“Our house has its back to the sea,' writes Hester in her journal. 'Below us, the ocean spreads to the sky, twitching wide and blue and hungry. One would think it to be infinite. But we, of course, know better.”

“I want to tell you a story about my mother, although of course it is also mine - inherited, along with dangly earlobes and a horror of deep water.”

“We're all made to the same pattern. Knitted up like a thrifty housewife's sock from scraps - random unravelled bits of yarn that used to make someone else, chance combinations from the hand-me-down wardrobes of dead strangers.But surely the execution must have an effect? After all, some knit better than others. I could never master it myself.”

“When they finally allowed the horses to slow to a walk, Vree dropped out of the saddle to stretch her legs. *We're going to forget how to get anywhere on our own two feet. Gonna end up looking like fat-assed officers.*Vree arched her back, rocked forward, then arched it again, working the stiffness out of her shoulders. *Giving the pounding it's taking, if my ass is getting fat, it's in self-defense.*”

“Peter." The fine hair along her spine rising, Vicky could feel the power in a name. This is who you are, it said. Come back to us.”

“Listening to God's word means a trust, a belief, that the word of God is alive and active in our midst, that it will touch us if we let it.”

“Claire "The Elysian Fields Guest House? Why didn't he just call it the Vestibule to Hell?"Dean "Because that would be bad for business?"From Summon the Keeper”