"He looks up and the loss in his Noise is so great it feels like I'm standing on the edge of an abyss, that I'm about to fall down <i>into</i> him, i… - Patrick Ness

Many things that are true feel like a cheat. Kingdoms get the princes they deserve, farmers’ daughters die for no reason, and sometimes witches merit saving. Quite often, actually. You’d be surprised.

He loved physical books with the same avidity other people loved horses or wine or prog rock. He'd never really warmed to ebooks because they seemed to reduce a book to a computer file, and computer files were disposable things, things you never really owned. He had no emails from ten years ago but still owned every book he bought that year. Besides, what was more perfect an object than a book? The different rags of paper, smooth or rough under your fingers. The edge of the page pressed into your thumbprint as you turned a new chapter. The way your bookmark - fancy, modest, scrap paper, candy wrapper - moved through the width of it, marking your progress, a little further each time you folded it shut.

Hope is terrifying, Viola,' he said. 'No one wants to admit it, but it is.'
I feel my eyes go wet again. 'Then how can you stand it? How can you bear even thinking it? It feels so dangerous, like you'll be punished for even thinking you deserved it.'
He touched my arm, just lightly. 'Because, Viola, life is so much more terrifying without it.