How important are first lines? For me, very. Often times, they set the mood for the entire story. Here are a few that I enjoy:
- Once you’ve been taken, you usually have twenty-four hours left to live. Edward Bloor, Taken.
- They promised me nine years of safety but only gave me three. Laura Wiess, Such a Pretty Girl.
- Blood fills my mouth. Bree Despain, The Dark Divine.
- It is the counting that saves him. Lisa Mangum, The Hourglass Door.
- Sirens and lights welcomed me back to the suburbs of Chicago. Stephanie Kuehnert, Ballands of Suburbia.
- Life was good before I met the monster. Ellen Hopkins, Crank.
- On Sorry Night, just a few days before Christmas, you have to snuff the lamps, douse the flames in the fireplace, and spend the night in the cold and dark. Simon Holt, The Devouring.
- The day I killed my brother’s girlfriend started with me handpicking leaves off our front lawn. E.R. Frank, Wrecked.
- I remember lying in the snow, a small red spot of warm going cold, surrounded by wolves. Maggie Stiefvater, Shiver.
- He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale, dusty air. James Dashner, The Maze Runner.
- Gray slats of light slipped between the bars, only to be swallowed by blackness. Heidi Ayarbe, Freeze Frame.
- When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games.
- Kaye took another drag on her cigarette and dropped it into her mother’s beer bottle. Holly Black, Tithe, a Modern Faerie Tale.
- The white boy, the skinny, tall boy with shocking white hair sneaks behind the stone bench and leans against the tree trunk. Julie Anne Peters, By the Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead.
- I am sitting at a desk in the middle of a hallway, and all of the lights are off. Julie Halpern, Get Well Soon.
- The day begins in the middle of the night. Rachel Cohn & David Levithan, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist.
- I was born with water on the brain. Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
So, what do you think: too tense, not tense enough, exciting, boring, totally brand new, been-there-done-that? Do any of these make you curious enough to read on, or would you move on to the next book on the shelf?
6 comments:
All of them are definitely intriguing. I am actually very "taken" by the first one and am tempted to check it out.
I think most of these do the job of telling the reader quite a bit abot the kind of book they are going to be reading. Something about the style, the tone, and possibly the plot.
Some of these are my favorites, though, so I'm biased.
Yep, I definitely need to rewrite the first sentence of my new wip.
I love the one for Such a Pretty Girl.
These are great. Love the opening line to the Hunger Games. This makes me want to go through and read the first lines of all my books!
sf
Those are all great! First lines are so important. I'm always fretting over mine.
I absolutely love looking at first lines/paragraphs. I learn so much from them.
I am intrigued by many of the first lines......but not all...
Shelley
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