Memories are like bullets. Some whiz by and only spook you. Others tear you open and leave you in pieces.

The expression “Memories are like bullets. Some whiz by and only spook you. Others tear you open and leave you in pieces.” frames memory as a force whose effects range from brief alarm to profound injury. Placed at the opening of Part One, beneath Peter Katz’s name, it sets out a contrast between memories that pass and memories that damage.

Placement and Attribution

The expression appears before the narrative begins in Part One, where it is followed by the attribution “Richard Kadrey, Kill the Dead.” Its position gives the line the function of an epigraph: a compact frame for the section that follows, rather than dialogue spoken within a scene.

Image and Contrast

The metaphor turns on two different impacts. Some memories “whiz by” and “only spook you,” suggesting a passing disturbance; others “tear you open” and leave a person “in pieces.” The movement from a bullet passing nearby to one that wounds makes the difference in force vivid, while the parallel sentences give both outcomes equal weight.

Thematic Implication

The line presents memory not as a neutral record but as an experience with uneven consequences. Its sharp contrast allows the opening to hold both possibilities at once: the past may unsettle and recede, or return with a force that breaks through a person’s composure. The epigraph offers this distinction as a frame without specifying which memories, or whose, will prove most damaging.