Status Updates From Pearly Everlasting

"Papa often told stories of the creatures who lived in the trees. And always there was Jack in the Dark, riding through the woods on his bone horse, crossing between camps at night, listening for those he might be able to snatch away while they slept. “Clip clop, clip clop, where will his bone horse stop?” Papa asked, slow as a horse considering."

Beautiful writing!

"Papa, our camp cook, brought home a squalling, still-blind bear cub who would come to be thought of as my brother and who would dictate, through little fault of his own, the trajectory of my life."

"He was there then too—my brother, Bruno—curled up against my spine, his pale snout tucked under my chin, one of his long-clawed paws always resting against my ribs."