I’m worried about the blog storage space, but it will have to wait for now since I don’t have a solution yet, apart from deleting posts, which I don’t want to do. Maybe this is a question for ChatGPT to answer. For today, I have two books in mind, so doing a random spin of the wheel to pick for me. First Lines Friday is a weekly feature for book lovers that was formerly hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
- Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page.
- Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first.
- Finally… reveal the book!
Note: The original host blog does not appear to be active any longer, but if anyone knows of a new host, please
First Lines:
We rage out of Chicago around four in the morning, hurtling south toward Arkansas because my mom needs help kidnapping my father. Actually, that’s a lie. A truer reason: I’ve been looking for an excuse to leave the city, planning my escape, biding my time, and Arkansas seems like a reasonably good place to hide. The kidnapping-my father thing is a new development, a situation I do not entirely understand. Normally, I ignore Mom’s calls, but I was pretty fucked up last night, and my phone kept buzzing, and it was after midnight, so I thought … well, I don’t actually remember what I thought. Remembering has sucked since I got this fun new dent bashed into my skull.
Goodreads Blurb:
The newly nameless narrator of Make Sure You Die Screaming has rejected the gender binary, has flamed out with a vengeance at their corporate gig, is most likely brain damaged from a major tussle with their now ex-boyfriend, and is on a bender to end all benders.
A call from their mother with the news that their MAGA-friendly, conspiracy-theorist father has gone missing launches the narrator from Chicago to deep red Arkansas in a stolen car. Along the way, the narrator and their new bestie—a self-proclaimed “garbage goth” with her own emotional baggage (and someone on her tail)—unpack the narrator’s childhood and a recent personal loss that they refuse to face head-on.
Goodreads Link Here
StoryGraph Link Here
I’m curious, have you seen this book before today?