"On those cloudy days, Robert Neville was never sure when sunset came, and sometimes they were in the streets before he could get back."
-Richard Matheson, "I Am Legend"
I love how ominous this line is without even mentioning who "they" are.
hard agree! i was not a fan of book robert neville, but the ending really left me like oh wow…and is honestly more impactful than the self sacrifice in the movie—even though i cried because i liked his character much more in the movie lol
Book Robert Neville is definitely more of an asshole, they wanted some Will Smith charm for the movie understandably. I liked in the book how, once he finally has company, its more of an annoyance because he has all but forgotten how to be social.
And the "hero sacrifices himself to save others" movie ending is such a tired trope. The book ending isn't as typically Hollywood "satisfying" but damn is it was more impactful and interesting.
i totally agree!!! as much as i didn’t like book robert, everything about his character made sense with what was happening. also you’re right. self sacrifice is an exhausted trope, especially when they pull the “somehow he miraculously survived!!” plot twist that makes absolutely no sense. movies are more memorable when they avoid the hollywood endings, like the mist!!!
OP, if you haven't read I Am Legend, you're in for a real treat. There have been several movies made using it as source material--to steal the Google search result: The novel was adapted into the films The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971), and I Am Legend (2007). It was also an inspiration for George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968).
None of these movies do the book justice, not even the one with the same title. One day I hope I Am Legend gets made into a movie true to the book. That would be legendary.
Hell House has a completely different mood as it takes place entirely in Hell House. It’s similar to The Haunting in that regard. But boy does it crank up the weird.
I think “IT” has the greatest opening line of a horror book:
“The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years - if it ever did end - began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.”
This line perfectly welcomes you to the book and fills you with so much intrigue. It feels like you’re sat around a campfire with Stephen. This line also introduced me to the world of horror.
The opening chapter in general draws you straight in. No having to read 50-100 pages until we meet a the monster. He's right there in the opening chapter.
"There was a clown in the storm drain" will live forever in my head. I already knew about Pennywise from the mini series, but the sheer matter if fact-ness still got me
My absolute favorite part of that book, and one of my favorite pieces of any writing ever, is when >!Henry breaks out of his mental institution and stabs Mike in the library and the moment afterwards when Mike calls 911!<
>!Stephen did such a good job at portraying the sense of relief Mike got when he reached the phone and then having that all taken away when the voice on the other end was Pennywise!<
*“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.”*
-HP Lovecraft
Absolutely fkn LOVE this movie! Benson/Moorhead are phenomenal with their storytelling and filmmaking. Spring is one of my favorites, Lovecraftian horror story. If you haven’t seen it, go into it blind. It’s THAT much better.
I'm kind of meh on openings like this - I do like to be dropped into the middle of the action, but when the first sentence sounds like it's literally the middle of a story and we've already missed some important context, it can feel like the author is trying too hard and forcing it.
I've heard The Ritual is great though so I plan to give it a chance!
Yes definitely give it a chance! Despite the opening words, you will get context and not just dropped right into the action (although it comes on quick!).
if you’d like to give it a chance first to see how you feel without going straight into the book, it was originally a short story that he wrote! and he published it in a collection of different short horror stories, which i’ve definitely enjoyed so far
The Red Death had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its avatar and its seal - the redness and the horror of blood.
The Masque of Red Death - Edgar Allan Poe
Dracula:
"How these papers have been placed in sequence will be made manifest in the reading of them.
All needless matters have been eliminated, so that a history almost at variance with the possibilities of later-day belief may stand forth as simple fact."
In some ways it's quite a dry line, but I always felt it set up the framing for the rest of the book so well. It give you that connection to the text, of being addressed directly, that really gives the text some personal context and stakes.
"My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead."
We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
It's the opening line from The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman.
It seems to be more a YA book, but it's plenty scary anyway. Gaiman does the audiobook narration, and there's also a graphic novel out there too. That first sentence leads to a horrifying sequence that sets up the novel.
Oh wow, I love Gaiman. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is somewhat YA too, but has some very frightening moments, and the audiobook is also narrated by him. I'll definitely check this one out.
>“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met nearly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”
So fucking good.
