Amy’s Reviews > Anna K: Away > Status Update

“Her name’s Tiare and she’s my girlfriend. My first real girlfriend. I love her. Like I really love her. She’s knocked me off my feet and I get it now. I get how Alexia felt about you. Over and over, he told me how you were different, how he’d never felt this way before. That it was like looking out at a field of flowers but only seeing one flower. […] But I get it now with Tiare. She's my one flower.”

“It was bizarre to see him, this person she had dated for years. He now seemed like a stranger, a very familiar stranger.”

“‘Ahh, I’m going to tell you the same thing I told him. Life is long and lovers come into your life for three things: a reason, a season, or a lifetime, and no one knows which one it is until later,’ Jimela said.”

“‘it didn’t feel real to me. It was hard for me to take everything in while I was there and now that he shared so much with me in his letters, I feel like I’ve left things unsaid. I wish I could go and visit his grave site again. I’m in a much better headspace now than I was in June.’
‘Maybe you should go,’ Jules said. ‘Take it from a writer. There’s nothing worse than things left unsaid.’”

“‘Not exactly…’ Ashton said. ‘WTF Wyatt ended up becoming a coke addict and wound up in rehab. He’s now studying theology and wants to be a minister, so there’s always a dark side to any good drama.’
‘Giving up drugs and finding religion is the dark side?’ Kiril asked.
‘Yes,’ said Ashton. ‘It is.’”

“Overwhelmed with emotion, she finished the rest of [the] letter. She got ready for bed thinking every girl should be lucky enough to read a love letter on a midnight train to Paris.”

“Punga was the ancestral god of sharks, sting rays, and all deformed and ugly things. Punga would read the letters, delight in them, and gobble up the anger for his meal.
Tiare knew it was a silly fable, but it made her feel better. Her mother told her that holding on to anger didn’t make a person stronger, even though it felt like fuel for strength.”

“She didn’t feel sad. She didn’t feel numb. She felt normal, meaning she wasn’t suppressing the desire to scream. But these days waking up to a baseline of okayness was a big win. She marveled over the relativity of her emotions, how not feeling depressed translated into hope. Perhaps the dark clouds hovering over her life were beginning to lift.”

“The baby otters were much bigger than last time, and she was surprised at her genuine joy that something in the world was growing and fortifying itself, and not falling apart, like she was.”

“Anna said she heard people were traveling to Rome just to dance at this club.
‘Why do you think that is?’ Quentin asked.
‘Because it’s random.’ She shrugged. ‘It’s hard for people to deal with all the unknowns in their lives, so maybe fun mysteries make it okay to handle uncertainty.’”