Top 5… opening lines

FYI, I’m not sure why but apparently my scheduled posts aren’t scheduling…? So, here’s four weeks worth of Top 5’s! (But yes, three of them are from May… I mean, I worked so hard on them, and then they just sat here!)

This Top 5 Tuesday post is ‘opening/first lines’, and is hosted by the super lovely Shanah over at the Bionic Bookworm, and you can check out her page here (please do, she’s amazing).

So, most of this isn’t going to be any surprise to anyone who has read my blog before. It’s a mix of books I totally gush about (including a list of top Maggie first lines), and one that is such a classic, I don’t feel like I need to gush about it at all. So, without further ado, let us begin.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

I love the first line (and the whole book) of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen for several reasons, but mostly I love this line because the entire book is then determined to prove the irony of this first statement by focusing on the exact opposite: A single woman must be in want of a rich husband.

People often shit themselves when they die.

Nevernight and Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff are ah-mazing. That’s basically the gist of every drool induced sentence that I could write on this subject. I also like the consistency of the two opening lines, as they have a nice symmetry to them. Bonus Godsgrave below!

Nothing stinks quite like a corpse.

The sound of my knife slitting across a throat feels much too loud in the darkness.

Is anyone else seeing a theme with these? I’m not entirely sure how aware I was that I liked death and darkness until we started doing this?! Anyway, book four is, of course, Daughter of the Siren Queen (sequel to Daughter of the Pirate King) by Tricia Levenseller. Alosa was definitely darker in this one!

Once upon a time there was a story.

I know a lot of people who really like the quote in The Lunar Chronicles, which goes along the lines of “Even in the future story begins with once upon a time” (sorry if that’s not actually right), but I guess this is my version of it (and by mine, I mean Tom Holt’s). The Outsorcerer’s Apprentice by Tom Holt is super amazing satire-fantasy, and I love the YouSpace books.

Now, I know what you’re thinking… that’s four (kind of five already with that bonus), BUT it would be totally remiss of me to end this without at least all of the Maggie Stiefvater books (jokes… kind of). So, here are five opening lines of Maggie Stiefvater books. Yes, I am aware that the first two are The Raven Boys, but it’s the prologue AND the first chapter, so they both count.

Blue Sargeant had forgotten how many times she’d been told that she would kill her true love.

The Raven Boys (prologue)

It was freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrived.

The Raven Boys (chapter 1)

I remember lying in the snow, a small red spot of warm going cold, surrounded by wolves.

Shiver

I am a werewolf in L.A.

Sinner

It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.

The Scorpio Races

So, reflecting on this, I definitely have a ‘type’ of book. Authors of the world, if you’re writing a fantasy book, and it has a lot of death in it, I’ll probably love it!