Grave Matter Quotes

“Grief is funny like that. It lives alongside you, sometimes in silence, and then a random thought, or memory, or smell will punch through you like a fist, your bleeding heart in its grasp, and you have to relive it all over again.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“I try to stay silent when I first meet people, trying to figure out how to wear my mask, what kind of person I need to be for the conversation.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“after years of feeling like an outsider, of having a hard time picking up on social cues, I always doubt myself when it comes to making friends. A few bad apples when I was young, and I’m suspicious of everyone.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“don’t see how I’ll ever stop being too much for someone. Too impulsive, too brash, too reckless, too self-centered, too cold, too sensitive, too much. Too me.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“Many neurotypicals think most of us are faking it; they don’t understand how we’re not actually lazy but that there are brick walls that slide down, preventing us from doing things, even things we want to do. When they tell us not to worry about something or not to take something personally, they don’t realize we often can’t. And in the end, they shun us and side-eye us and make pithy comments about how “mentally unstable” we are, especially if we happen to present as feminine.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“Because you are my future, Syd,” he says, his voice low and gruff. “Because that’s all there is. The past doesn’t exist anymore. Only now and tomorrow is what does. And I want you—now and tomorrow.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“When I was eight years old, I decided my goal in life was to become a mad scientist. Not just any scientist but a mad one.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“Grief is funny like that. It lives alongside you”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“His eyes are shadowed by his dark”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“This is a mother tree,” I whisper, the oldest and most established, with the deepest fungal connections, the one to recognize distress signals in other trees and send them more water. I feel like if I concentrate hard enough, I can almost feel the tree trying to talk to me.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“When I was finally diagnosed, it was like a switch went off in my head. An explanation as to why I am the way I am. But even though more and more people are getting diagnosed as neurodiverse in some capacity, the stigma hasn’t gone away. Many neurotypicals think most of us are faking it; they don’t understand how we’re not actually lazy but that there are brick walls that slide down, preventing us from doing things, even things we want to do. When they tell us not to worry about something or not to take something personally, they don’t realize we often can’t. And in the end, they shun us and side-eye us and make pithy comments about how “mentally unstable” we are, especially if we happen to present as feminine.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“I’m staying for you, sweetheart,” he says, grabbing my hand and holding it up to his mouth, pressing his lips against my skin. “I’m burning up for you. You’re my fever, Syd. No cure.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“When I was finally diagnosed, it was like a switch went off in my head. An explanation as to why I am the way I am.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“Some people like that I’m bossy,” he says with a smirk.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“You don’t know anything about me,” I tell him, feeling annoyed. “You keep saying that, and yet, every day, I know more and more,” he says softly, hands clasped behind his back. “One day, I’ll know everything.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“Did he touch you?”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“You’re going to get a soaker with those shoes if we continue.” “A soaker?” I ask. She laughs. “Ah yes, I forgot that’s a Canadian term. It means you’re going to get your shoes wet.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“Life has a way of conditioning you, and when you’ve gone to the school of hard knocks, you expect those knocks each time.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“I know the lodge is just a bunch of buildings, but some days, particularly at night, I feel it has a personality of its own—and it’s not a nice personality. Moody, perhaps. And tonight, I feel like it wants us gone, like we’re not supposed to be here.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“It’s like living in paradise, in the gaze of God’s creation, while we ourselves create.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“Knock it off, I chide myself. Lusting after your professor slash psychologist is the very last thing you need. Old habits, they die hard.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“I realize that some connections in life can’t be severed, not even by death.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“Pretend I don’t want her. Pretend I don’t need her. Pretend I don’t crave her.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“Many neurotypicals think most of us are faking it; they don’t understand how we’re not actually lazy but that there are brick walls that slide down, preventing us from doing things, even things we want to do. When they tell us not to worry about something or not to take something personally, they don’t realize we often can’t.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“We have a saying here,” she says softly. “Don’t try to change the lodge. Let the lodge change you.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“I'll find her again, no matter what life she restarts.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“It's romantic, isn't it? The fact that you found him and fell for him all over again. That you can be separated by time and death, and still nothing can keep you apart.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“I have to know someone and trust them to let them see the real me, and when I do, that’s when I often lose them.”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“sleek sailboat called Mithrandir”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter

“A few seconds pass before I dare to say, “Did anyone ever tell you that you’re bossy?”
― Karina Halle, Grave Matter