Benny

“[...] feels gratitude, to the pages, for teaching him, already, that while it's okay to be scared, you've got to push back while you tremble.”
― Josh Malerman, Malorie

“He was still seen as weird.
If he was noticed at all.
[...]
Flipping through the book, reading page after page of spirits with names like djinn and stafie, he realized he wasn't the only one who didn't feel seen. That the world was filled with entities who were here but invisible, present but ignored.
[...]
She wouldn't understand that he sees ghosts as, no pun intended, kindred spirits. That when he opens The Giant Book and sees illustrations of all these scary, fantastical, misunderstood spirits, it feels like they could be the friends he lacks.”
― Riley Sager, Middle of the Night

“That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before. You do that first in your head, and then you make it real.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

“And that’s what they want, kid. For you to strive to be more like them and less like you. Sure, you’ll never be one of them, but the illusion is there so you’ll try to be. That’s their trap and it works every time. The more you try, the more misery you’ll generate, because it goes against human nature to be so dead inside.”
― Todd Keisling, The Smile Factory