“As though all the world were a bad joke and she was the only one around who knew the punchline.”
Jack Ketchum book The Girl Next Door
Source: The Girl Next Door

The Girl Next Door is a crime novel by American writer Jack Ketchum in 1989. It is about two teen girls who are left in the care of their aunt, and the systematic and escalating abuse both of them and one sister in particular suffer at the hands of their aunt and her children.
“As though all the world were a bad joke and she was the only one around who knew the punchline.”
Jack Ketchum book The Girl Next Door
Source: The Girl Next Door