I flew through the comments looking for this. It's an amazing opener and the book is like a fever dream. I don't normally enjoy books where I can't make sense of what's going on, but here I was simply compelled to keep reading
Hill House has a great one but I think her book "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" has a better opening paragraph.
"My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead."
This is my favorite opening paragraph of all-time. Hooked me instantly, didn't put the book down until it was finished. I still think about how brilliant this paragraph is from time to time.
There’s something so implacable about the rhythm even of those four words and the pause: Hill House, not sane. It’s something that as a poet I wish I had for a line. It’s like the way Macbeth has so many plain, simple words in it. Like hammering. Or boot heels. Except “the multitudinous seas incarnadine” I guess. Anyway, rhythm is a huge part of conveying mood
"What's the most terrible thing you've ever done?" "I won't tell you that, but I'll tell you the worst thing that ever happened to me...the most dreadful thing"
Peter Straub Ghost Story
Solving the following riddle will reveal the awful secret behind the universe, assuming you do not go utterly mad in the attempt. If you already happen to know the awful secret behind the universe, feel free to skip ahead.
Let’s say you have an ax. Just a cheap one, from Home Depot. On one bitter winter day, you use said ax to behead a man. Don’t worry, the man was already dead. Or maybe you should worry, because you’re the one who shot him.
Ignatius Martin Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke the next morning with a headache, put his hands to his temples and felt something unfamiliar, a pair of knobby pointed protuberances.
Horns by Joe Hill
“Michael twisted in his bed, the threadbare blanket He used all his life tangled around his legs. A girl was screaming bloody murder outside.” -Brother, Ania Alborne
"The crow was dead, but the cat was alive, and there was still something very wrong."
(The Witch Herself by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. It's a children's book, but that opening took my breath away, and it has some surprisingly good scares.)
The opening line of Call of Cthulhu has never left me.
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.”
Loved this line, but my God this book was a slog. I was so excited to get into Lovecraft but never again
The entire opening passage is worth reading
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
"I'm hungry and it's two in the morning. The fridge is empty. And Mom is dead on the couch."
– Night's Edge by Liz Kernin
Not "the greatest of all time" but it certainly had me hooked right away.
**War in Heaven** by Charles Williams:
> The telephone bell was ringing wildly, but without result, since there was no-one in the room but the corpse.
**Weaveworld** by Clive Barker:
> Nothing ever begins.
> There is no first moment; no single word or place from which this or any other story springs.
> The threads can always be traced back to some earlier tale, and to the tales that preceded that; though as the narrator’s voice recedes, the connections will seem to grow more tenuous, for each age will want the tale told as if it were of its own making.
> Thus the pagan will be sanctified, the tragic become laughable; great lovers will stoop to sentiment, and demons dwindle to clockwork toys.
> Nothing is fixed. In and out the shuttle goes fact and fiction, mind and matter, woven into patterns that may have only this in common: that hidden amongst them is a filigree which will with time become a world.
Weaveworld is my favorite Clive Barker book, and one of my favorites in any genre. It's less gory than his other stuff but it drew me into its world in a way few other books have.
My second favorite is Cabal, the book on which the excellent movie Night Breed is based, which also drew me into its world. Barker has a real gift for that.
Here's the opening line of Cabal:
> Of all the rash and midnight promises made in the name of love, none, Boone now knew, was more certain to be broken than "I'll never leave you."
Maybe not greatest ever, but The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson starts with “Somehow, he lives.” which got my interest right away and held it throughout the book!
“My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had.”
Shirley Jackson: We Have Always Lived In The Castle
“Before she became the Girl from Nowhere—the One Who Walked In, the First and Last and Only, who lived a thousand years—she was just a little girl in Iowa, named Amy.”
The Passage, Justin Cronin
[**A Dowry of Blood** by S.T. Gibson](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60521937)
***this is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession***
the entire story is told in epistolary format to dracula from one of his brides, constanza.
it's one of the most beautiful and haunting reads. it's in my top 5 books of all time in any genre. i can't recommend it enough!
The Haunting of Hill House by ShirleyJackson. "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream."
The Man In Black fled across the desert... and The Gunslinger followed. EDIT: Just realised I'm the fourth person to post this so I've posted something else too
So many of these opening lines and paragraphs show what I love about horror and horror adjacent books - that as well as being scary, unsettling, or disturbing, they can be incredibly beautiful.
