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Apr 22, 2018faithmurri99 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Sometimes terrible things happen. Sometimes miracles happen. Sometimes it's hard to tell which is which. Sometimes they're both necessary, and sometimes they're one and the same. "Stories are the wildest things of all" Amazing and heart-wrenching, this book is one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. It was not what I was expecting. This book itself was a miracle; it simply appeared on my bookshelf one day—I didn't get this book, but there it was, on my shelf, staring at me as I slept; not there one day, but there the next. I'm still not sure how it happened. You know that phenomenon where once you notice something, it suddenly becomes ubiquitous, as if it is haunting you? As if it hadn't existed before but now exists everywhere? My sister mentioned this book to me, said that she read it with some friends and that it was amazing, and then there it was, waiting for me, as if placed there by some unseen chaotic neutral entity, meant to tell me a story of complex humanity. "You do not write your life with words, the monster said. You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do." This book broke me and restored me. I haven't cried this much over a book in a long time. It is poignant and profound. I needed this. I still need this. This book contains in 205 pages more soul and meaning than many books accomplish in 600+ pages, and half of it is pictures (which are phenomenal, by the way; props to Jim Kay for tearing my soul out with ink). I will re-read this until I die, probably, and can't recommend it enough. If you're human, or even a monster as they're often the same, this is the book for you. "If you speak the truth, the monster whispered in his ear, you will be able to face whatever comes."