The Poison Daughter Quotes

“I’d rather be tortured by your presence than agonized by your absence.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“The only thing more dangerous than a man with a bruised ego is a woman with a score to settle.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“To err is human. To avenge is Divine.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“In the absence of a conscience, men need something to fear. I’ve made myself their monster.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“Yes, I want your anger. Be as mad at me as you need to, just not from a forest away. Stay with me. Make me suffer for it. I’d rather be tortured by your presence than agonized by your absence.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“That’s what it is to have a sister—to love her, envy her, and also be in awe at how much better than you she is. Having a sister is pressing your heart up against another heart and seeing how your hurt and triumph mirror each other. It’s saying, “There’s no pain you carry that I don’t carry too. As long as I’m here, you’re never alone.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“One moment, he’s taunting me. The next, he’s slitting a man’s throat for touching me.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“I’ll make sure you are not a villain in this story. I will make sure you are nothing at all so that you are forgotten.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“The doubt it casts is a knife plunged in my gut that will twist any time I doubt him again. The suspicion never leaves, and he knows it. He will tie me up in knots and I will let him. Not because I don’t know better, but because I do, and I still can’t let go of the possibility that it might be different this time.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“The surprise on their faces is so typical. Men are always shocked when they meet resistance to their plans. Comfort has made them all complacent. I have no such luxury. I was very young when I learned not to expect any softness from life. Violence came for me the way it does for all women. It hunted me”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“You can see me.” His smile softens the sharp lines of his face. “I can see you.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“My wife is trying to poison me—and I like it. I am fully entranced by her viciousness.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“Born to be a queen. Cursed to wrangle the egos of men.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“All these years and you still haven’t learned. You’ve never stopped trying to break me. But I do not break. I am the breaker.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“I don’t think I’m better than you,” I say. “I think we’ve been speaking your language my entire life and neither of you have bothered to learn mine. I’ve been forcing myself into a family system that doesn’t fit me”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“Violence came for me the way it does for all women. It hunted me”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“This gives them a convenient way to be dismissive of everything I feel as an overreaction. It places all of the burden of managing our relationship on me. It means that they get to roll their eyes and act like I’m dramatic and ungrateful. My hyper-awareness to keep myself and Aidia safe developed an under-awareness in them. If they could trace it back”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“Harlow”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“I resent that my very survival required that I understand my parents, but they have never once tried to understand me. This gives them a convenient way to be dismissive of everything I feel as an overreaction. It places all of the burden of managing our relationship on me. It means that they get to roll their eyes and act like I’m dramatic and ungrateful.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“Can you not appreciate that we have our first mutual secret? I think they call it ‘intimacy.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“It took me years to understand that the strength isn’t in not wanting to give up”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“I kiss him”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“Wanting is a dangerous thing. It is perhaps the one thing I can’t survive.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“Harlow Carrenwell is beautiful. And I’m in love with her.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“This is why I have forced myself to be practical for so long. I’ve spent years sculpting myself into someone who can survive in the harshest conditions,”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“I have no such luxury. I was very young when I learned not to expect any softness from life. Violence came for me the way it does for all women. It hunted me”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“You say my name like I’m a thing you’re cursed with.” He makes a sound between a laugh and a hum of agreement. “Divine deliver me—that I may survive such a curse.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“Just because you can bear your pain better doesn’t mean you should have to.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“Harlow—who did this to you?” His voice is tight with anger.”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter

“when justice is dealt out by the powerful”
― Sheila Masterson, The Poison Daughter