Bloom Town Quotes

“Maybe shame needed your permission to enter in. Maybe it was a manmade construct, like time.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“Because everyone leaves in the end. Everyone. Sooner you accept that you’re on this wreck of a planet alone the sooner you can get on with makin’ the best of it.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“Her eyes slid shut again, and that was when it happened; Joey, shifting slightly behind her, perhaps waking up from a short sleep herself. She kissed Abby’s spine, gentle and soft, then whispered quiet words into Abby’s skin. “Don’t leave me.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“Maybe shame needed your permission to enter in. Maybe it was a manmade construct”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“How dare they. How dare they use God to justify such blatant evil.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“For anyone who has suffered at the hands of small-minded people, and for all those still battling the lingering ghosts of religious trauma.   ”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“thrusting and grinding into Joey’s mouth. Her mouth. There wasn’t a thing filthier, there wasn’t a thing more miraculous.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“Was it?” Her voice was low. “Was God’s way better?” Abby couldn’t stop a laugh from escaping. “I hope not. I’ve nothing to compare it to, but…God, I hope that’s not it.” “It’s not unnatural, you know. Just uncommon. Mostly because of twats like your husband puttin’ words in God’s mouth.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“Reckon that’s why people believe in God. Somethin’ to unify us all amidst this fuckin’ chaos down here.” “That’s not why people believe in God.” Abby shook her head and looked at Joey. “But it should be.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“Alright?” Joey asked, and Abby realized she’d been caught staring down at her own chest, adjusting the fabric, trying in vain to cover more of herself. “Oh—fine,” she laughed, “it’s just. This dress. It would’ve turned some heads in Stillwater.” And led to a public shaming by the entire congregation. Joey opened the door, tongue poking in her cheek. “It’s turnin’ heads here.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“So..." Abby sighed because here it was, her olive branch, "do you kidnap people often?” A moment passed. “You’re the first.” “Really?” “’S that make you feel special?” Abby thought about it. “Maybe a little, actually.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“The woman suddenly shifted, grabbing Abby’s hands and pinning them over her head, anchoring her in place with her hips and staring down at her. Abby stared back, and a moment later the woman shifted again—the slightest movement—but suddenly they were aligned in a way that had heat sparking in Abby’s core, and before she could stop herself, she let out an airy breath. A small thing, really. But not small enough to go unnoticed. The woman looked surprised at first, and then she narrowed her eyes. Abby watched, mortified, as it all played out on the woman’s face—recognition, understanding, shock. And then that slow curl of a half-smile, like she was thrilled at what she’d just discovered.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“Suit yourself,” the woman said, putting the vest back on. “We’re ridin’ back together, figured you’d prefer to be clothed, but if I have to spend the ride with you pressed against me, half naked,” she smirked down at the button she was working on, “can’t say it’ll be a hardship.” Abby’s eyes shot to”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“The boy’s rage, so visceral not a moment prior, had all at once given way to a stony blank stare, the angry lines of his brow softening from furious to thoughtful—the sort of thoughtfulness that accompanies a cluttered mind. A mind busy with sweeping unwanted thoughts into dark corners. Abby knew that look. She’d seen students with that look. She’d seen that look in the mirror.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“She wasn't opposed to hunting--meat was a necessity when the crops dwindled at summer's end-but it was the hunters' glee she couldn't reconcile. It made no sense. How could the same men who stood in awe, claiming their God's world was a perfect creation-how could those same men then take delight in destroying it? Abby hadn't gone to the feast. She didn't want to see that poor animal, cursed by its own beauty, butchered and plated for consumption by small men made angry when beautiful things dared to exist outside of their possession.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“its own beauty, butchered and plated for consumption by small men made angry when beautiful things dared to exist outside of their possession.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“Another lifetime. Another lifetime. Another lifetime.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“A thousand pretty words were strung like dewdrops on a spider strand between them, glistening and unsaid and doomed to disappear with the dawn.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“The words were the moon, filling the shore and draining the tide in equal measure.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“She was done being denied. She was done being good.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“What did she want? Everything. She wanted everything. She wanted to be unafraid to ask questions about the world around her. She wanted the answers to come from something other than the Bible. Anything other than the Bible. She wanted to learn. To know which deity the Newe were calling out to”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“Joey smiled”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“People who were different”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“Reckon that’s why people believe in God. Somethin’ to unify us all amidst this fuckin’ chaos down here.” “That’s not why people believe in God.” Abby shook her head and looked at Joey. “But it should be.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“Reverend Dawson stopped him. “We’re prepared to pay you good money. We need your help to right this wrong.” “You’ve got the Lord on your side!” Frex bellowed jovially. “What the hell do ya’ll need me for?” Silas shook his head. “Because we don’t know what to do about JT London." Frex smiled. “Why not just pray for her?” ”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“Abby folded the paper in quarters, hiding it deep in the pocket of her trousers. She’d find her way to a town and then, first chance she got, she would turn Joey in. Tell the nearest sheriff exactly where he could find her. Then she’d take that reward money and use every last dime to help Jack and Olive get back home to London. Back to whatever life she’d robbed them of. To their real family, who’d undoubtedly lost hope long ago.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis

“When you’re the preacher’s only child—only daughter, no less, it’s um. It’s hard? The entire town is always watching you. When you’re small you feel important because everyone knows who you are, everyone wants to be your friend.” Why was she telling Joey all this? “But when you get older, it’s as if those same people who adored you are just waiting for you to slip up. They seek gossip the way I imagine other people seek enlightenment or happiness. They crave it, just to distract themselves from how unremarkable their own lives are.”
― Ally North, Bloom Town: Genesis