that I’d know this and still feel so ready to run.”
Ouch.