No drugs, no alcohol. The only thing throwing a spike is…

“made her realise, again, how lucky she’d been to grow up in a secure, loving home.”

— Sarah Hilary

“You always always put family first, no matter how rotten. A bad family’s better than an empty sty. You don’t cut off a stinking…

— Sarah Hilary

“He was nineteen, serving time for a double murder committed five years ago, when he was fourteen.”

— Sarah Hilary

“We’re solitary by nature. Aren’t we? Even families … Fundamentally, I mean.”

— Sarah Hilary

“Her heart staggered and stuttered in her chest, like a rat caught in the cage of her ribs.”

— Sarah Hilary

“Many will have suffered depression as teenagers or young women, so they’ll be familiar with that stigma, the way treatment involves judgement. It shouldn’t,…

— Sarah Hilary

“Wiring in nooses from the ceiling, waiting to be connected, plugged into the rest of the city.”

— Sarah Hilary

“The house was bay-windowed, clinging to its original features the way a pensioner clung to her handbag on pension day. The neighbours had put…

— Sarah Hilary

“It became its own discipline, the fear of failing to do as they said; a voice in her head berating her before anyone else…

— Sarah Hilary

“An idea was knocking about in the back of her head, like a moth at a dimly lit window.”

— Sarah Hilary

“That no matter how loud you shout, sometimes you’re left alone. Sometimes, no one comes.”

— Sarah Hilary

“His temples throbbed but the migraine had retreated, leaving a soft wash of endorphins in its wake. He lay blinking at the pillow, light-headed…

— Sarah Hilary

“To check the fan’s working before the shit hits.”

— Sarah Hilary

“For my mother, the best in the world”

— Sarah Hilary

“Not all loss was about grief. Sometimes it was the loss of fear, or consequence. Loss could be liberating.”

— Sarah Hilary