“ We didn't make ourselves," she says. "We aren't the greatest things to exist. I can't believe that. I won't believe that. We have too many faults. Lauren DeStefano
“ We were his disposable things. Brought to him like cattle. Stripped of what made us sisters or daughters or children. There was nothing that he could take from us—our genes, our bones, our wombs—that… Lauren DeStefano
“ There is a silence so great that I can hear the ice crystals cracking and falling from eyelashes of girls who will never blink again. Lauren DeStefano
“ I start trying to stay unconscious. The problem with this is that no amount of willpower can change the reality. Lauren DeStefano
“ This is the real Madame. I can see why she hides herself in accents and gems and exotic perfumes. I can see why she's grown to hate anything to do with love. She isn't evil or corrupt the way that Vau… Lauren DeStefano
“ And so ends his rush from his greatest act of rebellion. He understands that no matter where he runs or how high he flies, he will always have to come home. Lauren DeStefano
“ It's quiet for a while, and then Rowan says; "We could talk now. We're alone out here. No walls.""There are always walls." I say. Lauren DeStefano
“ He looks at me, and I don't know what he sees. I used to think it was Rose. But she's not here with us now, in this room. It's just him and me, and the books. I feel like our lives are in those books.… Lauren DeStefano
“ He was now working his way through the many shades of grief. Sadness made everything gray, he'd learned, but there were different types of gray, some darker than others. There were dark spots in his m… Lauren DeStefano
“ I don't dare touch her. Loss is a knowledge I'm sorry to have. Perhaps the only thing worse than experiencing it, is watching it replay anew in someone else--all the awful stages picking up like a cho… Lauren DeStefano
“ She's been conned, ruined, left for dead, and she's not going to forgive any of it. She will soldier on, if only out of spite. Lauren DeStefano
“ Just being alive feels so arduous that all I want to do is climb under the covers and sleep. Lauren DeStefano
“ Jenna, standing in the doorway with her mouth and hand full of shelled pistachios, says, '"Real' is a dirty word in this place'. Lauren DeStefano
“ I have always been fascinated by the ocean, to dip a limb beneath its surface and know that I'm touching eternity, that it goes on forever until it begins here again. Lauren DeStefano
