First lines are magical. While a bad or mediocre first line won’t make or break a story, a great first line can absolutely propel it into greatness. A great first line will immediately attract a reader, will make them laugh in delight or quirk an eyebrow in curiosity or sigh in awe. I love the potential of first lines, and the way they can entirely capture a story’s tone and tenor in a single sentence.
A few weeks ago there was a Top 5 Tuesday topic about first lines, and because I’m always late to these parties, I’m only doing this now, and I’m doing 20 first lines, because I can’t choose. I’ve read 17/20 of the books listed below; the remaining three include one I DNF’d (sad, given it’s one of my favorite first lines ever) and two I still intend to read.
So, in absolutely no order whatsoever because ranking would have driven me insane, enjoy! Continue reading “20 Favorite First Lines in Books”
Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff: I made no secret of just how much I absolutely adored books one and two in this series. I don’t expect that I will feel any differently about the conclusion to the trilogy, even though conclusions are often controversial. Still, at the very least I expect Kristoff will wrap up loose ends and reveal everything about Mia’s powers. I expect Kristoff’s trademark snark and twists and turns and I have no doubt it will be a wild ride from start to finish.
Leah On the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli: I’ve read two books by Albertalli, and I’ve adored both of them. There’s something about this light, contemporary style that I adore. I can usually breeze through books like this super quickly because not only are they fun and engaging, but they’ve got this nebulous quality that makes you feel right at home. Leah is the snarky, fat, bisexual heroine I’ve been waiting for, and she is, unfortunately, in love with her best friend’s girlfriend, which promises some dramatic shenanigans. Plus it’s been said we’re getting more Simon and Bram!
Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer: Okay, first of all, I need y’all to understand the inordinate amount of admiration I have for this cover. Just. Look at this cover. Look at it. Look at its intricacy and detail, its classic artwork, its borders, its fonts…I just. It looks like a 19th century painting. It looks like an illustration straight out of a demonology encyclopedia. I actually just purchased this book and it arrived yesterday and I spent like ten minutes just staring at this cover because it is so beautiful. But aside from the cover, the story reads like something made for me: Victorian London, a female fencer, demons, an underground society fighting said demons. I mean. Can you say custom-made?
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang: This book has been getting a lot of hype in adult fantasy circles, and rightly so! First off, the author is younger than I am, in her very early twenties, and is a 2018 Marshall Scholar. Second, though a fantasy, it deals intimately with the violence of the Sino-Japanese War, particularly an frequently forgotten event called the Rape of Nanking, which I actually wrote my undergraduate thesis about! I won’t link to information, but you can look it up if you so choose; just know that it is one of the most horrific wartime acts ever committed. The sheer brutality of it is overshadowed only by the fact that it was completely forgotten in the aftermath of the war, and to this day there are segments of Japanese society that continue to deny it ever happened. That should tell you something about what to expect from this book. All reviews coming in so far say that this is a topic that Kuang handles deftly and intelligently.
American Islamophobia by Khaled Beydoun: I really admire Beydoun’s work and scholarship. In particular, he’s written a lot about the odd classification of Middle Eastern and North African folks as “white” on the US Census, and the history of that and the ramifications of a potential MENA category on the 2020 census. I think he’s a brilliant and incisive scholar, and given that this book was just published a couple of weeks ago, it promises to be timely and relevant to today’s political situation. This is generally the type of non-fiction book I tend to love. Given that I myself am Middle Eastern and come from a Muslim family, I think the book will also resonate with me on a personal level. I am so confident I will love this book that I am strongly tempted to buy it so I can have it on my shelf to highlight and make notes in.
The Wrath & The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh (GR Rating: 4.18)
Roar by Cora Carmack (GR Rating: 3.98)
The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie (GR Rating: 4.01)
The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken (GR Rating: 4.24)
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (GR Rating: 4.38)
The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne. I’m not gonna lie, this book is hella weird. It takes place in an ambiguous future where India is connected to Africa via a weird energy bridge called The Trail. One woman decides to embark on this dangerous journey. In the other perspective, a girl from a different time is on her own journey in Africa, with a beautiful and enigmatic woman named Yemaya, after the Nigerian sea goddess. The two women have a surprising and harrowing connection. This is not usually the type of book I read, but I was very intrigued by the concept and the setting! It’s not often futuristic books like this are set in Africa. I don’t even know if I truly understood everything here, but I found it very thought-provoking and moving.
Dreams of Shreds and Tatters by Amanda Downum. I am honestly surprised this book has such a low rating! This is a super, super creepy story influenced by Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, a collection of weird short stories that influenced the Cthulu mythos. Downum’s book has the sort of Lovecraftian cosmic horror that many of us are familiar with, but it’s not Lovecraftian at all! This book freaked me out and is everything I aspire to be as a horror writer. True, it’s a little slow, but it’s super diverse and really unsettling and beautifully written.
When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellisen. When I finished this book I remember being stunned by how much I loved it and how refreshing it was. Though YA fantasy, it seemed apart from other YA fantasy books, playing with and subverting families tropes. The main character runs away from her wealthy family and becomes attached to a boy who is a street lord. She also meets a vampire and it feels like a love triangle. It sounds suuuuper lame and tropey, but somehow it’s not? Everything is subverted? It’s got this really mature and engaging tone and it’s literally the most atmospheric book I’ve ever read. Oh, and the sequel? Incredible.
The Drowning City by Amanda Downum. Yes, Amanda Downum again! She is one of my all-time favorite authors and I think she is ridiculously underappreciated. The Drowning City is an adult high fantasy about a political spy, but it’s set in a world that’s completely gender neutral. As in, men and women are completely equal; sexism is not a thing. I didn’t even know I needed that until I read it; it was so unbelievably refreshing to see female characters in so many roles usually reserved for men and to not have anyone comment on it one way or another. The setting is rich (inspired by the author’s time in Southeast Asia!) and the writing atmospheric. Yes, it’s a bit slow, but I loved it, and her second book in this series is even better.
The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This book has a decent Goodreads rating, but not nearly enough love and recognition, in my opinion. Basically, this book is a better written Jane Austen novel with a touch of fantasy. Moreno-Garcia writes beautifully, with elegantly crafted sentences that hearken to the 19th century (which is when the book is set) without overwhelming or mystifying you with period language. This is a character-driven romance, which is usually the type of story I run far, far away from, but it actually ended up being one of my favorite books of 2017, if not a contender for absolute favorite. This is the sort of book I can see myself curling up with and reading again and again just for the pleasure of it.
Hadeer Elsbai 
