It always shocked me when I realized that I wasn’t the only person in the world who thought and felt such strange and awful things.

The job of reading is to use stories as a way into seeing other people as we see ourselves

You will not kill my girlfriend today, International Terrorists of Ambiguous Nationality!

Also, it was a bit hopeless," he said. "A bit defeatist." "If by defeatist you mean honest, then I agree." "I don't think defeatism is honest, " Dad answered. "I refuse to accept that.

And then something invisible snapped insider her, and that which had come together commenced to fall apart.

When it comes to girls (and in Colin's case, it so often did), everyone has a type. Colin Singleton's type was not physical but linguistic: he liked Katherines. And not Katies or Kats or Kitties or Cathys or Rynns or Trinas or Kays or Kates or, god forbid, Catherines. K-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E. He had dated 19 girls. All of them had been named Katherine. And all of them- every single solitary one- had dumped him.

Maybe this time she wanted to be found, and to be found by me.