Beatriz Baptista’s Reviews > Dark Places > Status Update

“she put on three coats of mascara - she always said it took three, one to darken, one to thicken and one for drama.”

“Nothing to it but to do it.”

“I’d woke up from a miserable dream, the kind you keep telling yourself doesn’t mean anything, shouldn’t bother you because it’s just a dream.”

“I felt guilty about all of it, not good at all, but I feared having no money, really feared being broke, and that came before being nice.”

“He thought sex was supposed to chill you out - and the during part was good, the coming part was great. But afterward, for about ten minutes he felt like crying. He felt like, is this it? The greatest thing in life, the thing men kill for and this is it, over in a few minutes, leaving you all gutted and depressed.”

“She talked to me because we had the same chemicals in our blood: shame, anger, greed.”

“When I was fourteen, I thought a lot about killing myself - it’s a hobby today, but at age fourteen it was a vocation.”

“Teachers were usually reliable for half a sandwich or a piece of fruit if you stared at them long enough.”

“No one thinks you’re a bad mother. You’re superwoman as far as I’m concerned: you keep the farm going, get four kids to school every day, and don’t drink a gallon of bourbon to do it.”

“getting ready to take off her clothes at a strip club that was so entirely generic. There’s something disturbing about not even bothering with a name. Whenever I see news stories about children who were killed by their parents, I think: But how could it be? They cared enough to give this kid a name, they had a moment - at least one moment - when they sifted through all the possibilities and picked one name..”

“Sometimes it feels good to fuck with something. Instead of always being fucked with.”

“Her only words: “What possessed you to do such a thing?” which was a prim for Diane, but filled with more hurt than three dozen fuck-yous.”

“I made myself call Lyle, hoping for voicemail and, as usual, getting him.”

“I like waitresses who call me hon or sweetie, and she did.”

“Her face was always red, her eyes always pink, so it was impossible to tell if she’d been crying, the only advantage to looking like a skinned rat.”

“Libby was a Christmas baby, which meant she never got the right amout of presents.”