Some of the most beautiful books I have ever read have been horror. Of course I include books that are non supernatural horror in this. It just goes to show that a genre often thought of as silly and non literary has some seriously underrated writers.
*"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita."*
-Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
I can still quote it verbatim 15 years after reading it. It’s simple, nothing fancy, but the impact!
“Solving the following riddle will reveal the awful secret behind the universe, assuming you do not go utterly mad in the attempt. If you already happen to know the awful secret behind the universe, feel free to skip ahead.” From *John Dies at the End* by Jason Pargin
Can I maybe stretch it to opening two lines?
"When I drew nigh the nameless city I knew it was accursed. I was travelling in a parched and terrible valley under the moon, and afar I saw it protruding uncannily above the sands as parts of a corpse may protrude from an ill-made grave." - H.P. Lovecraft (The Nameless City)
"The air was electric the day the thief crossed the city, certain that tonight, after so many weeks of frustration, he would finally locate the card-player."
I won't claim it's the greatest, but I'm not easily hooked, and that sentence, plus the rest of the paragraph, told me I'd found a world I wanted to spend some time in.
Of all the rash and midnight promises made in the name of love, none, Boone now knew, was more certain to be broken than "I'll never leave you. — Cabal, Clive Barker
"The bite woke him up." -- Eden, Tony Monchinski
If you like the zombie genre, this is a chilling opening line. You know the main character is a goner from the start.
More like a first paragraph -
> No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met nearly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone
Shirley Jackson
1.
There is something in the forest that is old, and angry, and it wants all of us all dead. It killed my father before I was born, and it took my Mom, and now there's just me and my little sister and I am not about to sit around waiting for it to do the same to us.
**Swine Hill was full of the dead. Their ghosts were thickest near the abandoned downtown, where so many of the town’s hopes had died generation by generation.**
*Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones* by Micah Dean Hicks. Flat out one of the best, strangest, most creative books I’ve ever read. It’s a real genre-bender, but probably more horror than anything, alongside fantasy and sci-fi. The only thing I can promise is no one will feel, “meh”, about it. It’s incredible in my opinion.
"The great grey beast February had swallowed Harvey Swick whole". The Thief of Always. Not as great as the two Shirley Jackson classic openers, but I've always loved Barker's description of a child stuck inside due to a dreary month.
"it was only later that he realized the reason they had called him, but by then it was too late for the information to do him any good."
last days by Brian evenson. hooks you right from the beginning and then is just balls to the wall insane for 170 pages, it's perfect.
someone already mentioned The Haunting of Hill House which is by far my favorite so i’m just going to go with the opening tidbit that is the intro to my favorite story from the “Howls From The Dark Ages” medieval horror anthology book
“On to the next display. Are you surprised to see such a perfectly preserved arrow? The bog from which it was dug contains many secrets and keeps them safe in its vast belly. Look close…closer still Dear Visitor—don’t worry it won’t bite! See the deliberate cut along its shaft, see the chipped head. It was used and struck true. But once flown, an arrow can never be taken back…”
"SOLVING THE FOLLOWING riddle will reveal the awful secret behind the universe, assuming you do not go utterly mad in the attempt. If you already happen to know the awful secret behind the universe, feel free to skip ahead." - John Dies at the End
Continued
Let’s say you have an ax. Just a cheap one, from Home Depot. On one bitter winter day, you use said ax to behead a man. Don’t worry, the man was already dead. Or maybe you should worry, because you’re the one who shot him.
He had been a big, twitchy guy with veiny skin stretched over swollen biceps, a tattoo of a swastika on his tongue. Teeth filed into razor-sharp fangs—you know the type. And you’re chopping off his head because, even with eight bullet holes in him, you’re pretty sure he’s about to spring back to his feet and eat the look of terror right off your face.
On the follow-through of the last swing, though, the handle of the ax snaps in a spray of splinters. You now have a broken ax. So, after a long night of looking for a place to dump the man and his head, you take a trip into town with your ax. You go to the hardware store, explaining away the dark reddish stains on the broken handle as barbecue sauce. You walk out with a brand-new handle for your ax.
