Todd > Recent Status Updates

“You have to wait until tomorrow to find out what tomorrow will bring” (104).

“Once Halloween is over, winter, like some capable tax collector, sets in, consciously and silently” (89).

“Couldn’t even bury her. I must have sat there an hour, I couldn’t move. Then the dogs came, and the sheriff with them.”

“He looked back at her. And in a way that only grandfather and granddaughter could do, together Cynthia and Cinder split open and laughter poured out of them. A laughter free enough to make the bottle (of giggles) on the table rattle.”

“You find out who your real friends are when stuff like this happens. Turn out I didn’t have any, but I’m glad Cooper does.”

“We’re part of the news cycle now, though, so things won’t stay quiet for long.”

“Then he drove to the main gate of Collins Aviation and waited.”

This feels like a detective story, as if it’s a YA hardboiled tale. Opening with the death of the protagonists sister, it’s easy to wonder where the story might go. Julia is trying to get some answers. “Why does it always feel like life is a stupid puzzle I’ll never figure out?”

“I wish I knew the right thing to say, but I don’t. I never do.”

“They’ll just see an angry black girl from the ghetto, acting like they expect me to act.”

“I guess it’s easy to say you love Jesus and harder to act like him.”

Within just the first 10 pages, I found three passages I absolutely *had* to share with someone else. Great character development already!

“What do you need us to do?”

Adeyemi really has a knack for chapter ending quotations!

“‘This stone.’ She lowers her voice. ‘What does it look like?’”

“He found a stick and defiantly wrote giant words in the damp sand.”

“Frantically, Neftalí waved.
And the boy waved back.”

Something about this reminds me of Haroun and the Sea of Stories or maybe even The Alchemist, seemingly simple storytelling that is trying to communicate so much more...

“I didn’t.”

“Mama says people who say ‘ain’t’ are stupid!”

“Mm? Well... you all must think I’m real stupid, then!”

“The day after the Corner Pocket Lounge meeting I had my first telephone conversation with the Grand Wizard himself.”

“There are never fewer than eight Tracey Ullman characters in any NYC nail salon at any given time.”

“Ideas Breed Us”

“The names alive are like the names / In graves.”

“Then Wesley said something that I’d never heard him say before:
‘I have a plan.’”

“It was almost noon, and I was getting ready to pack it in when the Bug Man pulled up.”

“We were also total drunk fuck-ups in 1987 and didn’t really know how to communicate things like feelings and phone numbers” (70).

“I have a gift. I can age people with my mind. This is who I am. And they cannot take this away from me” (84).

“Yeah. Just tired?”