Brook’s Reviews > King of Ashes > Status Update

“We love our parents not because they are perfect but because they persevere despite their imperfections. We all fall short of grace, but the beauty lives in the attempt.”

“This was the room of a grown man. A grown man who was a fragile assemblage of his worst impulses, but a grown man nonetheless.”

“Sometimes the man wearing the crown ain’t the man that’s supposed to be the king.”

“You ask good questions. People who are careless don’t ask good questions. They can’t think around corners.”

“There’s a thousand ways to die, he thought, but sometimes all it takes is one thing to make you want to live. Like your brother remembering what you like on your pizza.”

“They’re scary, but they’re scared of things too. Jail, losing respect in the street. Getting pushed off the block. It’s their weakness. It’s why they’re so violent. Creating this reputation makes people less inclined to cross them.”

“The morning sun baptizes both sinner and saint alike.
Before the day is done, they will encounter both.”

“Was he still angry at his mother?

If he was, that anger smoldered under the weight of his love for her in much the same way his disappointment in his father lay buried under his gratitude for the man.”

“‘He wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t put me out there like that.’

‘Why wouldn’t he? Because y’all are friends? I work with money every day. Money is like acid. It burns through everything. Friendships, family, lovers, husbands and wives. Whatever bond you think you have, money will make that shit dissolve. It’s acid. Don’t ever lie to yourself and think it ain’t,’ Roman said.”