You can lose yourself in repetition—quiet your thoughts; I learned the value of this at a very young age.

Haven't you ever noticed that life is like a series of movies?

Life is not a PG feel-good movie. Real life often ends badly.

When she needed help most, she was abandoned--and only when she offered help to others was she beloved.

I opened up to you and you judge me

Did you ever think about all of the nights you lived through and can't remember The ones that were so mundane your brain just didn't bother to record them. Hundreds, maybe thousands of nights come and go without being preserved by our memory. Does that ever freak you out? Like maybe your mind recorded all of the wrong nights?

Instead he thinks up the worst ending imaginable: Hemingway has Catherine die from hemorrhaging after their child is stillborn. It is the most torturous ending I have ever experienced and probably will ever experience in literature, movies, or even television. I am crying so hard at the end, partly for the characters, yes, but also because Nikki actually teaches this book to children. I cannot imagine why anyone would want to expose impressionable teenagers to such a horrible ending. Why not just tell high school students that their struggle to improve themselves is all for nothing?