This book somehow found a way to put into words everything that mentally ill people(including myself) have been trying to say. The fluid descriptions in this book of PTSD, high-functioning depression/anxiety, and dissociative disorders were just so REAL. Finally a book thats not afraid to show the truths of what mental illness is and not romanticize it in the slightest. This is an absolute 5 star read and I honestly recommend it to EVERYONE.

Similar to Reminders Of Him, this book is a touching and heart-wrenching story of the relationship between mother and daughter. It‘s a perfect mix of romance, friendship, family, grief, and betrayals. It‘s a dual point-of-view, and very impressive that Hoover can capture both of the characters outlooks so perfectly.

“I‘m scrubbing one of the bottles when it happens. I start crying. Lately when I start crying, I can‘t turn it off. I cry with Elijah at night. I cry with him during the day. I cry in the shower. I cry in the car. I have a perpetual headache and a perpetual heartache, and I wish the world would end. All of it. The whole world.

You know your life is shit when you‘re handwashing baby bottles and praying for Armageddon.”

“Men are terrible.”

“It means people who make mistakes usually learn from them. That doesn‘t make them hypocrites. It makes them experienced.”

“It‘s time I figure out who I was meant to become before I started living my life for everyone else.”

“You‘re a sacrificer. I don‘t even know if that‘s a real word, but that‘s what you are. You do things you don‘t want to do to make life better for the people around you. That doesn‘t make you boring, it makes you a hero.”

“There‘s this thing inside every one of you. The collective human call towards violence. All it takes is one singular moment to encourage it into play. And the lamb transforms into the lion.”

“Renee wanted to say Muslim wasn‘t a word for terrorist any more than educated was for smart.”

“Despite every claim otherwise, he's a coward. And a coward with a gun is treacherous.”

“The future expected you. Now it mourns for you.”

“Guns don‘t kill people. People kill people.”

“People kill people. Guns just make it easier.”

“ “How much of that bible story is true?”

“I think it all has to be true, or none of it.”

“The angels? Really?”

“Why not?”

“Because bad things happen. If there were angels, then bad things wouldn‘t happen.”

“Maybe angels aren‘t always meant to stop bad things.”

“So what good are they?”

“To be with us when bad things happen.”

“Then where the hell were they?”

I thought Reverend Ballou was going to start bawling.”

I finished this book in one night, it was so amazing. It‘s a heart wrenching tale of grief and loss with a plot and ending that can only be described as tragic. The powerful narrative truly tells a story of both successful and failed second chances that had me absolutely bawling.

Colleen Hoover never fails. All books by her make me cry, but this one had me sobbing before I even got to the second chapter. It‘s a beautiful coming-of-age tale of redemption and how sometimes forgiveness hurts more than holding a grudge and empathy is hard to acquire. I was laughing, crying, and turning pages needing to know what came next. I think every human in the world needs to read this book and understand the reason it was written.

This book was a quick read, but hit me like no other. It‘s a gruesome and overly-descriptive dystopian tale of how a virus has contaminated all animal flesh, so cannibalism becomes legal. Every page is more gory than the next and paints a picture in your mind that you don‘t want there. It really displays the monstrosity that is humanity, with a feeling of darkness and unease overall.

“The shadows were not terrifying. They were the proof that light exists.”

“She wanted her son to be smart enough to get out of this nightmare, but not smart enough to know that he was actually inside one.”

“What are the two types of people who can see things that aren‘t there, Kate? Visionaries and psychopaths.”

As most of you know, I ADORE Colleen Hoover. But this book was just plain bad compared to her others. The romance was dry, forced, and toxic. The love interest has anger issues and struggles with mental health, and that is completely romanticized. The famous CoHo plot twist was cliche and added nothing to the plot, and the ending left me dissatisfied and frustrated. It took tons of energy to push through and hope it got better, but It never did.

“If you are a good parent, you watch your children, Make sure they‘re safe. If you fail, don‘t blame some outside force. You look in the mirror and take responsibility. That‘s the problem with the world. Nobody takes responsibility. Someday, the police will catch the psycho who did this. And when they do, the monster will cry and say he was ‘abused by his parents‘. That‘s bullshit. There IS such a thing as insane. There IS such a thing as evil.”

