Best First Lines

These are the best of the best. The first lines that have stuck with me through the entire year (2010) and made a lasting impression:

 She spoke to him before the world fell apart.

When I wrote essays at school I was always told to begin at the beginning and end at the end. I'm not at all sure that this story has an end. As for a beginning - well, in my opinion, it really begins - as I began - with my father. Anyway, that's where I'm going to start.

Ask Paris if a phone call can be deadly. She'll tell you. She learned the truth of it last night. 

Owen Jester tiptoed across the gleaming linoleum floor and slipped the frog into the soup.

Once upon a time, fairy tales were awesome.

Strange things can happen at a crossroads.

Gramps, who was born in 1990, once told me that when he was my age the only way to wind up in prison in the USSA (back when it had only one S) was to steal something, kill somebody, or use illegal drugs.

That morning they were making paper boys.

Words. I'm surrounded by thousands of words. Maybe millions. Cathedral. Mayonnaise. Pomegranate. Mississippi. Neapolitan. Hippopotamus. Silky. Terrifying. Iridescent. Tickle. Sneeze. Wish. Worry. Words have swirled around me like snowflakes--each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands.

The story goes that even after the Return they tried to keep the roller coasters going. 

Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. 

Finn likes peaches. Usually.

First place: Ask Paris if a phone call can be deadly. She'll tell you. She learned the truth of it last night.
 
Second place: Words. I'm surrounded by thousands of words. Maybe millions. Cathedral. Mayonnaise. Pomegranate. Mississippi. Neapolitan. Hippopotamus. Silky. Terrifying. Iridescent. Tickle. Sneeze. Wish. Worry. Words have swirled around me like snowflakes--each one delicate and different, each one melting untouched in my hands.

Third place: Finn likes peaches. Usually.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews