Anna-Marie McLemore is one of my two absolute favorite authors. If it was possible to live in Anna-Marie McLemore’s words, I’d be happily doing so. I love her writing so much that I originally only planned to include seven quotes, but I didn’t have the heart to take out two more
McLemore currently has three books out, and I’m counting down the days until her next book, Blanca & Roja, which comes out in 2018. McLemore writes magical realism and draws a lot on family and romance. She doesn’t shy away from incorporating her own identities in her writing as someone who identifies as Latina and as queer, which makes her writing truthful and that much more impactful. McLemore’s writing is geared toward a YA audience, but please do not let that dissuade you if you tend to shy away from YA. Read below to see some of McLemore’s beautiful prose, and you can thank me later when you decide to buy or borrow all of her books:
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“He thought the feud was live ash a boot heel could stomp out. He didn’t notice it burning down both their houses.” (The Weight of Feathers)
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“Chloe’s voice was more knowing than Lian’s, but it was still soft, unthreatening, like she’d just woken Miel from a nap… It was a lit match produced from her palm like a magic trick, and the whole room going up like kindling.” (When the Moon Was Ours)
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“When they both realized they were heartbroken enough to want the love torn from their rib cages, they touched each other with their hands and their mouths, and they forgot they wanted to be cured.” (When the Moon Was Ours)
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“The difference between baptism and drowning is a few faithless breaths.” (When the Moon Was Ours)
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“When he realized he had hands, and a body, he crossed himself. Even before he could open his eyes, he lifted his fingers to his forehead and prayed the words…He could not remember when he had last had hands and a body, so thanking God for them seemed the thing to do if he didn’t want to lose them again.” (Wild Beauty)
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“There was no way to tell their mothers the truth and make them believe it, that their hearts that loved boys and girls were no more reckless or easily won than any other heart. They loved who they loved. They broke how they broke. And the way it happened depended less on what was under their lovers’ clothes and more on what was wrapped inside their spirits. What secret halls and trapdoors their souls held, and what each one hid and guarded.” (Wild Beauty)
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“Sorrow was a family heirloom, written into their blood like ink on a will.” (Wild Beauty)
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“”The rivers of ground folded him into their countless grains. The storm bound him and covered him…It held him so close it was teaching his body to become the ground. A ribbon of earth, thick and heavy, slid over his eyes, so he could not have seen even if he could open them.” (Wild Beauty)
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“Her heart was poison. It was a close tangle of thorns. Even when it held love, that love came sharp, and she didn’t know how to offer it to anyone except with the edges out.” (Wild Beauty)
Go check out the summaries for Anna-Marie McLemore’s books, read one (or all) of them, and then find me so we can mutually freak out over her books and her.