Ya Dystopian Quotes & Sayings

The Suitors Ball is fast approaching and it's a nasty reminder that my suitor will be chosen shortly. I feel sorry for the poor unfortunate guy, whichever one of them it happens to be. — Siobhan Davis

Odd names: Winter, Autumn - they almost sound as if someone just made them up. - Dubb — Richard Due

You're going to castrate them if they give me a sideways glance?"
He looked at the ground. "I'm not bringing you to the safest place and you're beautiful, so I needed to warn them."
"I'm beautiful?" I repeated trying not to smile.
"Don't let it go to your head, darling." He said holding his hand out for me.
"You're not too bad yourself."
"I know. I saw the way you stared at me when I took my shirt off." Hunter said. — Cassandra Giovanni

The city is a plague ... and I am the penicillin. — Jerry J.C. Veit

Landon drops the bloody knife and stares at Summer like he doesn't even know her anymore. The truth is, she'll never be the girl she was seven months ago. Too much has happened. Too much has changed.
"Why'd you do that?" Summer cries.
"To save you," he says.
But there's nothing left to save. — Laura Kreitzer

Shunting closer, I snuggle into his chest, soaking up his fresh woodsy scent. His arms encircle me and pull me close. "You always smell like home," I whisper under my breath. Smooth, soft fingers tilt my chin upward, and I'm startled when my face meets his. Tears glisten in his eyes as he looks at me adoringly. Pressing his forehead to mine, he kisses me sweetly, his lips making brisk tantalizing sweeps across my mouth.
"My heart is your home," he whispers, his voice breathless. "It always will be. — Siobhan Davis

You didn't tell Summer about it, did you?"
"What?" Gage scoffs. "Yeah, telling your girlfriend the Angel of Death might visit her if some switch is flipped is normal pillow talk. — Laura Kreitzer

Dammit, Gage. What the hell were you thinking?"
"I wasn't," he shouts. "I was upset she wanted to stay, and I lost it."
Ethan scoffs. "Yeah, you did."
"I'm an idiot."
"Yeah, you are."
"Shut up. — Laura Kreitzer

You won't find the tales I bear in any books ... My tales are from the Moon Realm. - Ebb Autumn — Richard Due

He's a lovely guy, but there's no spark between us whatsoever. It just goes to show, that even with all their fancy assessment tools, the government can't legislate for chemistry. — Siobhan Davis

Who would want to be the prey in a world full of hunters? — Alexia Purdy

Some people are just sad when there aren't talking squirrels. - Lily Winter — Richard Due

Heaviness coats my brain, and I'm surprised at the turn in our conversation; we're getting into the deep stuff. "Right now, you and me? This feels like fate, if fate can be felt. — Siobhan Davis

Everyone has to die at some point, so the thought of passing on together while holding hands with my one true love has always sounded like an amazing fairy tale. It reminds me of the old Shakespearean play Romeo and Juliet, and of the powerful love they shared. — Shannon Duffy

I just want to be with you. Walk next to you, Ivy, wherever you're headed. That's all. — Amy Engel

I can't - won't do that to him," Summer says sharply. "Or to myself. Besides, your feelings for me aren't real. The Society did this to you. And if they did it to you, they probably scrambled my brain too. I can't trust that any of this is real. — Laura Kreitzer

Be happy. Be free. You have a universe inside you. — Sophia Elaine Hanson

He's focused on something - or someone - over her shoulder.
The harmonious warbling of the rainforest morphs into organized disarray, as if a primitive maestro has thrown conducting to the wind and let Mother Nature take over. Birds trill a warning as the breeze rustles the plant life. Wings flutter overhead. A crescendo of stridulation changes tempo, the insects seemingly performing a sonata as the rhythm shifts yet again.
"What - who is it?" Summer asks in a strained whisper.
His gaze lands on her, his brows furrowing. "The Forsaken. — Laura Kreitzer

Why aren't you smiling?" Cameron asks. She picks up the Astropad and stops the video.
"Because this is the beginning, not the end. — Laura Kreitzer

Tavin cupped his hands to his mouth. "Here, dragon-dragon-dragon!" he yelled.
Lily stared in amazement. Well, that was bold, she thought, and stupid. — Richard Due

