top ten tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday: The Best Opening Lines

This week I’ve decided to take part in ‘Top Ten Tuesday’ again hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is ‘opening lines’, so I’ve chosen my favourite opening lines from books I’ve read, some of them are just the first sentence whilst others I’ve included the first few sentences because they deserve that treatment.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

“Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.”

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

“In the beginning there was one murderer, one mule and one boy, but that isn’t the beginning, it’s before it, it’s me, and I’m Matthew, and here I am, in the kitchen, in the night – the old river mouth of light – and I’m punching and punching away.”

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

“The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.”

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

“Hale knew, before he has been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him.”

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

“There is a pirate in the basement. (The Pirate is a metaphor but also still a person.) (The Basement could rightly be considered a metaphor.)”

The Humans by Matt Haig

“I know some of you reading this are convinced humans are a myth, but I am here to state that they do actually exist.”

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab

“Kell wore a very peculiar coat. It had neither one side, which would be conventional, nor two, which would be unexpected, but several, which was, of course, impossible.”

Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor

“On the second Sabbat of Twelfthmoon, in the city of Weep, a girl fell from the sky. Her skin was blue, her blood was red.”

Anna K by Jenny Lee

“The whole thing was a fucking disaster.”

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

“The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing to say. About anything. “Need a poo, Todd.” “Shut up, Manchee.”

28 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday: The Best Opening Lines”

  3. Ooh, those opening lines The Knife of Never Letting Go are so intriguing! 😮 I really need to bump that series up on my TBR! Love so many of these great opening lines — definitely some of my favourites as well! Great post 🙂

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