“You were protecting yourself. You wrapped yourself in armor and pretended to be invulnerable. Growing up inside that armor twisted you a bit out of true, but it doesn‘t matter. The essentials are all there.”
She searched my face. “The armor‘s getting too small, Aud. You have to choose.“
#QuotsyOCT21 day 30: disguise
pick4.5/5⭐ I love how the author made the pronunciation of Aud's name a legit, meaningful recurring theme rather than just inserting a one-time example.
The character growth throughout the book is extraordinary. The motif of Aud growing from larva into imago is beautifully, painfully, laboriously executed as she works through her grief, breaks out of her protective armor, & comes to an understanding with the world & people around her.
“You were protecting yourself. You wrapped yourself in armor and pretended to be invulnerable. Growing up inside that armor twisted you a bit out of true, but it doesn‘t matter. The essentials are all there.”
She searched my face.
“The armor‘s getting too small, Aud. You have to choose.”
Griffith is so good at description porn. Excuse me while I run into a forest and never return.
Exposed meant conspicuous, different, not fitting in, not feeling at home, at least not until you learn that your self is your home and no one can take it away.
That‘s what I wanted from the world, to feel nothing. To feel nothing and not be involved, for everything to stay comfortably outside myself and not get in. How did people survive all this knowledge of suffering in the world? How did they carry it around, day after day, and not go mad?
Stay | 
