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Hi and welcome to a new Top Ten Tuesday! Today’s another freebie so I decided to talk about opening lines.
The first sentence in a book is super important. It’s supposed to draw your attention, get you interested, set the tone for the book and get you hooked right away. It should suck you into this new fictional world from the get go. That’s a lot of pressure for one sentence, of course, but it is possible! The proof is in these ten examples:
Talk about starting with a BANG! This series is gorgeously written, whimsical and beautifully atmospheric and I feel like this first sentence immediately sets the tone perfectly.
What is going on? Is this a story about fashion? What could be peculiar about a coat? I NEED TO KNOW! (Also, I just finished this series and just reading this sentence made me all teary and nostalgic. If that’s not sign that you’ve got something special, I don’t know what is)
No better way to get me interested than talking about dragons. Why is this Dragon written with a capital D? Why doesn’t he eat the girls? What does he do with them? Questions!
Another bang for a start. Why have you been locked up for so long? What’s going on? And how do you keep track of time so well when I hardly have any idea what I did yesterday?
Well, there come the waterworks already! At least now I know to get my tissues ready right away. This sentence just sets the tone for the entire book so beautifully.
Talk about being captivated right away. Nobody can quite catch your attention with a few short sentences than the narrator of this story, Death itself.
Another quote that perfectly encompasses the tone of the book to come.
Every page in this book has gorgeous quotes, starting with the very first one.
Dramatic and hilarious, a mix that seems to work perfectly for Percy Jackson.
Excuse me, I NEED TO KNOW MORE RIGHT NOW, please and thank you!
I love reading opening lines!! The ones for History is All You Left Me and Uprooted definitely caught my attention! Fun list!
Thanks! Opening lines can be so great indeed 🙂
So many great opening lines! I haven’t read any of these books, but it sounds like they hook you in from the very beginning. I own A Fault In Our Stars but haven’t been brave enough to read it yet. lol! I hate crying and I know that one requires a box of tissues to read. lol
Thanks! Yes, I completely understand about The Fault in Our Stars – it’s one of those books that you have to be in the right mood to tackle 🙂
OMG I am drowning in feels cuz of you! The Raven Boys and The book Thief! Oh yes! Great list Lindsey 🙂
Haha I know, I was practically crying just preparing this post and experiencing all the feels again 🙂
Those were some great opening lines. It’s making me want to push Uprooted further up my TBR.
Yay 🙂 Hope you’ll enjoy Uprooted when you get to it!
This post is so very beautiful, and I love all of the opening lines you picked here. The Raven Boys, that first sentence is just perfect – and Shades of Magic, that beginning got me SO curious about the book already, and a reason why I was hooked from the very first page. I really want to read that Adam Silvera book, but, erm…I know it’s sad, and that first sentence certainly announces the tone of the book ahah 🙂
Thanks Marie 🙂 The Raven Boys and the Shades of Magic series are both filled with so many great quotes and it already starts with the very first ones. And yes, definitely read the Adam Silvera book because it’s soo good <3 But it also totally requires some emotional preparation because it's a sad one. I usually procrastinate reading sad books but I couldn't say no to Adam Silvera :)
Great list! I did a freebie this week too. Several of these books are on my TBR, so reading those first lines are great teasers for me. I especially want to read History is All You Left Me now. That line is such a heartbreaker.
Ah, hope you’ll enjoy them when you get to them! Especially History Is All You Left Me – it’s a sad book, but so good <3
I love a good opening line. these are all great but I especially like The Raven Boys and shatter Me- both of those definitely jump out at me. The LAst Olympian is pretty good too.
Thanks! The opening lines to The Raven Boys and Shatter Me definitely immediately draw attention 🙂
Love these opening lines. I’ve always loved Laini’s opening lines no matter what book it was. 😀
Laini certainly does have a beautiful way with words 🙂
This is such a great reminder of how opening lines can really enhance a book. 🙂 Great choices, and thanks for sharing! <3
Thanks! And yes, opening lines can do a lot 🙂
Love this post so, so much! First opening lines aren’t *that* important but really great ones usually mean that I’d really enjoy the book. I LOVED the opening line for The Raven Boys, ADSOM, and Uprooted, and I ended up really loving those books as well. On the other hand, I found DoSaB’s opening lines kind of cliched and ended up not really liking the book. 😛
So true! They may not be that important in the whole of the book, but I so agree that when I love them, I usually end up loving the rest of the book as well 🙂
Great post, Lindsey. It makes me curious. Especially the ones I haven’t read,. Shutter Me and The Book Thief sound great!
Thank you for sharing. Awesome idea, 😀
Thanks so much! Shatter Me and The Book Thief are definitely some of my favorites 🙂
I love when a book can grab you from literally the first sentence! This was such a great list!
Yes, it really is the best if a book can suck you in immediately, as opposed to only halfway through 🙂 Thanks!
I love this post! I haven’t read Uprooted but that first line in on point! And The Book Theif has been on my tbr forever! I can definitely appreciate books that hook me from the beginning!
It’s definitely great if a book can hook you immediately! Hope you’ll enjoy The Book Thief and Uprooted 🙂
Opening lines are so important! They can absolutely make or break a reading experience – there have been times when the first few lines of a book left me so uninspired that I didn’t bother continuing to read!
They really are! I don’t like it when it takes several chapters for a book to hook me 🙂
So many of these are some of my favourites too like The Raven Boys, A Darker Shade of Magic, Percy Jackson, The Book Thief……. I love it so much when a book can hook you instantly from the very first line!! It’s such a great feeling.
Yes, it’s definitely great when a book can hook you immediately! It’s always a pity if it takes several chapters…
Okay – my TBR just shuddered. So many of these books are on there but now I need to make large adjustments to the order of it!
I adored Uprooted and I agree- that opening line had me.
PJ series – love them as you know. That opening line in particular is awesome!
I’ve always, always wanted to read DOS&B and now after that opening line I need it sooner than I thought.. And Schwab. I need Schwab. 🙂
Thanks for another awesome post! Love your chosen topic!
Haha, sorry about the major TBR shake up 😉
Uprooted and PJ definitely had great opening lines and just reading those lines makes me want to re-read the books…
Hope you’ll love DOS&B when you get to it and of course also the Shades of Magic series because I adore that series especially 😉
What a great idea for a topic! To be honest I don’t usually really notice first lines? I guess maybe I notice at the time when I read them, but they don’t tend to stick or make much impression. These are awesome picks though! The only first line I can recall absolutely loving off the top of my head would be the first line (well, two lines) of Hell Divers by Nicholas Sansbury Smith, which was: “The average life expectancy for a Hell Diver was fifteen jumps. This was Xavier Rodriguez’s ninety-sixth.”
I agree it doesn’t happen all too often but I still love it when a first line sticks with me. Your example is great too, I don’t know about the book, but I’m already intrigued 😉
I love first lines that completely draw you into a story. These are all fantastic examples of that!
Thanks so much! First lines are indeed quite important 🙂