Emma > Recent Status Updates

“There's no name for this sickness, no diagnosis, no treatment mentioned in my father's medical books. You could stand next to me and never guess my symptoms. Metaphor: I am afflicted by colours—grey, hot red, maw-black, gold. I can't always see how to go on, how best to live with an affliction I can't explain and can't cure.”

“That statue of the Virgin was like Maria, with her brown hair and bright face. Only Maria is no virgin. She is a horrible tramp. Maybe Mary was the same. I just don't care anymore, I hope she's happy, wherever she is now.”

The time skip hit me like a truck

“I don’t want to be anybody’s girl; I want to be my own person.”

Super bummed to be almost done with this

“A part of me wonders if I should stop bathing or wet myself at school or make my father cry, so that I have a real reason to feel ashamed. All I’ve done is fall for Susannah. It is not shameful or radical or wild. Anybody would fall for Susannah. I never meant to upset anybody.”

“‘My cousin had [the boat] for twenty years. I was on her many times. But then she had to sell her.’
‘Why was that?’
‘I don't know. She always says it's not a very funny story and changes the topic.’
‘Maybe it was for a man.’
[Giacomo] frowned. ‘You keep searching for a man in all this. That isn't her story. Maybe it's yours?’”

“This is a moment of great peace, when, for the first time, I am not afraid of my feelings. I want her, I just want her, there isn't anything sordid about it—actually, it's the most beautiful feeling I've ever known.
It is simple. It is natural. I move, I kiss her.”

“Where her body is pressed into mine, our skin glows. These parts of me are beautiful.”

“Does liking Susannah make me the same as that? I don’t want to be a thing that the village isn’t supposed to know about.”

I’m charmed by everything going on here

The sapphic yearning is really beautiful but there are things happening with the punctuation in this book that no sane editor should have ever allowed

This has to be one of the most visually stunning books covers I’ve ever seen

“It's not nice to admit, because [Susannah] is my friend, but when she is in class with me, I feel under such pressure to concentrate and be smarter than I am, because I can't think of anything more embarrassing than failing in front of her.”