Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
Below are the most popular and impactful highlights and quotes from Almost Surely Dead:
“Baba and I might have been family, but family sucked.”
“Never make eye contact with anyone on the train. It was basic New York Woman 101.”
“I am not a victim. I am a survivor. And I will fight like hell.”
“I hugged him. He was my favorite parent. Ammi would never be happy with me. I knew that for sure.”
“No one ever tells you how to get through grief, how to not let it take over your life. Because it does. Every part of your life is hit. And sometimes, just when you think you’re turning a corner, months after your loved one died, you get hit by something new all over again.”
“When we searched his apartment, it had been cleared out. No fingerprints, no DNA anywhere. Someone went to a lot of trouble to make sure we couldn’t find them.”
“The urge to pick up the phone and call my mom and apologize was so strong, I felt a pain in my chest, like I couldn’t breathe. It was as if guilt from generations had been piled onto me, so that her disappointment in me was the only thing that sustained me. Gave me life. I was born to be a failure.”
“No one ever tells you how to get through grief, how to not let it take over your life. Because it does. Every part of your life is hit. And sometimes, just when you think you’re turning a corner, months after your loved one died, you get hit by something new all over again. It doesn’t stop. You just have to learn how to live with it, until the pain of them not being in your life anymore becomes a dull ache.”
“I hated sleepwalking. I hated never knowing what I was going to do. It was the main reason I never slept without pjs.”
“I was so desperate to earn my mother’s approval—anyone’s approval, really—that I stayed in a relationship with someone like him. Petty. Jealous. Controlling. Like I’d exchanged my family for a man who behaved just like them.”
“How do you grieve someone who hated you? I wasn’t sure how to, but I was trying.”
“Because once your family thinks you’re the source of all things wrong, you can never convince them otherwise.”
“I shrugged. “You know what they say. Sisters are the original frenemies.” “Who says that?” She laughed. “Me.”
