They promised Meredith nine years of safety, but only gave her three. Her father was supposed to be locked up until Meredith turned eighteen. She thought she had time to grow up, get out, and start a new life. But Meredith is only fifteen, and today her father is coming home from prison. ... read more
A summary is not a play-by-play of the book to the very end so people get spoiled before they get to read it...it's meant to be a teaser and a short description of the plot...
“I shake my head, too miserable to speak. I know now that I'm the only one who really understands the threat and if I'm ever going to be free of him, really free, once and for all, then I will have to bite the bullet and spend time in his company. Stake out the sacrificial lamb. Uncoil the rope so he can hang himself.”Meredith
“Ms. Mues and Nigel are talking, but I'm caught up in the fantasy of my father's permanent absence. It's a siren song that promises peace and remains maddeningly out of reach.”Meredith
“Memorize his face so when I close my eyes I can still find him.”Meredith (about Andy)
We wait to be rescued, but for whatever reason, no one comes. We figure that if no one protects us then we must not be worth protecting so we become prey and are easily picked off. Our wounded, kicked-puppy gazes attract sly predators and we sell ourselves for clearance sale prices, mistaking screwing for caring.Highlighted by 53 Kindle customers
We binge, purge, sleep around. We drink too much and get too high, anything to blot out the past. We accept and endure beatings and humiliations because our fathers, our uncles, and our mothers’ twisted boyfriends said they loved us, too, right before they broke our bones and tore our tissue, right before they made us receive them.Highlighted by 47 Kindle customers
We don’t see what we should see because having anyone is still supposedly better than being alone.Highlighted by 45 Kindle customers
“Chirp is dead,” I hear myself say and watch the flat words destroy his pleasure. “You killed her, and now you have to deal with me because I’m what’s left.”Highlighted by 36 Kindle customers
We have babies because we want them to love us, to make us important, but they only make us tired and fat and stinking of spit up because they’re babies, not saviors. Their fathers leave us, sick of crap and sour milk, sweatpants and tears. But the babies still need all of us, only there isn’t anything left to give because we based our worth on the lowlifes who knocked us up and around.Highlighted by 36 Kindle customers
Doesn’t anyone realize that one touch, one time will destroy a child’s life ten times faster than a pack-a-day habit?”Highlighted by 26 Kindle customers
The odds are high that the best of me has already been ripped away and that if I don’t keep hold of myself I will lose what’s left. Without the structure of my rules and rituals, I’m a free-for-all open to any guy who wants to hurt me. And I don’t want to be hurt anymore. I want to be someone who makes it through.Highlighted by 24 Kindle customers
I forgive him for not being what I want and am thankful for his being what I need.Highlighted by 20 Kindle customers
And I wonder, not for the first time, how Ms. Mues can dwell in darkness fifty-two times a year and still see so clearly while my own mother, a creature of sunlight and shine, sees nothing at all.Highlighted by 18 Kindle customers
One is the primary number from which all others grow. It’s an upsurge of power and the beginning of all things. One is the first day of the week. One is the loneliest number. Seven, on the other hand, is the number of completion. Seven deadly sins, seven virtues, seven vices. On the seventh day, God rested.Highlighted by 17 Kindle customers
The chapters are 1- 20
As this is a book concerning incest survival and sexual abuse, of course the reader must be mature enough to handle such themes.
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