People. And the brutal things we do to one another.
The fence shakes against my cheek and I turn, careful to keep my gaze lifted. I don't have it in me to look at her again. Bishop is grasping the chain-link with both hands, knuckles white, his eyes closed. His whole body is wound tight as a spring, like if I reached for him he would simply break apart at the joints, splinter into a hundred pi8eces. I don't try to touch him.
He lets out a yell and then another and another, loud and wild and out of control. He shakes the fence hard with both hands. His anger and frustration are more potent somehow because they are unexpected. When his scream fades into silence, he rests his forehead against the metal. "Sometimes," he says, voice raw, "I hate this place." He twists his neck and looks at me, hands still hooked in the fence above his head.
"I know," I say, barely a whisper. "Me, too. — Amy Engel

The king who stepped into the ballroom wearing a green velvet robe and bejeweled crown was none other that the tiger-man who'd prowled through my nightmares and nearly every waking moment for the past two days. Chorda. — Kat Falls

Death and his scythe do not come. No sweeping black capes or ethereal escapes. There's no pearly gate, no prisms of colors as his soul slips away. The stillness is cold steel. The silence is empty with no memory to mend it. — Laura Kreitzer

No one survives beyond the fence. At least that's what my father always told me when I was a child. But I'm not a little girl anymore, and I no longer believe in the words of my father. He told me the Lattimers were cruel and deserved to die. He told me my only choice was to kill the boy I loved. He has been wrong about so many things. And I'm determined that he's going to be wrong about my survival as well. — Amy Engel

Seconds ebb and wane. She's not afraid of her voice anymore, but she's not entirely sure she trusts it. She's seen the damage caused with a single word. Right now, each one is a weapon, a conduit of war, and she won't just throw them out there all willy-nilly. — Laura Kreitzer

Her mum is leaning against the wall, arms crossed, when Summer exits. "Gage left from here a few minutes ago," she says, tone neutral. "His hair was ruffled." She gestures with her hand above her head.
The haze Gage left Summer in vanishes. She frowns.
Her mum sighs and steps forward. Smooths her daughter's hair. "If he hurts you," she says in a mild tone, "I'll kill him. — Laura Kreitzer

Bishop stares at me. "What do you want me to say, Ivy?" he asks finally. "That I agree with what my father did? That I don't? What's the answer you're looking for?"
"I'm not looking for a specific answer," I tell him, although the part of me that's been coached to kill him hopes he agrees with his father. "I want to know what you think."
"I think," Bishop says, "that we can love our families without trusting everything they tell us. Without championing everything they stand for." He delivers the words matter-of-factly, but his eyes are locked on mine. "I think that sometimes things aren't as simple as our fathers want us to believe. — Amy Engel

Her gaze travels back to the lie twisted in a tempest of mud and blood. She witnesses the culmination of her recklessness through a curved lens. Absorbed in life uncoiling, unaware of the world beyond this ridge. His light hair, darkened by rain. His stiff shoulders, full of pain. The vision poisoned with truth. With rust-stained hues. — Laura Kreitzer

When I see your scars, do I want to erase them? Absolutely. But not your physical scars. The real ones, beneath the surface. The ones that compel you to stay silent or force you to cringe. Those are the scars I want to obliterate." His finger circles the dip of a burn mark on her forearm. "This is a battle trophy and nothing to be ashamed of. Every one of your scars makes you more beautiful to me. — Laura Kreitzer

I thought it was just him," she says, ignoring him. "But then I found out I had the same effect, which means the Society did something to my head too."
Gage's eyes close, horror washing over him. "You really do love him."
"Yes. No. I don't know." Her cries start up again, piercing his heart. "Gage, help me."
"I love you," he says, holding her closer. "That's real. — Laura Kreitzer

Dreams deny her the freedom she truly seeks. Darkness consumes. Leg muscles burn. She runs away, even while lost in the paradise of sleep. Gravity is a crushing force bearing down on her chest, shattering wings and refusing her flight. A whisper in her mind. You don't belong here. — Laura Kreitzer

I work my way through the rest of my dates, but I'm only there in body. The boys usually give up after the first hour; it's difficult to have a conversation all by yourself. My ratings plummet, but at least my air-time is minimal now, I'm not offering much in the way of entertainment these days. — Siobhan Davis

I'm already under the covers when he comes in. I watch as he takes off his shirt and jeans, and climbs into bed beside me. On any other occasion, the sight and feel of his near naked body would send my blood pressure into orbit, but I'm so exhausted by the events of today that I'm incapable of feeling anything even close to desire. And he doesn't ask anything of me. — Siobhan Davis

