Beverly Martinez

“See, anxiety doesn’t just stop. You can have nice moments, minutes where it shrinks, but it doesn’t leave. It lurks in the background like a shadow, like that important assignment you have to do but keep putting off or the dull ache that follows a three-day migraine. The best you can hope for is to contain it, make it as small as possible so it stops being intrusive. Am I coping? Yes, but it’s taking a monumental amount of effort to keep the dynamite inside my stomach from exploding”

At first I didn’t like the slow aspect of this book but quickly I started to love it, watching them grow together then apart and then just hold onto each other was so humane and heart breaking. “No one can be independent of other people completely, so why not give up the attempt, she thought, go running in the other direction, depend on people for everything, allow them to depend on you, why not.”

This story was quite odd and at some times I couldn’t read much for I was so confused but it’s beautifully written and I can relate deeply to Craig about his perspective of life. “I can't eat and I can't sleep. I'm not doing well in terms of being a functional human, you know?” Real.

“I wonder how long it would take for anyone to notice if I just stopped talking”. The way Melinda deals with rape and the self silencing and isolation is just so sad to me. The whole thing with the tree inspired me to create my own artwork

Linus and her were so cute. I adored this book, Audrey character was well written and her anxiety was portrayed so nicely, the descriptions and everything

The way I can see myself in both Jonah and vivi fulfilled my heart to the max. The writing. The absolute raw and unexplainable emotions. I love this book so much.

Made me cry hard. I don’t necessarily understand what she went through but I can feel it and feel for her. The rage. The sadness. The pain. The defeat.

The love between these two were adorable, I really understood Lily when she spoke about her monster <3

“The thing about a spiral is, if you follow it inward, it never actually ends. It just keeps tightening, infinitely” - aza.