Quotes From "Sever" By Lauren DeStefano

It taught that there are three versions of things: the one I see in my mind, and the one that carries onto the paper, and then what it ultimately becomes. 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

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 chorus that has to be sung. 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. I feel like all the words on the pages are for us. 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

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

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 Vaughn is. She's broken. Only broken. Lauren DeStefano

I think he's beginning to understand, and understanding is a horrible thing. Lauren DeStefano

She’s a commodity in a sea of broken girls. 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

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 would ever satisfy him. There was no other way that we would be free. Lauren DeStefano

I think humans have always been desperate. I think it has always been about doing something awful if it might help, when the only other option is death. Maybe that's what being a parent is supposed to feel like. Lauren DeStefano

My father warned me that you’re an interloper. He told me I should make you leave, since we’re no longer married and you’re not my concern, ” he says. The thought gives me a chill. Yes, I’m sure Vaughn would love for his son to abandon me, so that Vaughn can swoop in and reclaim me the second I’m alone. But Linden adds, “I told him that wouldn’t be a good idea either. Lauren DeStefano

Home?' I say. It's a word that can mean anywhere and nowhere. Lauren DeStefano

We'll squeeze every second that we can from our lives, because we're young, and we have plenty of years to grow. We'll grow until we're braver. We'll grow until our bones ache and our skin wrinkles and our hair goes white, and until our hearts decide, at last, that it's time to stop. Lauren DeStefano

His lips are familiar. I know the shape of them, know how to make mine fit against them. His taste is familiar too. For all the illusions and colors and sweet smells... he has always tasted like skin. His breaths are shallow. I'm holding his life against my tongue, between my rows of teeth. He's offering it up. Lauren DeStefano

There’s this anomaly that happens sometimes with twins. It occurs in the womb when the fetuses are growing too closely to each other. The stronger twin develops normally, while the weaker twin crumples and is encased by the body of the stronger twin, where it becomes a parasite. The result is a single child, plagued by a twin-shaped fossil inside. Like a tumor. In death Rose became Linden’s parasitic twin. They were two separate organisms once, growing steadily beside each other. Two pulses. Two brains. But she has crumpled and died, and still he carries her inside himself. She goes where he goes, feeling nothing, seeing nothing, a shadow behind his ribs. Lauren DeStefano

I watch the ashes swim around like dandelion puffs, making swirls where bodies and walls once stood. Lauren DeStefano

I think she's brave. I think that nobody has ever believed what she could be capable of. All her life, nobody was listening. Lauren DeStefano

There is a dark place calling to me, but I will not go just yet. I know I can't return from it. Lauren DeStefano

A feeling can't kill you. Lauren DeStefano

Vaughn is talking about the heat, and his voice is so excited that it breaks into whispers at times. He loves his madness the way a bird loves the sky. Lauren DeStefano

When we're alive, life consumes us. But when we die, all of the color and the motion is gone so quickly, it's as though it can no longer stand to be wasted on us. Lauren DeStefano

Maybe it is desperation, " I say. "Maybe we can't let things fall apart without trying. We can't let go of the people we love." He looks at me, and in the sunlight his eyes come alive with greens and golds. "Sometimes we can, " he says. Lauren DeStefano

He talks softly, patiently, as I sit on the window ledge and watch boats with colorful triangles for sails scratch the ocean. Lauren DeStefano

I see an ocean that’s spilled out of a wineglass, its body clear and sparkling and folding over itself. I see a ribbon of sand. Lauren DeStefano

This time as we ascend, I watch the world sinking below us. I watch the way the city fades into sand that gets washed by the ocean. Lauren DeStefano

There's a world out there that nobody has bothered to promise her. Lauren DeStefano

Even things that aren't broken can be fixed. Lauren DeStefano