“It's an interesting idea: the regenerating heart. After all, we do go on, no matter how much we shudder with grief. And maybe our hearts don't ache because they're scarred or broken or because something is wrong. Maybe they ache because they are shape-shifting. Like the growth spurts of our youth, they make us quake with change; but once weathered, they leave us stronger and even more ourselves. Not our final selves, or our best selves, or even our improved selves, but just our next selves. As I now know, we are always between selves. It doesn't mean we are lost—It means we are growing.”
― Before I Forget
― Before I Forget
“Time can wash dirt off of a memory until it is revealed as something else entirely.”
― The Bright Years
― The Bright Years
“Which is more intricate?” he mused. “The designs of men, trying to reach gods, or that of gods, trying to reach men?” My hammer collided with a chunk of granite. “What is either to the intricacies of women, who reach both?”
― The Knight and the Moth
― The Knight and the Moth
“He was a good man. But good men die. To free them, to protect them, we must be savages. So give me evil. Give me darkness. Make me the bloodydamn devil if we can bring even the faintest ray of light.”
― Golden Son
― Golden Son
“What I didn't know then: coming of age isn't something you can choreograph, and it doesn't happen all at once. You start the process; you stall; you regress; and then comes another growth spurt. Eventually, your path looks like a series of paw prints in the snow-layered, as if compelled by confusion or curiosity-that double back before veering off in the direction of destiny.”
― Before I Forget
― Before I Forget
Mary’s 2025 Year in Books
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