City of Ghosts

Embrace your strange, dear daughter. Where’s the fun in being normal?

Every time I get nervous or scared, I remind myself that every good story needs twists and turns. Every heroine needs an adventure.

Stories have power," she says. "So long as you belive them.

Sometimes help is a place and sometimes it’s a person, and sometimes it’s a bit of both.

There's a difference between wanting to stay and being too afraid to let go.

This is just a change of setting, a new storyline, a fresh chapter. We have a whole book to write," she says, squeezing me around the shoulders, "and how do we write it?" "One page at a time", I say automatically.

People think that ghosts only come out at night, or on Halloween, when the world is dark and the walls are thin. But the truth is, ghosts are everywhere. In the bread aisle at your grocery store, in the middle of you grandmother's garden, in the front seat on your bus. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there.

One foot in winter and one in spring. One foot with the living and one with the dead.

Nothing happens until it happens, and then it’s already happening.

and every second you don’t look, your mind just makes it worse because in the end, what you don’t see is always scarier than what you do.

our memories change, too. (For instance, I swear the teddy bear I had growing up was green, but according to my parents it was orange.) But when you take a photograph, things stay still. The way that they were, is the way that they are, is the way that they will always be. Which is why I love pictures.

When it comes to the strange and unexplained, it's important to keep an open mind.

The living may take strength from love and hope, but the dead grow strong on darker things. On pain and anger and regret.

Stories have power,” she says. “So long as you believe them.

I know you’re supposed to want to be one of the popular kids, but the truth is, I never have. It just seems like it would be exhausting, trying to keep up with all the rules.

Rule number sixteen of friendship,” I say. “Don’t go somewhere I can’t follow.

Ninth rule of friendship,” he says, “ghost-watching is a two-person sport.

She bounces off with all the enthusiasm of someone rushing toward cake, not corpses.

Dad says that the world is always changing, every second of every day, and so is everything in it, which means that the you you are right now is different from the you you were when you started reading this sentence. Crazy, right? And your memories change, too. (For instance, I swear the teddy bear I had growing up was green, but according to my parents it was orange.) But when you take a photograph, things stay still. The way that they were, is the way that they are, is the way that they will always be.

when you take a photograph, things stay still. The way that they were, is the way that they are, is the way that they will always be.

You don't think about how unnerving silence is until it's everywhere.

But the very first rule of friendship is don’t keep secrets.

Rule number seven,” he says. “Don’t be nosy.

Rule number twenty-one of friendship,” says Jacob. “Don’t leave your friend in the Veil.

No shame in being scared. But there’s a difference between being scared and being scared away.

Rule number thirty-three.” He says with a smile. “Friends don’t let friends get trapped in reflections?” “That’s the one.

Rule number six of friendship, Jacob. Friends don’t leave friends in the dark.

Usually, she’s tucked in the corner of a coffee shop, dreaming up stories.

No offense, Cass, but I don't care about Lara's inner Hufflepuff.

My camera was on the bedside table, the purple strap frayed and the viewfinder cracked. It was damaged but not ruined, changed but not destroyed. Kind of like me. A little special. A little strange.