Fabulous First Page

This magical realism novel gets it right from page 1

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I’m back with another Fabulous First Page showcase. As always, I’ll start with a reminder of all the things a first page should try to do:

A first page should:

• Hook the reader right away and invite them into the story.

• Set the scene and the overall tone of the novel.

• Introduce a main character (and/or introduce a main setting or theme).

• Hint at a conflict, situation, mystery/secret, or question.

The book I’ve chosen today was published in 2021 and is being turned into a film starring Amy Adams. I’m really curious about the film adaptation because this book is weird. This book’s magical realism plot-line may be difficult to translate to film.

Even though the novel is bizarre, it also feels true to me. It has important, angry things to say about being a wife and mother and woman.

But we’re only here to talk about the first page! Which is very compelling. And, bonus, the first sentence of this novel is, no joke, 90 words long (!!!). I am not recommending you attempt that sentence-length with your own novel, but in this case it works. (I find it interesting and instructive to look at very long sentences that work.)

So, without further ado, let’s read the first page…