The Fifth Doll Quotes

“He was still as an oak trunk, silent as a candle.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“Mad Olia had a lot to say, and most of it was nonsensical, if it could be understood at all. Like bad poetry spoken underwater.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“Her entire body became a heartbeat.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“Though the chest had sat,”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“Condemned by your people. Opened the second. Condemned by yourself. Opened the third. To see who you were. Opened the fourth. To see who you could become. Is that the riddle, Slava?”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“Life was the purest form of magic, no matter how a man squandered it, and he did not want any spilled blood on his hands, no matter how much easier it would make his task.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“She believed in Him; she always had. To think He didn’t exist . . . she’d be a shell empty of its nut. God was limb to her body, one she was sure she couldn’t function without.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“what had inspired Slava to draw some of the villagers old and others young.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“She had strived to be wholesome and upright, since she was a little girl. Not because her mother demanded it, not to impress her father, but because that was who she wanted to be.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“I am a good and virtuous woman, Matrona repeated, clutching fistfuls of blanket in her hands. I have strived to be good all my life, and I have succeeded. You cannot take that from me.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“Pull down its walls, see what’s truly on the other side of them.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“The third day, Matrona awoke with bones of iron instead of lead, a headache that tapped instead of pounded, and clear vision that only spotted when she moved too quickly.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“Jaska’s rotted to the core
For Jaska has denied the Lord
His mum is mad, his dad is sad
His soul is very, very bad”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“Condemned by your people. Opened the second. Condemned by yourself. Opened the third. To see who you were. Opened the fourth. To see who you could become.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“Have you heard the children’s rhyme about me?” Jaska asked.

“I have, unfortunately.”

Jaska wiped a hand down his face. “Kind of catchy.”

“The children have a gift for meter.”

Jaska laughed.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“She believed in Him; she always had. To think He didn’t exist . . . she’d be a shell empty of its nut. God was limb to her body, one she was sure she couldn’t function without.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“They’re such little thoughts”—Matrona winced, fingers returning to her temples—“often passing as quickly as they came, or after a good night’s rest. Only, imagine if all those thoughts were . . . I don’t know, saved in a chest. Every single one. And every bad feeling you’ve ever had. Guilt over telling a lie, or shame from doing something wrong. All of it inside this chest. And then suddenly you’re in the room with the chest, and it opens, but someone’s jammed the door and you can’t get out—” “You’re rambling, Matrona.” Roksana clicked her tongue and resituated her heavy body, trying to get comfortable. “You sound almost poetic, in a sad, strange way.” “Just imagine it, Roksana!” Matrona cried, her hands jerking away from her temples and slamming fists into her pillow, making her friend jump. “Imagine how it would make you feel. What would you do, trapped with all of it around you?” Tears wet her eyes, and she blinked rapidly to banish them, her eyes still sore from the night’s weeping. “Tell me what to do.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“Jaska straightened, though his whole person seemed to wilt.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“Matrona's heart retreated until it hit her spine, and she quivered with its every beat.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“It was those dolls...so strange and disarming. Matrona had never seen their like before.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll

“Matrona imagined her flush was made of thousands of biting ants, and the soft breeze blew them off her skin as she walked, carrying them back into the wood.”
― Charlie N. Holmberg, The Fifth Doll