Magic for Liars: A Novel

I didn’t want to let the Ivy I could have been get swept away by the Ivy I was. So I made a choice.

If you need to hurry, her oft-repeated saying went, you’re already too late.

MONDAY MORNING CAME ON LIKE a head cold.

I tried to summon the courage I imagined I’d have if this was a place I belonged.

let people know that there are questions being asked, and they’ll line up to give you their version of answers.

wire-reinforced casement window behind my desk. The sunlight caught the threads of silver in Torres’s pin-straight black bob. I felt the sliver of camaraderie that I always experienced in the presence of other salt-and-pepper women,

as if she had access to some well of wisdom that I’d never thought to drop a bucket into.

I would say I considered getting stitches, but it’d be a lie. I’d let my arm fall off before setting foot inside a fucking hospital.

toward the juvenile that said, We still get to be kids, right?