I once believed that "Speak" was Laurie Halse Anderson's only book, and I loved it. I recently learned she's actually written a lot of books and I was very excited to read them. Unfortunately I was mostly disappointed by this book. I really wasn't invested in the story until the last 80 pages, which is a huge difference from the instant hook I felt while reading "Speak". That's not to say this is a bad story, it's features a strong young woman character handling a tough situation admirably. I guess I just don't relate enough to this book to find it interesting, but I still want to read more books from her.
"There are two types of people in this world: 1. Zombies 2. Freaks. ... everyone is born a freak. ... every newborn baby, wet and hungry and screaming, is a fresh-hatched freak who wants to have a good time and make the world a better place."
"It's always there - fear - and if you don't stay on top of it, you'll drown."
"Sometimes I wonder if he cheats on us, too, if he's looking for new kids who won't disappoint him."
"It doesn't matter how much she loves him, he's not going to change."
"I called mom back to tell her I hadn't killed myself and then we got into a fight. Why? Because I didn't make my bed this morning."
"'You go to a cemetery on purpose?'
"'Isn't that the point?'"
"I kissed him until everything that hurt inside me melted into a pool of black water so deep I couldn't touch the bottom. As long as I was touching him, I wouldn't drown."
"'Do you think we've crossed the border...to the next town yet?'
"The moon chuckled. It did. I heard it."
"The remembering takes up every breath until there is no time for today. I pour a drink, ten drinks, so I can forget that I have forgotten today."
"Here's what you don't know. By five o'clock that morning, the officers had all gotten the message that the war would end that day. But lots of them ordered their men to keep fighting. ... Almost eleven thousand soldiers died on November 11, 1918. ... Politics beats out freedom, honor, and service every time. Don't ever forget that."
"Killing people is easier than it should be. Staying alive is harder."
"Odysseus had twenty years to shed his battle skin. My grandfather left the battlefield in France and rode home in a ship that crawled across the ocean slowly so he can catch his breath. I get on a plane in hell and get off, hours later, at home."
"I added it to the growing list of things I never thought I would do but did anyway."
"The clouds scuttled away from the sun and blinding light reflected off the fresh snow. We were standing in a sea of glass shards, millions of tiny frozen mirrors."
"I've been standing on the edge with you for years."
"Out there on the edge, the spinning of the earth had slowed to give us the time we needed to start giving each other again."
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