Madeline’s Reviews > Something in the Woods Loves You > Status Update

“Depression and shame force us to practice and rehearse powerlessness until it feels like a defining feature of who we are.”

“Shame isn’t a creature of the here and now. It’s a tether to old mistakes, failed expectations, and predicted futures full of further disappointment. Shame is one way our human affinity for narrative becomes weaponized against us. With shame, we aren’t just a character in a cohesive storyline, we are the villain. The moral lesson of the tale centers on ourselves as examples of wrongdoing.”

“I entered a period in which the world had stopped being a source of wonder. The world was something to fend off; nature was a ghost in the attic, a memory of childhood. It wouldn’t pay my bills or quiet my persistent urge to end my life. A heron was a half remembered song from a dead age.”