Girl, Serpent, Thorn Quotes

“Stories always begin the same way: There was and there was not. There is possibility in those words, the chance for hope or despair.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“She had read enough stories to know that the princess and the monster were never the same. She had been alone long enough to know which one she was.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“Very well, then. Be angry. Be violent. But not for his sake. Not to do as he commands. Be angry for yourself. Use that rage to fight him.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“To anyone who has ever felt poisonous or monstrous or bristling with thorns.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“She was herself and not herself--she didn't know what she was, except that she was free.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“There’s something restless growing within you. We’re all very curious to see what happens when it breaks free.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“Beautiful yet deadly, he had called her. Somehow, he made one sound as sweet as the other.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“I was always afraid the poison would make me a monster, but what if trying to get rid of it makes me more of a monster than I was before?”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“I don't think you're small or insignificant," he said. His gaze softened, solemn rather than fierce. "I think you have so much power within you that it scares you, and that you make yourself small on purpose because you don't know what you'll become if a story than you ever stop.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“You were the only person who ever made me feel like I was the one worth protecting.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“Parvaneh seemed to be made of the night. She wore it like a gown, draped over skin that shimmered in the moonlight.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“If you told people what they most wanted to hear, they would almost certainly believe you.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“Do you see now why I recognized you? You’re my favorite story. I feel like I’ve known you for a long time.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“In the dungeon, I used to like making you angry,” Parvaneh said. She reached down to scoop up one of the moths and held it up to her face, brushing its wing against her cheek with a tenderness that only worsened the fluttering in Soraya’s stomach. Parvaneh let the moth fly away and looked Soraya in the eye. “But I think I like making you laugh even more.”
“Why did you like making me angry?” Soraya asked in mock offense.
Parvaneh grinned and swept aside Soraya’s hair, her fingers brushing Soraya’s cheekbone. “To see your veins, of course,” she said. Her hand moved down to trace the full claw mark on Soraya’s collar bone with her fingertips. “I always thought you . . . I thought they were beautiful.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“But trust me when I say that if I were you, I wouldn’t shed my armor for the sake of a kind word or a gentle touch. That’s my advice to you, from one monster to another.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“She liked to see the roses bloom for the first time in her garden, by her hand. It was proof that she could nurture as well as destroy.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“...for letting her think she was made if shame instead of beauty.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“Once hope was gone there was no point in fighting, and so she had no need for anger anymore.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“Yes, she knew who he was. She knew even before she had asked. She knew when she had looked up and seen him in place of the young man she had expected. But he still told her anyway. "I'm your favorite story," said the Shahmar”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“No, it wasn’t that he had killed them that bothered her—it was that he had done it so well.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“She had always thought guilt was an emotion, but now she understood that guilt was a sickness, a fever.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“...for letting her think she was made of shame instead of beauty.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“They were pressed so tightly against each other that when Parvaneh withdrew, Soraya felt like a piece of her had been peeled away. But Parvaneh remained within the circle of Soraya’s arms, her own hands gripping the bars on either side of her, and she whispered into the crook of Soraya’s neck, “What were you going to say before?”
“When?” Soraya asked, breathless.
“Before I interrupted you. You said you were still with me, that you were still my … my what?”
It seemed ridiculous that she could still blush in her current position, and yet she felt an unmistakable heat warm her face. “I don’t remember,” she said.
Parvaneh lifted her head, eyes sparkling. “Liar. You’re still my friend? My ally? Tell me. We have no secrets in this dungeon.”
“Yours,” Soraya said, looking Parvaneh in the eye, as if the word were a challenge. “I was going to say I’m still yours.”
Parvaneh arched an eyebrow. “Interesting,” she said. She leaned in again, brushing her lips against Soraya’s shoulder. “And how long have you been mine?”
Soraya tugged lightly on Parvaneh’s hair, making Parvaneh look up. “It was when I healed your wings,” she said, “when I touched you for the first time.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“I dreamed of you for so long. I would do anything to be with you. Even this.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“You’re my favourite story. I feel like I’ve known you for a long time.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“Sometimes the princess is the monster.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“What if there was a loneliness even deeper than the one she felt now?”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“She wanted to cry, to have a measure of release, at least, but she felt withered and empty. The smell of death and dirt from the dakhmeh still lingered on her clothes and in her hair. It was trapped inside her lungs, along with powdered bone remains that also stained her gloves and dress. But Soraya knew that even if she bathed and changed, even if she burned these clothes, she would carry the dakhmeh with her for the rest of her life. That was why the living should never enter the dakhmeh—there was no way to truly leave it behind.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“Would she ever become used to something as simple as the feel of someone’s hands on her skin? It seemed impossible.”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn

“Well," she said, holding her gloved hands out to him, "am I still your favorite story?”
― Melissa Bashardoust, Girl, Serpent, Thorn