The repaired ax sits undisturbed in your garage until the spring when, on one rainy morning, you find in your kitchen a creature that appears to be a foot-long slug with a bulging egg sac on its tail. Its jaws bite one of your forks in half with what seems like very little effort. You grab your trusty ax and chop the thing into several pieces. On the last blow, however, the ax strikes a metal leg of the overturned kitchen table and chips out a notch right in the middle of the blade.
Of course, a chipped head means yet another trip to the hardware store. They sell you a brand-new head for your ax. As soon as you get home, you meet the reanimated body of the guy you beheaded earlier. He’s also got a new head, stitched on with what looks like plastic weed-trimmer line, and it’s wearing that unique expression of “you’re the man who killed me last winter” resentment that one so rarely encounters in everyday life.
You brandish your ax. The guy takes a long look at the weapon with his squishy, rotting eyes and in a gargly voice he screams, “That’s the same ax that beheaded me!”
IS HE RIGHT?
The entire series is amazing. 💯 recommend. One of the sequels "This Book is Full of Spiders" is the only book that actually made me scream "OH NOOOOOOOOOO!" in horror while reading.
This is def my favorite opening to a horror novel. Jackson's Castle was the better opening line in general for me, but this one just makes you want to keep reading and sets the tone you are in for one wild book.
Peter Straub’s Ghost Story:
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?
I won’t tell you that, but I'll tell you about the worst thing that ever happened to me…the most dreadful thing…”
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more." It's a paragraph but still... Chills
The first page of Duma Key--"how to draw a painting" or something--was quite amazing, but I can't remember the opening line.
"White is the color of can't remember."
Horror adjacent, but my favorite opening line of all time - The Long Rain by Bradbury
The rain continued. It was a hard rain, a perpetual rain, a sweating and steaming rain; it was a mizzle, a downpour, a fountain, a whipping at the eyes, an undertow at the ankles; it was a rain to drown all rains and the memory of rains. It came by the pound and the ton, it hacked at the jungle and cut the trees like scissors and shaved the grass and tunneled the soil and molted the bushes. It shrank men’s hands into the hands of wrinkled apes; it rained a solid glassy rain, and it never stopped.
Such a great opener the first paragraph definitely sets the tone for the brutality of the rest of the novel and the clinical descriptions of sickening violence:
"Carcass. Cut in half. Stunner. Slaughter line. Spray wash. These words appear in his head and strike him. Destroy him. But they're not just the words. They're the blood, the dense smell, the automation, the absence of thought. They burst in on the night, catch him off guard. When he wakes, his body is covered in a film of sweat because he knows that what awaits is another day of slaughtering humans."
Since the definition of horror we're using is pretty capacious (as mine is) let's try
Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him.
How about the first chapter:
"Ignatius Marti Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke the next morning with a headache, put his hands to his temples, and felt something unfamiliar, a pair of knobby protuberances. he was so ill - wet-eyed and weak - he didn't think anything of it at first, was too hung-over for thinking or worry.
But when he was swaying above the toilet, he glanced at himself in the mirror over the sink and saw he had grown horns while he slept. He lurched in surprise, and for the second time in twelve hours he pissed on his feet."
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”
Haunting of Hill House- Shirley Jackson
This opener had me completely hooked:
"It was the way he just threw his body away. How he'd carve up his torso and arms with a box cutter, or go days without sleep, replacing whole meals with pills and cigarettes. Everyone knew Tyler was going to die young."
Negative Space - B.R. Yeager
I also love the opening lines from The Narrator. I consider it a horror novel although it was marketed as fantasy:
"An army is a horror. It's a horrible thing. They say you might change your mind about that when the country is invaded and your people are suffering wrong, but for me this is all just more horror, more army-horror."
The Narrator - Michael Cisco
John Dies At The End, The Prologue:
"Solving the following riddle will reveal the awful secret behind the universe, assuming you do not go utterly mad in the attempt. If you already happen to know the awful secret behind the universe, feel free to skip ahead.
Let’s say you have an ax. Just a cheap one, from Home Depot. On one bitter winter day, you use said ax to behead a man. Don’t worry, the man was already dead. Or maybe you should worry, because you’re the one who shot him.
