Loved this book. For me, it puts a magnifying glass on the grotesque behaviours that men have and still do, inflict on women, simply because of gender, this warped idea that one is stronger than the other. As a man this book is a huge insight into the reality of the power struggle, along with being a great page turner and great thriller.
19 Highlight(s)
She mutters so low that Margot can barely hear, 'Six months.' 'Six months?' Mistake. Never express incredulity, never alarm.
Eve passed the apple to Adam. Allie thinks, Maybe she was right to do it. Maybe that's what the world needed. A bit of shaking up. Something new.
Nothing that either of these men says is really of any great significance, because she could kill them in three moves before they stirred in their comfortably padded chairs. It doesn't matter that she shouldn't, that she never would. What matters is that she could, if she wanted. The power to hurt is a kind of wealth.
She thinks, That is how a man speaks. And that is why.
no mere message could bring stillness. There is the feeling of a festival in the building; all the ordinary rules seem to have been suspended. The beds go unmade, the girls take what foods they want from the pantry without waiting for mealtimes, there is singing and the playing of music. There is a glitter in the air.
He reads online forums where men say that if all the men in the world had one everything would be back the way it ought to be. They're angry and afraid.
'Come home,' says Temi. 'Come home for six months and we'll find you a nice girl. You're twenty-seven, man. Getting old! It's time to settle down.'
Of course, there's a meeting point in the parking lot of a Denny's. Of course there is. Of course, there's a blindfold ride in a jeep and men wearing black – all white men – with balaclavas over their faces. These are men who've watched too many movies.
helicopter crashes and guns and muscles and punching. Guy flicks.
unfortunately, the break was too profound for them to be sure she'd be able to cure it. Besides, he wasn't right for this televised segment. Acne.
Roxy knows why they haven't called Bernie home. He'd hate Ricky for this, even if he tried not to. This is not what happens to a man. Except now it is.
'At first we did not speak our hurt because it was not manly. Now we do not speak it because we are afraid and ashamed and alone without hope, each of us alone. It is hard to know when the first became the second.'
They sell girls one other thing; quietly, on the side. Be strong, they say, that's how you get everything you want.
One of them says, 'Why did they do it, Nina and Darrell?' And the other answers, 'Because they could.'
There'll be no doubting him after this, there'll be no asking what he is; they'll know what he is when they see what he can do. He's not a man in women's clothing. He's one of them, as strong as them, as capable.
You can't put anyone into a box. Listen, even a stone isn't the same as any other stone, so I don't know where you all think you get off labelling humans with simple words and thinking you know everything you need.
Allie says: Are you trying to tell me there's literally no right choice here? The voice says: There's never been a right choice, honeybun. The whole idea that there are two things and you have to choose is the problem.
This is the trouble with history. You can't see what's not there. You can look at an empty space and see that something's missing, but there's no way to know what it was. I'm just … drawing in the blank spaces. It's not an attack.
You're one of the good ones.