The night surrounds, breathes across her skin. They're lost in the shadows of the moon. — Laura Kreitzer

Everybody stood dead still. It was as if now that we were about to get out of the Tower for the first time since the flood, we were scared, like we were crossing some line that we wouldn't be able to uncross.
Greenleigh — B.E. Scully

He glances back at me. "But there's hardly ever any activity outside the fence these days, at least close by. Only the people we put out, and they rarely try to get back into Westfall. I guess they figure it's better to take your chances out there than be guaranteed a death sentence in here."
"Either option sounds pretty horrible to me."
Bishop shrugs. "I don't know, sometimes I think we should just tear down the fence. Towns didn't have fences around them before the war and everything was fine. I think it was supposed to keep us safe, but instead it's made us scared. — Amy Engel

He smiles at her before ever opening his eyes. The innocence in his face ensnares. Wraps her heart in a cocoon.
They did this to him. The Society. Constructed that smile with malicious expectations. Now she must rip it off his face. Because she doesn't deserve his love. Or Gage's. This madness coils around her throat, darkening every inch of her soul. — Laura Kreitzer

I plant a gentle parting kiss on his lips, our strategy is well and truly screwed at this stage anyway. We barely lasted a day. — Siobhan Davis

Without the Dreamscape, we can't sleep.
My parents remind me all the time about stories their parents told them, of how things were in the Manic Age. The time before our bodies were upgraded to sync with the amazing invention called the Dreamscape. Thirty-eight years ago, people actually had to fall asleep on their own and, sometimes, they would toss and turn for hours. My grandparents said when sleep, in its mercy, did come, it often brought with it horrible images I've heard people used to call nightmares. — Shannon Duffy

No offense, doll, but that's not something I'm willing to share. I'd prefer to live a long and happy life if it's all the same to you."
"You can't just throw out vague allegations and then say nothing else!"
"See, that's the good thing about being a fugitive like me. I can do what the hell I like, and I'm not answerable to anyone." Stepping away from the bars, he stands with his legs stretched out wide. His stance matches his grin.
"Sure looks like that's working out well for you," I say, piercing him with a scornful look. — Siobhan Davis

But - " yelped Twizbang, "Greydor will eat us! — Richard Due

I want to see you naked. I want to touch you. I want you to touch me. I just...want. — Amy Engel

You should've told me," she repeats. "Because here's a news flash: You might've wanted to shelter me, but there's nowhere you can hide me that'll keep me safe from what's inside my head. — Laura Kreitzer

She feels him scoot closer, the heat of him radiating off his chest and absorbing into her skin. His legs straddle her from behind, and he places delicate kisses along her shoulder, her back, the very center of her spine. Each time is like an electric current surging through her, soul stirring and lovely. — Laura Kreitzer

A glacial chill rushes through Gage. He whips around just in time to see arms clutch Summer around the middle and drag her into the dark. Panic seizes him, and he takes off after her, regardless of the chaos brewing behind him. Her cry of surprise echoes all around them, drilling into his bones. — Laura Kreitzer

Maybe the Society was right all along. From the very beginning, that's what they called her. A time bomb.
Tick, tick, tick. — Laura Kreitzer

I'm sorry, he says. No two words were ever truer.
Still, she says nothing. Once a shield, now her taciturnity is brandished like a blade, carving away his sanity. She's the flaw in the paragon of life - the reason angels choose to dive to their downfalls in fiery comets of stardust. — Laura Kreitzer

Logan owns my heart, and he always will. Whether he is aware or not. Whether he wants it or not. That much I know with absolute conviction. — Siobhan Davis

May your song guide you home. — Sophia Elaine Hanson

Darian murdered them in cold blood. That's a crime punishable with life in the Terrorscape, where you experience the worst nightmares imaginable. — Shannon Duffy

He didn't save me, though. He allowed me the freedom to save myself, which is the very best type of rescue. — Amy Engel

Even if I did feel bad for Darian, I wouldn't admit it. Siding with anyone who violates The Protectorate would make me Noncompliant. That would make me almost as corrupt as him. To side with those who violate The Protectorate is strictly forbidden and punishable by a week in the Terrorscape. — Shannon Duffy