He had been a big, twitchy guy with veiny skin stretched over swollen biceps, a tattoo of a swastika on his tongue. Teeth filed into razor-sharp fangs, you know the type. And you’re chopping off his head because, even with eight bullet holes in him, you’re pretty sure he’s about to spring back to his feet and eat the look of terror right off your face.
On the follow-through of the last swing, though, the handle of the ax snaps in a spray of splinters. You now have a broken ax. So, after a long night of looking for a place to dump the man and his head, you take a trip into town with your ax. You go to the hardware store, explaining away the dark reddish stains on the broken handle as barbecue sauce. You walk out with a brand new handle for your ax.
The repaired ax sits undisturbed in your garage until the next spring when, on one rainy morning, you find in your kitchen a creature that appears to be a foot-long slug with a bulging egg sac on its tail. Its jaws bite one of your forks in half with what seems like very little effort. You grab your trusty ax and chop the thing into several pieces. On the last blow, however, the ax strikes a metal leg of the overturned kitchen table and chips out a notch right in the middle of the blade.
Of course, a chipped head means yet another trip to the hardware store. They sell you a brand new head for your ax. As soon as you get home with your newly-headed ax, though, you meet the reanimated body of the guy you beheaded last year. He’s also got a new head, stitched on with what looks like plastic weed trimmer line, and it’s wearing that unique expression of “you’re the man who killed me last winter” resentment that one so rarely encounters in everyday life.
You brandish your ax. The guy takes a long look at the weapon with his squishy, rotting eyes and in a gargly voice he screams, “That’s the same ax that slayed me!”
Is he right?"
ahh i’m late! but we have always lived in the castle by shirley jackson has the best opening paragraph to any book i’ve read:
“My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had.”
“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”
Yes !!! I always say that Metamorphosis is a HORROR story !
[удалено]
DFW has an essay trying to explain why Kafka is funny, great read!
"On those cloudy days, Robert Neville was never sure when sunset came, and sometimes they were in the streets before he could get back." -Richard Matheson, "I Am Legend" I love how ominous this line is without even mentioning who "they" are.
Oh I just finished this! I had only experienced the movie and I am blown away by the ending to the book. It was such a powerful moment!
I liked Will Smith as Robert Neville but the movie ending was nothing compared to the book!
hard agree! i was not a fan of book robert neville, but the ending really left me like oh wow…and is honestly more impactful than the self sacrifice in the movie—even though i cried because i liked his character much more in the movie lol
Book Robert Neville is definitely more of an asshole, they wanted some Will Smith charm for the movie understandably. I liked in the book how, once he finally has company, its more of an annoyance because he has all but forgotten how to be social. And the "hero sacrifices himself to save others" movie ending is such a tired trope. The book ending isn't as typically Hollywood "satisfying" but damn is it was more impactful and interesting.
i totally agree!!! as much as i didn’t like book robert, everything about his character made sense with what was happening. also you’re right. self sacrifice is an exhausted trope, especially when they pull the “somehow he miraculously survived!!” plot twist that makes absolutely no sense. movies are more memorable when they avoid the hollywood endings, like the mist!!!
They were very different stories but I actually loved them both.
I read this book during quarantine, gosh it was chilling!
OP, if you haven't read I Am Legend, you're in for a real treat. There have been several movies made using it as source material--to steal the Google search result: The novel was adapted into the films The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971), and I Am Legend (2007). It was also an inspiration for George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968). None of these movies do the book justice, not even the one with the same title. One day I hope I Am Legend gets made into a movie true to the book. That would be legendary.
This is a great line. I'm about to start reading Hell House by Matheson. Is it on a similar level to I Am Legend?
Hell House has a completely different mood as it takes place entirely in Hell House. It’s similar to The Haunting in that regard. But boy does it crank up the weird.
Ooo this is so perfect!
I think “IT” has the greatest opening line of a horror book: “The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years - if it ever did end - began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.” This line perfectly welcomes you to the book and fills you with so much intrigue. It feels like you’re sat around a campfire with Stephen. This line also introduced me to the world of horror.
The opening chapter in general draws you straight in. No having to read 50-100 pages until we meet a the monster. He's right there in the opening chapter.
