You've Got Five Pages...To Tell Me It's Good

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! Oh, this is a fun one, my fellow creatives. Jesse Q. Sutanto has a marvelous narrative voice for Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers , which made this first cha...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! For the first time, I have to say that this novel may very well need an engaging prologue to hook readers. Granted, at the outset, Eleanor Catton's Birnam Wood isn't...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! Ooo, folks, this is a neat one. The atmosphere of a dark fairy tale hangs heavy in the old farmhouse where Kelly Barnhill's The Crane Husband takes place. Our narrator i...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! Well, what do you know? Here the author from last week's episode left a positive blurb on the book for this week-- The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz . The opening pages...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! This review, I'm afraid, is going to be rather short, as this novel is not quite like other novels. Rather than a traditional narrative and/or paragraph structure, Janic...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! Well, we had a good run. The prologue has returned, and a rambling prologue, at that. Kate Morton's Homecoming opens with a woman named Isabel. Isabel is pondering vario...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! We return to historical drama in Joanna Quinn's The Whalebone Theatre, and know what? I don't mind. The story is geared to follow Cristabel Seagrave from toddlerhood...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! Goodness, ANOTHER happy find! I don't know if I've ever had such a run with great books on this podcast. :) Babel by R.F. Kuang not only has a fascinating book cover...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! Another happy surprise! When I saw Frances Brody's A Mansion for Murder had a prologue, I immediately rolled my eyes. Yet that little prologue provided a lovely scene wi...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I did not read the blurb for Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese , but by the end of the first page I realized we were dealing with a char...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! Twenty-two pages of prologue? Really?!? Okay, that gripe aside, the opening pages of The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin do successfully balance hints at the fantastical while remain...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! Deanna Raybourn's Killers of a Certain Age certainly needs no prologue to hook readers! Instead, her opening chapter starts with the protagonists preparing for their first mission--...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! Another thriller, another prologue. Is this a thing? Are thrillers required to have prologues in order to achieve publication these days? Not that I'm complaining in this case. Clar...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it!  Liv Andersson's thriller Little Red House gave me a delightful surprise. Not through it's subject matter, for the record--it's a dark thriller that starts with the perspective...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! While Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spotswood is not a new book, it is new to my library. It's the first of a "hard-boiled" detective series featuring a pair of women (one with...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it!  Well, my curse on this podcast strikes again. The prologue of Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths is quite well-crafted and compelling and leagues ahead of the first chapter...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! I had originally planned a mystery for today, but once I saw my selection directly tied back to a previous book without much context, I took my daughter Blondie's offer to read Beas...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! Once again, we have a prologue, and once again, this is where the action happens in the opening pages of Alice Henderson's A Ghost of Caribou . On a technical level, the writing its...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it!  Ironically, the prologue is my favorite part of the opening pages in Kimberly Belle's The Personal Assistant. These first two pages are a well-paced scene with balanced extern...

CORRECTION: Over the course of the podcast I say The Twist of a Knife is the third book of Horowitz's series , but it is actually the fourth. My apologies! The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! One of my favorite styles...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! Welp, we're back to prologues. Thankfully, the prologue is brief--a little over a page--and does accomplish two important things. First, there is a childhood memory used to establis...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! To be blunt, the first chapter of The Twelve Topsy-Turvy, Very Messy Days of Christmas by Tad Safran and James Patterson was infuriating. The first page begins with a lighthearted a...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it!  It's been a while since a story truly tickled me, and Richard Osman's The Man Who Died TWICE did exactly that. Here we watch a group of four friends having lunch after their "...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! When I first grabbed Haven by Emma Donoghue from my library's New Release shelf, I was admittedly hesitant because of my mixed feelings for her previous novel Room . Once I saw Have...

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it!  We see the return of the prologue in The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang, but I'm pleasantly surprised by how much she packs into that page of text. She establishes the sett...