Meredith, Alone Quotes

“There's no hierarchy of abuse. Trauma is complex and very personal.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“stare at her face, trying to find a tiny piece of love.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“her voice anymore—it’s always in my head. Telling me I’m not good enough. I try to silence it, but I can’t.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“I wondered if I'd misheard him, if I'd imagined things, if it was ever possible to outgrow the person you'd been raised to believe you were. Or if I was stuck with her forever.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“My default position - giving people less reason to be annoyed at me when no reason existed in the first place”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“Some people aren’t designed to be nurturers.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“Mysterious. I whisper the word in my mind, trying it on for size. Maybe it wasn’t too late to consider a different version of myself from the one Mama had strapped me into, like a too-tight coat.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“As if I would actually have something interesting to tell her. I watched her hand”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“She’s bought me nostalgia in a tall, slim bottle.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“remind a handful of people I’m still alive.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“Anger is always about something else, isn’t it? Like rejection, or fear, or grief.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“If Mama taught me anything, it was that what other people think is of paramount importance.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“I wondered what it was like to feel so safe that you believed nothing bad would happen to you, ever.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“We had hope.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“I’m longing to hear other people’s happy voices in another room”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“Who would invite you to a party?”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“few minutes pass, as slow as death. A man”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“I could choose faith over fear.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“Your father, angelface, had terrible skin. It used to shed all over the place, like a snake. I think yours will be even worse. We’ll need to get you a vacuum cleaner to keep under your bed.” She laughed, expelling a cloud of smoke.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“You come from bad stock, Meredith,” she said eventually. “Your skin will get worse as you get older, so you might as well accept it now. One day, you’ll wake”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“She has faulty genes,”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“But being a princess for a few short hours had ignited a fire in my belly. “No,” I said.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“My mother laughed. “What do you have to be depressed about?”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“I’d strive to be Mer, and not Death.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“Anger is always about something else, isn’t it?”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“often describe it as a feeling of doom. Always feeling as if something bad is going to happen, even though my rational brain tells me that’s unlikely to be the case.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“She needs me. If that isn’t a good enough reason to leave my house, what is?”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“On Boxing Day, I have a panic attack.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“angry at her for ruining my entrance into the world.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone

“Maybe she loved me in the beginning, a bit,” Fiona said. “By the time you came along, her life was really shit.”
― Claire Alexander, Meredith, Alone