Iโm from the health department. Youโve heard of Typhoid Mary? This fellaโs got enough typhoid to start his own colony.
Libba BrayYou want to know what pain is? Try running out of Advil when you've got a Category Five period. I've had cramps that would make grown men beg for a bullet between the eyes." - Jennifer, "Beauty Queens
Libba BrayShe was tired of being told how it was by this generation, whoโd botched things so badly. Theyโd sold their children a pack of lies: God and country. Love your parents. All is fair. And then theyโd sent those boys, her brother, off to fight a great monster of a war that maimed and killed and destroyed whatever was inside them. Still they lied, expecting her to mouth the words and play along. Well, she wouldnโt. She knew now that the world was a long way from fair. She knew the monsters were real.
Libba BrayYou and I, we must carry on, Gemma. I cannot afford the luxury of love. I must marry well. And now I must look after you. It is my duty." "If you wish to suffer, you do so of your own free will, not on my behalf. Or Father's or Grandmama's or anyone's. You are a fine physician, Thomas. Why is that not enough?" "Because it isn't," he says with a rare candor. "Only this and the hope of nothing more? A quiet respectability with no true greatness or heroism in it, with only my reputation to recommend me. So you see, Gemma, you are not the only one who cannot rule her own life.
Libba Bray