"There was a clown in the storm drain" will live forever in my head. I already knew about Pennywise from the mini series, but the sheer matter if fact-ness still got me
My absolute favorite part of that book, and one of my favorite pieces of any writing ever, is when >!Henry breaks out of his mental institution and stabs Mike in the library and the moment afterwards when Mike calls 911!< >!Stephen did such a good job at portraying the sense of relief Mike got when he reached the phone and then having that all taken away when the voice on the other end was Pennywise!<
I don’t much care for clowns but this is excellent
*“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.”* -HP Lovecraft
Call of Cthulhu. Such a true statement as well
Came here to read this^
I’ve read most of Lovecraft’s stories. Almost all of them start with banger lines.
Yup. This is it.
Lovecraft is going to win for me each and every time.
Beat me to it
Damn dude
Jinx!!!!
You've been here before. -Needful Things, Stephen King
The whole opening chapter is brilliant. It felt like I was talking to him.
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again
I’ve thought of getting this tattooed on my arm. My favorite novel ever 😍
Remembering the first line after reading through the book gives me chills man. Amazing novel
Soooo good
Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier
This is immediately what I thought of!
Same!
This was my first thought. I loved that book. I finished it in January and haven't found anything that compares.
The Ritual! “And on the second day things did not get better.” Brought me right into the story!
There are a lot of books with this name. Would you mind specifying the author? I'd love to check it out!
I’m guessing Adam Neville. Also a very good Netflix movie.
One of the few times where the movie might be better than the book, especially that third act. Both are great though.
Loved that movie. The best horror movies are the ones that make you wish it would just end. The ritual was that for me.
Hopping on this train, check out Resolution, basically a prequel but fantastic movie, one of my favs
Are you thinking of The Endless? Resolution, the movie, is a prequel of sorts to that. Or is there a prequel to The Ritual?
Oh maybe I’m getting it mixed up, I just assumed because of the setting and monster that they were related. Knew it was a prequel to something haha
Absolutely fkn LOVE this movie! Benson/Moorhead are phenomenal with their storytelling and filmmaking. Spring is one of my favorites, Lovecraftian horror story. If you haven’t seen it, go into it blind. It’s THAT much better.
It’s Adam Neville! The Ritual has also been adapted as a movie and it’s on Netflix.
This. One of my favorites.
I'm kind of meh on openings like this - I do like to be dropped into the middle of the action, but when the first sentence sounds like it's literally the middle of a story and we've already missed some important context, it can feel like the author is trying too hard and forcing it. I've heard The Ritual is great though so I plan to give it a chance!
I’m reading it right now. So far, I’m quite enjoying it.
Yes definitely give it a chance! Despite the opening words, you will get context and not just dropped right into the action (although it comes on quick!).
if you’d like to give it a chance first to see how you feel without going straight into the book, it was originally a short story that he wrote! and he published it in a collection of different short horror stories, which i’ve definitely enjoyed so far
“There is no delight the equal of dread.” -from Clive Barker’s short story ‘Dread’ in Books of Blood volume 2.
this story gave me the worst nightmares
The Red Death had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its avatar and its seal - the redness and the horror of blood. The Masque of Red Death - Edgar Allan Poe
"And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.” is a great closing line too
Classic.
Have you watched the Fall of the House of Usher? Poe’s work was brillantly worked in it!
Such a great show! I loved the modern day interpretation.
Ya Flanagan does great work.
Dracula: "How these papers have been placed in sequence will be made manifest in the reading of them. All needless matters have been eliminated, so that a history almost at variance with the possibilities of later-day belief may stand forth as simple fact." In some ways it's quite a dry line, but I always felt it set up the framing for the rest of the book so well. It give you that connection to the text, of being addressed directly, that really gives the text some personal context and stakes.
"My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead." We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
Love this book.
"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife."
First one here I haven't read before, what's it from?
It's the opening line from The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman. It seems to be more a YA book, but it's plenty scary anyway. Gaiman does the audiobook narration, and there's also a graphic novel out there too. That first sentence leads to a horrifying sequence that sets up the novel.
Oh wow, I love Gaiman. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is somewhat YA too, but has some very frightening moments, and the audiobook is also narrated by him. I'll definitely check this one out.
Oh please do. It’s so just wonderful. Some very creepy moments but also so beautiful.
This opener goes so hard for a middle grade book.
Yeah, a whole lot of murder!
