Of the books I read in the month of April, only The Hunter by Tana French appears to have differing cover designs. Both are fine, but the burning tree image on the UK edition takes the dub this time around.
As for the opening lines of the books I read over the last month, have a gander at these:
Her text came in just before midnight.
The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert
There was a dead girl in my aunt’s bakery.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
Though there’s an industry built on telling you otherwise, there are few real joys to middle age.
Calypso by David Sedaris
At dusk sixteen-year-old Margaret Murphy sits down at a narrow rickety desk in room 127 at Little Ida’s Motor Lodge, eleven miles east of Niagara Falls, and begins to write her confession.
Poor Deer by Clare Oshetsky
Anna kicked off the annual Pace family vacation with a lie.
Diavola by Jennifer Thorne
Trey comes over the mountain carrying a broken chair.
The Hunter by Tana French
We must, by law, keep a record of the innocents we kill.
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
“We could just push them out of windows,” says Leonie.
Cut & Thirst by Margaret Atwood
The Bad One‘s opening line itself doesn’t do much for this reader, but is followed immediately by what that text message was, which is more of a hook.
A dead person in an unexpected place is always intriguing, but the first line of A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking also lets you know from the get go that the story will be equally dark, cozy, and amusing – an interesting mix!
The David Sedaris memoir likewise begins in a way that advertises the humorous nature of the book.
The opening of Poor Deer is great, setting the scene and immediately having the reader want to know more about what a sixteen year old could possibly be confessing.
Diavola starts right off divulging that it is a story about a vacation involving toxic family dynamics. The supernatural elements get introduced later, with the setting of Villa Taccola.
The first line of The Hunter, in my opinion, is very lackluster. It does nothing for me other than have me say, “Oh, Trey – I remember that character from The Searcher.”
Scythe pulls readers in from the beginning by getting them to wonder why innocents are being killed in a way that requires a record.
The opening line of Cut & Thirst also broadcasts the comical nature of the story, with someone genuinely suggesting defenestration. Now the reader wants to know who might wind up being pushed out of windows, and why.
Overall, this was a pretty good reading month for me. So far I am having success meeting my 2024 goal of reading books that are a better fit for me so that my average star rating at the end of the year will be higher. Even the books here that I didn’t love received no less than 3 stars from me. Not too shabby!
Jessica Crawford 