This is the first book I‘ve read that genuinely scared me enough I had to stop reading after EVERY PAGE. I was able to pick out a few quotes:

“We can swallow our fear or let our fear swallow us.”

“Adults dont remember how powerful they are because somewhere along the line, they were shamed for their imagination.”

“Everyone gets an ending. Whether or not it‘s happy is up to them.”

“Heaven and Hell are not destinations. They are decisions.”

“My brain hurts and I cry all the time. I don't want to be here on Earth for one moment longer.”

“But I never did try very hard to please my mother. In fact, I never tried hard to please anybody at all after that day in the locked room. Now I only try hard to please myself. That is all that matters here. That is the secret thing I found.”

“It's a lonely life.”

“And when at last you find someone to whom you feel you can pour out your soul, you stop in shock at the words you utter— they are so rusty, so ugly, so meaningless and feeble from being kept in the small cramped dark inside you so long.”

“I desire the things that will destroy me in the end.”

“Is there no escape from the mind?”

“When you are disliked by someone. It is proof that you are exercising your freedom and living in freedom, and a sign that you are living in accordance with your own principle.”

“Your unhappiness cannot be blamed on your past or your environment. And it isn‘t that you lack competence. You just lack courage. One might say you are lacking in the courage to be happy.”

“Do not live to satisfy the expectations of others.”

“I am very interested and fascinated how everyone loves each other, but no one really likes each other.”

“Sometimes, I read a book, and I think I am the people in the book.”

“I want to sleep for a thousand years. Or just not exist. Or just not be aware that I do exist. Or something like that. I think wanting that is very morbid, but I want it when I get like this. That‘s why I‘m trying not to think. I just want it all to stop spinning.”

Everyone in the world needs to read this book and the quotes in it.

“I think that if I ever have kids, and they are upset, I won't tell them that people are starving in China or anything like that because it wouldn't change the fact that they were upset. And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn't really change the fact that you have what you have.”

“I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be.”

“I would die for you. But I won't live for you.”

“So, I guess we are who we are for alot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.”

“Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn't stop for anyone.”

“We accept the love we think we deserve.”

I read this book early in the year, before I started Litsy, and it was too impactful on my life to not write a review here. It‘s a heartbreaking coming-of-age story with a main character I relate to so much that it physically hurt at times. It lacks the usual cringe found in novels like these and instead has a dreadful and tragic but realistic plot and ending.

I read this book two weeks ago. Then I read it again, and again, and again. I can‘t express the amount this book has changed my life. The worldbuilding was alluring and dark, and the fantasy elements were so engaging. The book as a whole was just heavenly and gave off an otherworldly yet realistic energy I‘ve never found while reading before. I loved how romance is a subplot and not a main focus. This book reached all my expectations and more.

“Monsters are real. Ghosts are too. They live inside of us, and sometimes, they win.”

“The tears that heal are also the tears that scald and scourge.”

“We sometimes need to create unreal monsters and bogies to stand in for all the things we fear in our real lives.”

“Small children are great accepters. They don‘t understand shame, or the need to hide things.”

“I spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn‘t have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.”

“But kissing Locke never felt the way that kissing Cardan does, like taking a dare to run over knives, like an adrenaline strike of lightning, like the moment when you've swum too far out in the sea and there is no going back, only cold black water closing over your head.”

Love love LOVE these quotes.

“Let's have a toast. To the incompetence of our enemies.”

“Because you‘re like a story that hasn‘t happened yet. Because I want to see what you will do. I want to be part of the unfolding of the tale.”

“There‘s always something left to lose.”

“That‘s what comes of hungering for something; you forget to check if it‘s rotten before you gobble it down.”

“Nice things don‘t happen in storybooks. Or when they do happen, something bad happens next. Because otherwise the story would be boring, and no one would read it.”

Two Jude quotes that I feel really show her character development from a timid mortal girl into a mortal hungry for revenge.

“What could I become if I stopped worrying about death, about pain, about anything? If I stopped trying to belong? Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.”

“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”

This book was PHENOMENAL. The riddles, the plot twists, the characters, everything. I‘ve already re-read it twice after finishing it a few weeks ago. I absolutely loved the first book too, but the plot and ending of that one pales in comparison to this one. I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys hard to guess mystery/riddle books with a love triangle element and lovable characters.

I first read this book in grade six, and at the time I didn‘t appreciate it. Rereading it now it is a MASTERPIECE. It‘s a psychological thriller with a murder mystery element, scarily relatable psychopathic characters, and quotes i‘ll never forget. It‘s fast-paced with short chapters and it definitely got my adrenaline pumping every chapter.

“When a story grabs ahold of you, it won‘t let you go until it‘s ready.”

“Be careful when your feelings are too strong, when you love someone too much. A heart too full is like a bomb. One day it will explode.”

“No one thinks the people they love are monsters. Because love is the greatest liar of all.”

“All of life is a bunch of activities we do in a row to pass the time until there is no more time for us to pass.”

I LOVE this book, and these quotes.

“Loving someone should never be a problem and never feel like one, but by then I already knew firsthand it wasn't that simple.”

“The power you get from being pretty is cheap.”

“People act like being angry is a bad thing. Calm down, sit down, shut up, be a good girl. F*ck that. Anger is power, a weapon, and a gift. Anger takes the pit in your stomach and makes it a black hole, and everybody better watch out.”

“Life messes us up in so many ways, messes all of us right the hell up. And when we fumble and bumble around, crashing into one another, stepping on toes and hearts, it's not on purpose. Being a person is nearly impossible.”

“Depression lies to you, she said. EVERYBODY LIES TO YOU, I said.”

I‘m not quite finished this book yet, but I understand why it‘s a “forbidden” classic. I don‘t think anyone who‘s sensitive to topics of mental health/suicide should read it, but it really is a masterpiece so far. Sylvia Plath may have been spiraling into despair and madness, but she really does have a way of words with describing it.

This book had so many memorable quotes, but these three really stuck with me.

“Grudges are heavy, but for the people hurting the most, I suppose forgiveness is even heavier.”

“We‘re all just a bunch of sad people doing what we have to do to make it until tomorrow.”

“No matter how much you love someone, you can still do despicable things to them.”

I absolutely LOVE this quote.

“Reading is a hobby, but for some of us, it‘s an escape from the difficulties we face. To all of you who escape into books, I want to thank you for escaping into this one.”

“I take a drink of my coffee and close my eyes and cry because life can be so cruel and hard, and I‘ve wanted to quit living it so many times, but then moments like these remind me that happiness isn‘t some permanent thing we‘re all trying to achieve in life, it‘s merely a thing that shows up every now and then, sometimes in tiny doses that are just substantial enough to keep us going.”

“People say you fall in love, but fall is such a sad word when you think about it. Falls are never good. You fall on the ground, you fall behind, you fall to your death. Whoever was the first person to say they fell in love must have already fallen out of it. Otherwise, they‘d have called it something much better.”

When your child dies, you feel what you‘d expect. All that's written about mourning is the same. It's all the same for a reason. The sensations are always the same. But this is what noone says- when it's your child, a part of you, a very tiny part of you, feels relief. At last, the moment you have been expecting, dreading, preparing for since the day you became a parent, has come.
It's arrived. Here it is.
And after that, you have nothing to fear.

“Life is so sad. It's so sad, and yet we all do it.”

These are two quotes I really liked.

“Fairness is for happy people, for people who have been lucky enough to have lived a life defined more by certainties than by ambiguities.
Right and wrong, however, are for—well, not unhappy people, maybe, but scarred people; scared people.”

“But what was happiness but an extravagance, an impossible state to maintain, partly because it was so difficult to articulate?”

“Wasn‘t friendship its own miracle, the finding of another person who made the entire lonely world seem somehow less lonely?”

“Things get broken, and sometimes they get repaired, and in most cases, you realize that no matter what gets damaged, life rearranges itself to compensate for your loss, sometimes wonderfully.”

“Certainly mare will suspect. She knows me well enough by now. I have to kill her, at the end of this.
Her life or mine.
A difficult choice, but i‘ll choose myself.
I do it every time.”
-Maven Calore

“Everyone is someone else‘s pawn, wether we know it or not.”