“To be at the beginning again, knowing almost nothing…”
— Tom Stoppard
Today's blog post is my eighth annual celebration of Young Adult stories with brilliant beginnings. These are the books I add to my TBR without hesitation because they start in a way that's so intriguing, or shocking, or funny that I can't wait to discover happens next. In my experience, if I love the first page of a story, then I will love the rest of it too.
Of course, what makes a brilliant beginning is subjective, and my top ten(s) won't be the same as anyone else's! But fortunately, there are lots and lots of Young Adult books in the world to choose from. I hope there's an opener on my new list that helps you to find your next great read, and thank you very much for visiting my blog today 💕.
1️⃣ “When did you first meet Miss LaRoux?”
“Three days before the accident.”
“And how did that come about?”
“The accident?”
“Meeting Miss LaRoux.”
“How could it possibly matter?”
“Major, everything matters.”
2️⃣ “Anything could happen in the blink of an eye. Anything at all.
One. Two. Three. Blink.”
3️⃣ “Three weddings.
Three funerals.
A better person would have been devastated, but Alessa bowed her head to hide dry eyes as she knelt before the jewel-encrusted coffin on the altar. The temple beneath the Cittadella smelled of mildew and death, the air thick with dust motes drifting like the ghosts of fireflies.
She would cry. Later. She always did. Being widowed at eighteen was tragic, after all, and none of her partners had deserved to die. Still, it was difficult to muster tears for yet a third time.”
4️⃣ “Tomman Hail of House Ever-Loyal was going to die before the sun rose. It wasn’t as heroic as it sounded.
It was a lonely, terrible thing. Made worse by the lonely, terrible knowledge weighing on his chest. The secret he’d uncovered.
It’ll be our lives if we’re caught, he’d said.
Now, as then, he believed the cause worth the cost.”
5️⃣ “The face on a missing-person sign is supposed to be a stranger’s. Those yellowed papers tacked up in grocery stores are children who disappeared fifteen years ago. Amber Alerts are kids from other states with parents fighting for custody. And yet the face staring back at me from the TV—the girl under the siren-red MISSING letters—
That’s me.”
6️⃣ “Welcome to the beautiful Sinclair family.
No one is a criminal.
No one is an addict.
No one is a failure.”
7️⃣ “I wasn’t always a ghost. I was told to be. Dad and King said it was for protection.My protection. Their protection.
The Winterfolk’s.
The problem with being a ghost—
Is that no one can see you.”
8️⃣ “‘Take only what your cloak can carry, and your conscience can bear.’
Armand Versini, Founder of the Order of Cloaks
‘Those who refuse to wield the dagger are doomed to die by its blade.’
Hugo Versini, Founder of the Order of Daggers”
9️⃣ “1. A Lot of Bad Decisions Led Me to This Moment, But in My Defense, I Made Them Really Fast
When I woke up this morning with a feeling that this was going to be the Worst Day of My Life So Far, I brushed it off as the self-destructive voice in my head doing his daily affirmations.
I was wrong. This is turning out to be the Worst Day of My Life, Ever.”
🔟 “There’s something inherently wrong with any home that’s easy to get into and hard to break out of.The Winter Ridge Academy for Boys is both.”
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