Blog Tour: Breakable by Aimee L. Salter- Five Favorite Quotes

Today the YA Sisterhood is excited to host a stop on the blog tour for Aimee L. Salter's Breakable. This was one of those books that gripped hold of my heart, and stayed with me until long after I'd put it down. As a former high school teacher, I thought this book was so authentic and realistic. The voice was excellent, the plot in turns was unpredictable and heart-breaking. 

I recommend it for fans of John Green, Jandy Nelson, and Lauren Oliver. All in all, I can only say that this is one of my favorite books I've EVER read. The best compliment I can give it to say is that this book is going on my Harry Potter shelf. 

Here's the book blurb: 

If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?

When seventeen-year-old Stacy looks in the mirror she can see and talk to her future self. “Older Me” has been Stacy's secret support through the ongoing battle with their neurotic mother, relentless bullying at school, and dealing with her hopeless love for her best friend, Mark.
Then Stacy discovers Older Me is a liar.
Still reeling from that betrayal, Stacy is targeted again by her most persistent tormentor. Only this time, he's used her own artwork to humiliate her - and threaten her last chance with Mark.
She’s reached breaking point.
Literally.
"Original. Authentic. Heart-breaking. BREAKABLE has officially become one of my favorites!" -New York Times Bestselling Author of Losing It, Cora Carmack

What a cool cover, too! It fits so perfectly with the book, which is predominantly about art and self-image. 

The author was kind enough to stop by today, and give us a sneak peek at the book with look at her favorite quotes! This book was one of those where I could have easily highlight a favorite line on every page, so I was super excited to get to see Aimee's favorite.

Here they are!

Five Favorite BREAKABLE Quotes

As a novelist, every book is a story from the heart. There’s a connection with every word you write. But when Brittany asked me to offer up my favorite quotes from Breakable, I couldn’t pass up the chance.

See, even though I love the whole story, there are definitely moments – moments that make me laugh, or make me feel – where I have to stop and savor when I’m reading back through the manuscript.

I hope you’ll read the book and enjoy these moments as much as I do!

FAVORITE QUOTE #5: Stacy’s mother is, unfortunately, one of the people in Stacy’s life who contribute to her eroding sense of self-worth. I love this moment, because in it, Stacy shows her dry-side as an internal self-defense:

I met Older Me’s gaze, trying not to be obvious about my questions, while Mom prattled on about how to walk into a room like you owned it. Strange, I’d always thought she was born walking around as if her farts were gold-plated. I hadn’t realized she’d cultivated the talent.

FAVORITE QUOTE #4: Stacy is an artist, struggling for inspiration for a major competition. There’s a moment when she considers painting the people who make life hardest for her. I always enjoyed that passage because it felt like she took her pain and turned it into something productive:

I flipped back to the image of Finn and imagined turning the idea into a painting – using a spatula for hard lines to depict the sharpness of his features, heavy thick paint for his rhinoceros skin, fat brush strokes for his eyebrows, like caterpillars over his eyes, his long mouth a venomous slash of red and purple.

For Karyn I’d use glossy pastels – waxy crayons that shone on the paper. They’d do justice to her hair. I could layer red and white and beige and cream to make her cheeks blush. Then, when everything was done, use a tool to scrape her eyes out of the heavy wax so they cut through the viewer like they did through me. Her dimples would be hard to get right. I’d need to cut them into the acrylic, like her eyes. Holes in a poisonous blanket.

As her face came to life in my mind, I sniggered and pulled out the crayons to give it a shot. My hand moved quickly, inspired. A snapshot of possibilities sprang up on the paper in minutes – a shiny, waxy, plastic face that hid the darkness beneath.

I’d run a candle flame along the edge of her paper so it burned unevenly. The sooty remains would leave a dark stain on anyone who touched it.

My imagination ran away with me…

FAVORITE QUOTE #3: In this scene, Stacy’s adult self (called “Older Me”) offers her some insight. I don’t usually go in for “moral of the story” stuff, but this was a lesson I learned that it seemed like Stacy needed to learn too. And Older Me was just the person to teach it to her…

Older Me kept talking. “You think the way these people treat you is the end of the world. But I can tell you, it isn’t what happens to you in your life that destroys you. It’s what you do about it.”

“Are you trying to say it’s my fault everyone–?”

“No. I’m saying that you’ve had crap thrown at you. You can either clean yourself up and keep going and prove everyone wrong -- show them you didn’t deserve to get it in the first place. Or you can roll around in it and think you deserve it, and start acting like you do.”

Oh. “Is that what you did?”

She nodded. “Crappy things happened to me and I gave up. And believe me, when you give up, the crap just piles on thicker until pretty soon you don’t even realize it’s crap anymore.” She inched closer to me, her eyes piercing mine. “Stacy, if I had the chance to go back and live it again – to be in your shoes – I’d do it in a heartbeat. Because you’re going to walk away from this and figure out it wasn’t your fault.

“One day you’ll look back and realize that everyone you grew up with didn’t get it right. They didn’t actually know you. They didn’t really hear you. They were just so messed up, they threw all their own crap on you.

“But the thing is, if you can understand that it’s their problem, you’ll brush it all off and walk away clean. While they’ll still be looking for someone to dump on. You’ll win. It’ll be worth it.”

I couldn’t look away from her. “I don’t know…” Her words seemed so right. But I didn’t want to believe them because it meant I had to fight. And I was so tired of fighting.

FAVORITE QUOTE #2: There’s one line that always make me giggle. Something Stacy thinks to herself during her session with the Psychiatrist:

Doc raises his hands. “We’ll move on in a moment. But let me ask you one more question: If you walked out of here today and someone you admired – say, someone like Mark – were to ask you to get involved in a secret relationship now. Would you do it?”

Totally. But I say, “No.”  I’d have hair implants and call myself a cat if it meant Mark would stroke me one more time.

FAVORITE QUOTE #1: My very favorite quote in the book, though it covers an incredibly painful moment in the story, is Stacy’s analysis of her physical ordeal. I can’t tell you how she got to this point, or what happens afterwards, without ruining the story. But for me (and for Stacy) this moment always stands alone, crystallized:

There’s a special kind of pain reserved for dancing with shattered glass. It comes in stages:

The initial assault is fear; you see the glass coming and you know it’s going to hurt.

Then there’s the moment everything explodes and the glass tears at your skin, catching, peeling, shaving you away and you think, I might die.

Then the pieces fall and break into new pieces. You’re heading to the floor too, but they beat you there and all the tattered parts of you land on all the splintered parts of it. They are needles in open wounds. Knives on raw flesh.

And then the fire arrives – hot, burning flames that lick the wounds. And every time you move, the tiny pieces that stuck with you cut a little deeper and the flames roar higher.

In short, it sucks.

If only it ended there.

So there you have it! Thanks for taking a peek inside Breakable. If you decide to read the whole book, I’d love to hear from you at www.aimeelsalter.com or on Twitter (@AimeeLSalter) with your favorite quote!

This is one book that you guys don't want to miss! Everyone that I've pushed this book on has come back calling it one of their favorites. So pick up your copy (Available now from Amazon and Barnes and Noble), and prepare for THE FEELS.