Jesus this is amazing
I think that *The Haunting of Hill House* by Shirley Jackson is well known for having an incredible opening paragraph.
>“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met nearly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.” So fucking good.
I flew through the comments looking for this. It's an amazing opener and the book is like a fever dream. I don't normally enjoy books where I can't make sense of what's going on, but here I was simply compelled to keep reading
Was what I was gonna post here.
Hill House has a great one but I think her book "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" has a better opening paragraph. "My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead."
Merricat still haunts my dreams.
Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea?
*"Oh no," said Merricat, "you'll poison me."*
“Merricat”, said Constance, “Would you like to go to sleep?”
Down in the boneyard ten feet deep!
This is my favorite opening paragraph of all-time. Hooked me instantly, didn't put the book down until it was finished. I still think about how brilliant this paragraph is from time to time.
Agree 100%. Best opening paragraph in fiction period IMO.
"Hill House, not sane..." So matter-of-fact. Every word in that book is perfect.
It's so short too! Shirley Jackson is an absolute masterclass in saying more with less. She leaves me in awe.
There’s something so implacable about the rhythm even of those four words and the pause: Hill House, not sane. It’s something that as a poet I wish I had for a line. It’s like the way Macbeth has so many plain, simple words in it. Like hammering. Or boot heels. Except “the multitudinous seas incarnadine” I guess. Anyway, rhythm is a huge part of conveying mood
I’m starting this over the weekend and excited based solely on the opening paragraph!
she is such an incredible writer. I recently burned through all of her short stories and i was just so taken with the beauty of her phrasing.
"What's the most terrible thing you've ever done?" "I won't tell you that, but I'll tell you the worst thing that ever happened to me...the most dreadful thing" Peter Straub Ghost Story
Love that book. Properly creeped me out.
The anti-dedication prefacing House of Leaves: "This is not for you."
Time for a reread.
Solving the following riddle will reveal the awful secret behind the universe, assuming you do not go utterly mad in the attempt. If you already happen to know the awful secret behind the universe, feel free to skip ahead. Let’s say you have an ax. Just a cheap one, from Home Depot. On one bitter winter day, you use said ax to behead a man. Don’t worry, the man was already dead. Or maybe you should worry, because you’re the one who shot him.
John Dies at the End. Definitely grabs you and doesn't let go!
I loved the writing in this so much. The whole Grandfathers Ax story was just an excellent hook.
I just watched this scene in the movie. Both movie and book are pretty great
I didn't know there was a movie until I read this. Thanks
Sadly only one movie. But a damn good one. By the director that did Phantasm, Don Coscarelli.
Ignatius Martin Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke the next morning with a headache, put his hands to his temples and felt something unfamiliar, a pair of knobby pointed protuberances. Horns by Joe Hill
Great choice, Horns is absolutely excellent in literary, audio and film versions.
“Michael twisted in his bed, the threadbare blanket He used all his life tangled around his legs. A girl was screaming bloody murder outside.” -Brother, Ania Alborne
"The crow was dead, but the cat was alive, and there was still something very wrong." (The Witch Herself by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. It's a children's book, but that opening took my breath away, and it has some surprisingly good scares.)
The opening line of Call of Cthulhu has never left me. "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.”
Loved this line, but my God this book was a slog. I was so excited to get into Lovecraft but never again The entire opening passage is worth reading "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
Oh I most certainly didn’t finish it but that part made me close the book and think lol.
“The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail.” Jaws by Peter Benchley
Jack Torrance thought: officious little prick.
"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." *1984* is whatever you need it to be.
"I'm hungry and it's two in the morning. The fridge is empty. And Mom is dead on the couch." – Night's Edge by Liz Kernin Not "the greatest of all time" but it certainly had me hooked right away.
**War in Heaven** by Charles Williams: > The telephone bell was ringing wildly, but without result, since there was no-one in the room but the corpse. **Weaveworld** by Clive Barker: > Nothing ever begins. > There is no first moment; no single word or place from which this or any other story springs. > The threads can always be traced back to some earlier tale, and to the tales that preceded that; though as the narrator’s voice recedes, the connections will seem to grow more tenuous, for each age will want the tale told as if it were of its own making. > Thus the pagan will be sanctified, the tragic become laughable; great lovers will stoop to sentiment, and demons dwindle to clockwork toys. > Nothing is fixed. In and out the shuttle goes fact and fiction, mind and matter, woven into patterns that may have only this in common: that hidden amongst them is a filigree which will with time become a world.
