ama

“What's as perfect as a girl stopped dead, midformation? Girl as blank slate. Girl as reflection of your desires, unmarried by her own. Girl as sacrifice to the idea of girl. Girl as a series of childhood photographs, all marked with the aura of girl who will die young, as if even the third grade portrait photographer should have seen it written on her face, that this was a girl who would only ever be a girl.”
― Rebecca Makkai, I Have Some Questions for You

“That night, I slept with unpleasant lightness, my brain balanced on unconsciousness like an insect’s foot on the meniscus of a pond.”
― Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time

“Autumn stomped on. The days moldered and dampened, like something lost at the back of the fridge.”
― Kaliane Bradley, The Ministry of Time

“[…] but her mother's death had revealed that there was no metaphor too ostentatious for grief. It was a terrible thing and demanded embellishment.”
― Kate Atkinson, Transcription