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7042f69
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Gemma, you see how it is. They've planned our entire lives, from what we shall wear to whom we shall marry and where we shall live. It's one lump of sugar in your tea whether you like it or not and you'd best smile even if you're dying deep inside. We're like pretty horses, and just as on horses, they mean to put blinders on us so we can't look left or right but only straight ahead where they would lead. Please, please, please, Gemma, let's..
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Libba Bray |
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1cf779b
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For a second, I stop fighting and think about what he's asking me. Did I live? I made a best friend. Lost another. Cried. Laughed. Lost my virginity. Gained a piece of magic, gave it away. Possibly changed a man's destiny. Drank beer. Slept in cheap motels. Got pissed off. Laughed some more. Escaped from the police and bounty hunters. Watched the sun set over the ocean. Had a soda with my sister. Saw my mom and dad as they are. Understood m..
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Libba Bray |
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fe047f5
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Could you look again, please?" the woman asked in a clipped, slightly British accent. "It was sent parcel post two weeks ago from Miss Felicity Worthington and addressed to Mrs. Rao, Mrs. Gemma Doyle Rao." --
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Libba Bray |
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eebf0c7
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What frightens you? What makes the hair on your arms rise, your palms sweat, the breath catch in your chest like a wild thing caged? Is it the dark? A fleeting memory of a bedtime story, ghosts and goblins and witches hiding in the shadows? Is it the way the wind picks up just before a storm, the hint of wet in the air that makes you want to scurry home to the safety of your fire? Or is it something deeper, something much more frightening, ..
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Libba Bray |
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40ca264
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We've barley stepped into the bright glow of the realms when everything goes dark...
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Libba Bray |
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fc31db4
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And sometimes I just don't want to sparkle.
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Libba Bray |
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d0cb0dd
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Depressive," Evie said, testing the word on her tongue. "I didn't know there was a name for that feeling. Like there's a rain cloud in your soul." She knew that feeling well. Sometimes she was the life of the party. But other times she was lonely, bleak, and sick with disgust at herself, and certain that the people who said they loved her were only pretending. She called these times the "too muches": too much feeling, like opening a door an..
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Libba Bray |
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5ff9166
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It's Yiddish. Like...Ikh hob dikh lib." Evie narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "What does that mean?" Sam smiled. "Maybe one day I'll tell you."
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sam-lloyd
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Libba Bray |
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d86a079
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It was funny how one afternoon with a best friend could set a girl right.
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Libba Bray |
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108f42e
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There's no time to be modest. Reason will not work here. Without warning, I kiss Kartik. His lips, pressed firmly against mine, are a surprise. They are warm, light as breath, firm as the give of a peach against my mouth. A scent like scorched cinnamon hangs in the air, but I'm not falling into any vision. It's his smell in me. A smell that makes my stomach drop through my feet. A smell that pushes all thought out of my head and replaces it..
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kissing
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Libba Bray |
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2312ded
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I am creating an atmosphere! Oh, Unc, we've finally got bodies in this joint! Paying bodies. We could have a good racket going here." "I'm not interested in a 'racket.' I'm an academic." "That's okay, Unc. I won't hold it against you."
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Libba Bray |
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be6a32a
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So I slap on that smile and pretend everything's okay even though it's not.
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okay
pretence
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Libba Bray |
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dc8966c
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It's only his thumb brushing slowly across the lower edge of my lip, but it's as if time slows and the sweep of that thumb below my mouth takes forever. It is no spell that I know of, but it holds such magic, I can scarcely breath. He pulls his hand away fast, aware of what he's done. But his touch lingers.
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Libba Bray |
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6158bd0
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He frowns. "A dance with the carnivorous Felicity? Why? Has she eaten all the other available gentlemen?"
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Libba Bray |
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fbbd15e
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Besides, things you loved deeply could be lost in a second, and then there was no filling the hole left inside you. So she lived in the moment, as if her life were one long party that never had to stop as long as she kept the good times going.
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Libba Bray |
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cd28965
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Sometimes I just want to burn down all the rules and start over.
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Libba Bray |
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716f03d
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There's a moment of profound sadness that can be dispelled only by summoning my anger.
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Libba Bray |
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715a9b6
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There's an -or- in -whore- because you always have a choice to respect your body and say no.
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whore
sexuality
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Libba Bray |
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dec6299
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J.T Woodland, known as "the cute one" in The Corporation's seventh-grade boy band, Boyz Will B Boyz. Due to the success of their triple-platinum hit, "Let Me Shave Your Legs Tonight, Girl," Boyz Will B Boyz ruled the charts for a solid eleven months before hitting puberty and losing ground to Hot Vampire Boyz."
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Libba Bray |
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3995987
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Taylor clapped for attention. "Miss New Mexico, let's not get all down in the bummer basement where the creepy things live. There are people in heathen China who don't even have airline trays. We have a lot to be grateful for."
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Libba Bray |
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fb3312e
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The dull pain of truth weights my soul, pulling it under. I am left hopelessly awake.
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Libba Bray |
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751230d
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When you peeled back the skin, you were dealing with bone and muscle, blood and nerve endings. It was all the same. She liked the beautiful logic of the circulatory system, the elegance of the neurological, and the fierce warrior spirit of the heart. The body had rules and it had quirks.
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Libba Bray |
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a33b6f1
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She bestowed the blessing of a wild girl's lips.
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Libba Bray |
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407fc51
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A pair of Blue Noses on the next bench glared their disapproval at Evie's knee-length dress. Evie decided to give them a real show. She hiked her skirt and, humming jauntily, rolled down her stockings, exposing her legs. It had the desired effect on the Blue Noses, who moved down the platform, clucking about the "disgrace of the young." She would not miss this place." --
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Libba Bray |
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f3ff7c3
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You're not a man. You're their . I don't care about you, or your brother, or your ridiculous organization. From now on, I shall do exactly as I wish and you cannot stop me. Do not follow. Do not watch. Do not even attempt to contact me or you'll be sorry indeed. Do understand?
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gemma-doyle
libba-bray
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Libba Bray |
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9ba02b7
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Theta crashed next to them on the thick zebra-skin rug. "I'm embalmed." "Potted and splificated?" "Ossified to the gills. Time for night-night."
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Libba Bray |
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9f1d1f6
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I'll be counting the cats when I come over. There better be the same number each time.
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Libba Bray |
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298bc96
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Before the Devil breaks you, first he will make you love him. Beware, little sister. Beware the King of Crows!
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Libba Bray |
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a78b33c
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But sons are a different matter to a man. More a duty than an indulgence.
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Libba Bray |
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abeea60
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And now if you'll excuse me, I should like to finish my book, alone, without the presence of a single ringleted girl to disrupt me. If you should come for me at dinner and find me in my chair, gone to the angels at last, you shall know that I died alone, which is to say in a state of utter bliss.
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reading-books
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Libba Bray |
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8c2a943
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They misspelled 'party.' How evil genius can they be?
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Libba Bray |
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9724698
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We created order out of chaos. We made beauty and shaped history. We kept the magic of the realms safe in our grasp. How has it come to this?" "You've not kept it safe. You've kept it to yourselves." She shakes her head to dismiss the thought. "Gemma, you may still use the power for much good. With us to help you-" "And what, pray, have you done to better the lot of others?" I ask. "You call each other sisters, but are we not all sisters? ..
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Libba Bray |
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02c6f52
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I wouldn't expect you to get it, Daisy. You don't look at anything besides Photoplay--and even then somebody's gotta explain the pictures to you." Daisy's mouth hung open in outrage. "Well, I never!" "Yeah, that's what you tell all your fellas, but the rest of us aren't buying it. Go away, now, Daisy. Shoo, little fly!"
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Libba Bray |
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6c0d7c9
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She smiled as sweetly as a show poster for the glorified, all-American Ziegfeld girl just before dumping her second cigarette into Wally's fresh cup of coffee.
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Libba Bray |
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e08b72e
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Life is too short not to be who you are
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Libba Bray |
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c704309
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He smiles sadly. "Now I know my destiny." "What is it?" "This." He draws me in to him in a kiss. His lips are warm. He pulls me tighter in his embrace. The roots sigh and release their hold on my waist and the wound in my side is healed. "Kartik," I cry, kissing his cheeks. "It's let me go." "That's good," he says. He makes a small cry. His back arches, and every muscle in his body tightens."
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Libba Bray |
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5bee797
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It was hard to feel safe in the world when you were a girl.
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Libba Bray |
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35808f1
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Miss Moore speaks slowly, deliberately. "I know because I read." She pulls back and stands, hands on hips, offering us a challenge. "May I suggest that you all read? And often. Believe me, it's nice to have something to talk about other than the weather and the Queen's health. Your mind is not a cage. It's a garden. And it requires cultivating."
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Libba Bray |
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1a968c8
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In truth, it is the simplest act in the world. The trick works because you wish it to. You must remember the most important rule of and successful illusion; First the people must want to believe it.
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Libba Bray |
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de9f4fe
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I think that the lady dies not because she leaves the tower for the outside world but because she lets herself float through the world pulled by the current after a dream. Do you mean she should of paddled Cecily asks. Miss Moore laughs. In a manner of speaking yes. Ann stops drumming. But it wouldn't matter whether she paddled or not. She's cursed. No matter what she does she'll die. And she'll die if she stays in the tower too..
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Libba Bray |
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448ab63
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Her eyes take on that suspicious, wounded look girls get when they know they've fallen off the top rung of friendship and someone else has passed them, but they don't know when or how the change took place.
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friendship
libba-bray
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Libba Bray |
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5d1565d
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No one had ever said anything like that to Evie. Her parents always wanted to advise or instruct or command. They were good people, but they needed the world to bend to them, to fit into their order of things. Evie had never really quite fit, and when she tried, she'd just pop back out, like a doll squeezed into a too-small box.
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Libba Bray |
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253a091
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What about you and me, Adina?" Duff said, sidling up to her by the railing. "I know I screwed up. But do you think we could start over?" Adina thought about everything that had happened. Part of her wanted to kiss Duff McAvoy, the tortured British trust-fund-runaway-turned-pirate-of-necessity who loved rock 'n' roll and mouthy-but-vulnerable bass-playing girls from New Hampshire. But he didn't exist. Not really. He was a creature of TV and ..
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love
self
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Libba Bray |
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1f93c77
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I've learned that feminism is for everybody and there's nothing wrong with taking up space in the world, even if you have to fight for it a little bit, and that if you don't feel like smiling or waving, that's okay. You don't have to, and you don't have to say sorry. Mostly, I've learned that I don't really care if you like these answers or not, because they're the best, most honest ones I've got, and I just don't feel like I can cheat myse..
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Libba Bray |