notebookrambles 's review for:

Aphrodite Made Me Do It by Trista Mateer
3.0
dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Quotes that stood out to me: 
Aphrodite Airs Her Grievances 
1. I belong to no one. THey never wrote that part down. 
2. Regardless of whether you desire it, love is what sits at the core of the world. 

The Poet Airs Her Grievances 
3. I'm afraid of saying not all men and then having my face held down in the dirt by another man. 
4. I'm afraid of cisgender white men. 

Aphrodite Speaks On Love 
5. love that doesn't last is still important / not everyone is meant to stay forever / love teaches lessons . love is more than the lessons it teaches / it does not have to be heavy / it does not have to be requited to be worthwhile / no one owes you their time or their affection . cherish your friend and the family you find with them / love has little to do with blood relations . and more to do with you choose to bleed for / it's okay to walk away from things that don't feel right / your love will always look like everyone else's / you will not always grow it same way / you will not always express it the same way / people can love each other and still be bad for each other / people can love each other and still be incompatible / love never means you have to stay . it means your heart is open / fight to keep it that way 

The Poet Speaks On Love 
6. It's important not to isolate yourself when you're healing but it's also important to be able to sit quietly with yourself. 

Aphrodite Sings of War 
7. In troy 
they fought 
over Helen 
like children
but Achilles 
mourned Patroclus 
the way a soul
mourns a body. 
8. When you fight for what is just, prepare to meet opposition. Remember, it is the good in us that stands in front of what needs protecting. There will always be reasons to back down but there will always be more to push forward. 
9. Men wrote the myths down and called them history, and time has dragged them further from the truth. Pandora's jar became a box. Eve's pomegranate, an apple. All the details change but one: it is a woman with her hand on the door to hell. 
10. The world was full of men who called themselves heroes for crossing boundaries, claiming bodies like prizes. 

The Poet Sings of War 
11. Your abuser's past does not absolve them of their abuse. Their depression does not absolve them of their abuse. Your relationship with them does not absolve them of their abuse. How long you've known them does not absolve them of their abuse. Your love for them does not absolve them of their abuse. 
12. Accepting this body 
did not mean convincing myself 
that is was beautiful; it meant 
giving myself permission to exist regardless 

Rising 
13. It is never too late
to realize 
you don't want to be 
on the path 
you're walking. 
You can never go back 
but you can always 
chart a new course. 
14. Let me leave you with this:
your life is short and 
all the more precious for it. 
I do not seek 
to tell you how to live, only to live at all. 
to not fear the day. 
the know you are strong 
than what has hurt you. 
to know that you will triumph. 

If you're reading this, take care of yourself <3