Fabulous First Page

This literary magical realism novel gets it right from Page 1

Recently Nathan Bransford asked his readers, “what authors would you drop everything to read?”

Like, if these authors had a new book out tomorrow, you would clear your schedule and settle in for a long night of reading, maybe with tea and your cats.

Here are mine:

• Curtis Sittenfeld (queen of clever adult contemporary; I thought Rodham and American Wife were both genius, but my fave might be her Pride & Prejudice retelling, Eligible.)

• Jennifer McMahon (master of psychological/paranormal horror. Hard to say my favorites, but I’ll go with The Drowning Kind and The Invited.)

• Nina LaCour (amazing lady does it all: picture books, a chapter book series, award-winning YA novels, and a recent adult contemporary that I loved, Yerba Buena)

• Sarah Waters (writes incredibly immersive and suspenseful historical fiction; right now I’m rereading her gothic masterpiece The Little Stranger because I love it so much)

• Sally Rooney (star of literary fiction; you probably know her from the heartbreaking novel-turned-Hulu-series, Normal People)

(Runners-up are Liane Moriarty and Lisa Jewell.)

What about you? What authors would you drop everything to read?

But I thought we were going to look at a first page done well?

Yes, we are! Today I picked one of the authors from the list above for my Fabulous First Page showcase. But before we get to what novel I chose, here’s a reminder of all the things a first page must 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.

Also, here are some things to avoid on page 1: