It’s never been a perfect world. It’s never going to be. It’s going to be hard and scary, and if you’re lucky, wonderful and awe-inspiring. But you have to push through the bad parts to get to the good.

from The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

Who are we if not the stories we pass down? What happens when there’s no one left to tell those stories? To hear them? Who will ever know that I existed? What if we are the only ones left — who will know our stories then? Who will remember those?

from The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan