elle

“The Chinese say, ‘There is a book in every family that is best not read out loud.’ There are many Chinese families who have not confronted what happened to them during the Cultural Revolution. The chapters of that book have been stuck together with tears and cannot be opened.”
― Xinran, The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices

“So Alecto, wearied of talking, kneeled upon the rock and offered up the sword to her, and placed the child’s hand upon the blade, so that it received also the red blood of the child. This made the child exceeding faint, but it did not swoon of weariness.

Which strength pleased Alecto, who said: Notwithstanding, I offer you my service.

To which a voice on the opposite side of the shore was raised, exceeding wroth, and Alecto heard it shout in a very great shout: Get in line, thou big slut.”
― Tamsyn Muir, Nona the Ninth

“Western culture is undergoing a process of transition from guilt-oriented, with a conscience, to shame-oriented, with a morbid fear of being found out.”
― John Brunner, The Jagged Orbit

“Lucía has made me feel things I’ve forgotten, like mercy. It’s no longer silent dynamite, but something else; it’s like a new heart, beating inside the old one.”
― Agustina Bazterrica, The Unworthy