“He’d be the world’s luckiest man to stand there at the end of it all, to be the one left, trying to remember. The unluckiest too.”

“It is eerie in the deep tunnels. Lonely. Beyond the roar of the drill, I hear the voices of my friends, all older. But I cannot see them a half click above me in the darkness… They mine with meter-long drills, gobbling up the chaff. The work still requires mad dexterity of foot and hand, but I’m the earner in this crew. I am the Helldiver. It takes a certain kind— and I’m the youngest anyone can remember.” - Red Rising, Pierce Brown

“As mothers and daughters, we are connected with one another. My mother is the bones of my spine, keeping me straight and true. She is my blood, making sure it runs rich and strong. She is the beating of my heart.”

As someone who enjoys embroidery, sewing, and crafting, I probably would have read this sooner if I knew that these creative exercises were woven throughout this book, not only for scene setting, but as the way Isobel plans to make her way in the world. A retelling of The Scarlet Letter from the perspective of an imagined muse.

“‘We’ve been talking for hours now and I hardly know anything about you. Where are you from?’ She smiled. ‘This will sound very strange to you,’ she said, ‘but I’ve lived in so many places that I’m not entirely sure.’” - Emily St. John Mandel, Last Night in Montreal

“The moral of this story is: Beware the man who faces you unarmed. If in his eyes you are not the target, then you can be sure you are the weapon.” - Olivie Blake, The Atlas Six

On Saoirse Island, everything split into before and after the night a fire raged on the Salt Orchard and Lily Morgan was found dead deep in the woods. “Lush with secrets, magic, and a past that won’t stay where it belongs, this novel is (quite fittingly) spellbinding.” - Jodi Picoult