

“In Vietnamese, the word for missing someone and remembering them is the same: nhớ. Sometimes, when you ask me over the phone, Có nhớ mẹ không? I flinch, thinking you meant, Do you remember me?
I miss you more than I remember you.”
― On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
I miss you more than I remember you.”
― On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
“Junior has always been bad. Bad is a self-fulfilling prophecy that, heard enough times, is believed: I am bad. The constant question, Why are you so bad? That time he stole. All the times he stole. He is always stealing, always wanting more. The answer he receives is always no -- no matter how practical and from the heart the thing is that he desires -- because he will surely ruin it, for he is bad and he must be punished for his badness. This is where we diverge. I become a black woman in the way I have been taught: silent, undeserving, inadequate in every way. And he becomes a black man: unpredictable, scary. Bad.”
― The Names of All the Flowers
― The Names of All the Flowers

“I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane.”
― Looking for Alaska
― Looking for Alaska

“One way trauma can impact us is by the way it makes us consider a polite proximity to violence and oppression as comfort.”
― A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance
― A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

“I think about how often me and the boys I knew and know were taught to love each other through expressions of violence. How, if that is our baseline for love, it might be impossible for us to love anyone well, including ourselves.”
― A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance
― A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance
mego wego’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at mego wego’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by mego wego
Lists liked by mego wego