Lines

Sometimes, a book can win you over with a single line.

I just picked up Terri Farley’s Seven Tears Into the Sea and about a page in, as our protagonist wakes after nearly drowning and being washed ashore, I came upon the line, “You have to be careful when something in the dark is calling your name.”

And maybe this only makes sense if you have the context of the entire page before the line, but somehow when I read that, I got chills down my spine, and I knew that unless the author does something dreadful, I’ll follow her wherever she wants to lead me.

What things in the opening pages of books have made the rest of you you decide that you’ll follow a writer through the rest of their story?

I keep meaning to also say that Justine Larbalestier’s Magic or Madness is well worth reading, though I’ve not gotten together the more coherent comments I meant to.