Home > Author > Jennifer Giesbrecht
1 " You can learn a lot about someone's inner life if allowed to examine them the way their shadow does – close enough to breathe down their neck, but unnoticed, unremarked upon, invisible. "
― Jennifer Giesbrecht , The Monster of Elendhaven
2 " Johann grinned. "Right. So what's the prognosis, sweetheart? "
3 " You're awful,' Florian hissed out between chuckles. 'You're a vile creature.''Herr Leickenbloom, please.' Johann smiled easily. 'Don't underestimate me. I'm more than vile; I'm an honest-to-god monster. "
4 " Is this it? Johann wondered. The longer fall I was looking for? To know that I was summoned up from the dark ether to do a monster's deeds for Hallandrette's truest son? And when our work is done, I will carry him to the bottom of the sea, where we both belong. Deep beneath the silt our bones will turn to salt. "
5 " Power was sweeter than apples. It was cheaper than water, and sustained the soul twice as well. If Johann was going to be a Thing with a name, then from now on he would be a Thing with power, too. "
6 " Johann liked killing. He appreciated that every part of the killing act was a function of instinc, that any thinking person is only a breath away from an animal, a half creature with no name. "
7 " Monster was the best, his favorite word. The first half was a kiss, the second a hiss. "
8 " Unwise to dream of death in a world where someone has the power to make those dreams come true. "
9 " Don't you feel it, sometimes? As if the world wants to consume itself. "
10 " There's nothing to fear from the end of the world. Annihilation is a fire that cleanses what it burns. For a corrupted world, apocalypse is the only hope for redemption. "
11 " Thin ice isn’t a problem for the sea; it’s a problem for the blind idiot who steps out on it. The fool who breaks it gets sucked under; the ice, it mends. "
12 " But words are easily manipulated. History lives on in other ways. "
13 " Is that supposed to impress me?” “Don’t pretend that your melodramatic ego isn’t flattered by the idea that I might exist to soothe your broken psyche. "
14 " You're not afraid," he observed. "Why aren't you afraid?""Oh. Oh no." The air whistled through Florian's teeth as his tone danced along the edge of shrill. "I assure you, I am terrified. You're quite a fearsome man. But I am afraid of most everything, so I've found it useful to evaluate risks with a clear head in the moment and do all my screaming after the fact. "
15 " We move through cycles that grow shorter with earch rotation (...) First is creation; then we prosper; then we preserve. Then, decline. Finally, decay. The last cycle is a corrupted world, so far from the light. When this cycle collapses, the world folds in on itself. An then, we begin again. "
16 " I am ... a curiosity in a glass jar. "
17 " If Johann was going to be a Thing with a name, then from now on he would be a Thing with power, too. "
18 " Johann learned what sort of creature he was by accident. One day he slipped on a patch of ice. His ankle turned in the wrong direction and plunged him off a roof like a crow with a clipped wing. The ground swallowed him up, and the crunch of his neck against rock reverberated through every joint in his spine. It shuddered through his limbs and popped out the tips of his fingers and toes, a tiny earthquake that made ruin of his bones. He lay absolutely still for ten minutes, and then he stood up and wrenched his skull back into place. “Well,” he said aloud. “That was fucked up. "
19 " Johann grinned. “Right. So what’s the prognosis, sweetheart? "
20 " Magic is the energy we create by living and dying. It flows through us on its journey to somewhere else. "