It's degrading being routinely subjected to a battery of medical tests to ensure I continue to deserve a place in this new world. — Siobhan Davis

Remember what I said when I led to Omar and the queen?" I bobbed my head, unable to look away from his jewel-like eyed, shining in the darkness...so much like Chorda's. "That was the lie. Good-bye, Lane," he said and then crept into the darkness. — Kat Falls

My romantic history since arriving on Novo has been non-existent, but I don't know what, if anything, came before; thanks to the government's cerebral pilfering. — Siobhan Davis

I'm not a complete idiot, you know," I tell him. "I do think about alternatives if things were to change in Westfall."
Bishop swings his legs off the sofa and sits forward, facing me. "I have never, not for a single second, thought you were an idiot, Ivy."
"You listen to your father, too, don't you?" I ask him.
Bishop looks down at his clasped hands, then back up at me. "Sometimes I just think that because of who we are... the president's son and the founder's daughter..." He rolls his eyes, making me smile. "It's doubly important that we think for ourselves. We're not our parents. We don't have to agree with everything they stand for. — Amy Engel

Every Forsaken in a mile radius can probably hear you. You're just asking for trouble if you two don't stop whipping out the measuring stick."
"It's his fault," Avery snaps, pointing at Julian.
"Shut up, ya wanker."
They start in on each other again. They yell as if they both have megaphones to their mouths, standing inches apart. Each vulgar insult is more illogical than the last. — Laura Kreitzer

[Anger] gave him the soul to keep fighting no matter how many times the world seemed bent on destroying him. He may be a broken young man, but he would never be a defeated one — Hannah Heath

It had been along time since I breached the surface of the world above. My parents wouldn't allow it. So as far as I knew, the survivors that remained were savages. I'd seen a few things before our colony was built and most of the inhabitants left ran wildly through the bare, desert terrain, filth covering them from head to toe, bones protruding their leathery skin, and foam dripping from their mouths in search of one thing ...
Nourishment. — Lauren Hammond

That's the funny thing about guns; even untrained hands can feel powerful using them. But take that gun away and you're left with nothing but a coward whose only skill is how to blindly pull a trigger. — Jennifer Wilson

Relax," the girl says. She holds out a hand but doesn't touch me. "We're not going to hurt you."
"Yet," the man in the doorway says with a smirk. — Amy Engel

Nobody wants to be born a One. One's have the shortest lifespan. They must turn themselves in to The Protectorate for termination at age twenty-five. If I were ever going to feel sympathy for Darian, it would be because of that. Knowing he'd die the youngest of all the citizens is probably what made Darian go mad. — Shannon Duffy

Just in case you're wondering," Gage says, breaking the silence, "this alliance of ours doesn't mean I like you."
"Feeling's mutual." Julian tosses him a disdainful look. — Laura Kreitzer

There comes a time when a man must forgo familiarity and venture into uncertainty; risking obscurity, but also quite possibly ... finding meaning. — Jerry J.C. Veit

If this is my final moment," she says, "then I can die happy."
"Is that why you're saying all this? Because you think we're going to die?"
"I don't know," she admits.
"Dammit, Summer." He clings to her waist, grip desperate, eyes heavy with torment. "You're saying everything I want to hear, but I don't know if I can trust it. — Laura Kreitzer

Who do you want to turn into?" I mean the question to be mocking, but that's not how it comes out. I sound interested. I reach down and scratch my leg, trying to hid my embarrassment.
Bishop looks at me. "Someone honest. Someone who tries to do the right thing. Someone who follows his own heart, even if it disappoints people." He pauses. "Someone brave enough to be all those things."
A boy who doesn't want to lie, married to a girl who can't tell the truth. If there is a God, he has a sick sense of humor. — Amy Engel

What if the Devil doesn't know he's the Devil? — Cathrine Goldstein

I concentrate on the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other and continue moving forward even as part of me is left behind, beyond a fence I cannot breach. — Amy Engel

Time is a thief. A killer. Time is killing him. — Laura Kreitzer

Hello, dinner. It's me, I'm starving. And I know where you live. — Lauren Hammond

But there's something fundamentally wrong in a system where a girl like Meredith would even consider staying with a boy like Dylan if she has the chance to be free of him. — Amy Engel

Time keeps ticking away, unaware of the suffering each second generates. Time doesn't care, because if it did, it would've reversed. — Laura Kreitzer