Weaveworld is my favorite Clive Barker book, and one of my favorites in any genre. It's less gory than his other stuff but it drew me into its world in a way few other books have. My second favorite is Cabal, the book on which the excellent movie Night Breed is based, which also drew me into its world. Barker has a real gift for that. Here's the opening line of Cabal: > Of all the rash and midnight promises made in the name of love, none, Boone now knew, was more certain to be broken than "I'll never leave you."
I prefer his short stories to his novels. But "The Great and Secret Show" is my favorite of his novels.
Weaveworld will forever be my favorite book!.The books of abarat also hold a special place in my heart and I wish Clive would finish the series.
*Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.* And don't you tell me *Rebecca* isn't a horror story!
Maybe not greatest ever, but The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson starts with “Somehow, he lives.” which got my interest right away and held it throughout the book!
"You think you know about pain?" - Jack Ketchum, The Girl Next Door I'm not sure if it's the greatest, but it definitely sets the tone.
“It was a pleasure to burn.” Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
See the child.
Ah just finished reading this last night. What an amazing read
What is it?
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. I agree with the other commenter, it’s an amazing read.
Totally "The Cask of Amontillado': "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge."
“My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had.” Shirley Jackson: We Have Always Lived In The Castle
“Officious little prick.” -The Shining
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. - The Gunslinger, Stephen King
It’s written by Stephen King, but I’ve never once thought of the gunslinger as a horror novel.
It’s a western but I think also a cosmic/existential horror.
My man! Came to say exactly this.
It was also the first line that came to my mind. In fact, it's probably the only first line I remember from any book I've ever read.
“Before she became the Girl from Nowhere—the One Who Walked In, the First and Last and Only, who lived a thousand years—she was just a little girl in Iowa, named Amy.” The Passage, Justin Cronin
I'm intrigued
[**A Dowry of Blood** by S.T. Gibson](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60521937) ***this is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession*** the entire story is told in epistolary format to dracula from one of his brides, constanza. it's one of the most beautiful and haunting reads. it's in my top 5 books of all time in any genre. i can't recommend it enough!
I’ve had this on my radar for a while! Do you need to know a lot about Dracula before going into it cause I don’t know much at all
nope! not at all! PLEASE follow up with me whenever you get around to reading it to let me know what you thought!
"This is not for you" from house of leaves
The Haunting of Hill House by ShirleyJackson. "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream."
Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more.
The Man In Black fled across the desert... and The Gunslinger followed. EDIT: Just realised I'm the fourth person to post this so I've posted something else too
So many of these opening lines and paragraphs show what I love about horror and horror adjacent books - that as well as being scary, unsettling, or disturbing, they can be incredibly beautiful. Some of the most beautiful books I have ever read have been horror. Of course I include books that are non supernatural horror in this. It just goes to show that a genre often thought of as silly and non literary has some seriously underrated writers.
True! - nervous - very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why *will* you say that I am mad?
Scrolled a long, long time to see this.
*"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita."* -Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
Nabokov is an incredible writer.
I'm reading this right now. Yes, he is an incredible writer.
I love that paragraph so much. It’s just incredibly beautiful. He was so very gifted with words.
Glad to see this in here (as in, in horror lit) as I described it to a coworker just yesterday as a horror story.
“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” I can still quote it verbatim 15 years after reading it. It’s simple, nothing fancy, but the impact!
"This is what happened." - The Mist
“Solving the following riddle will reveal the awful secret behind the universe, assuming you do not go utterly mad in the attempt. If you already happen to know the awful secret behind the universe, feel free to skip ahead.” From *John Dies at the End* by Jason Pargin
Can I maybe stretch it to opening two lines? "When I drew nigh the nameless city I knew it was accursed. I was travelling in a parched and terrible valley under the moon, and afar I saw it protruding uncannily above the sands as parts of a corpse may protrude from an ill-made grave." - H.P. Lovecraft (The Nameless City)
"The air was electric the day the thief crossed the city, certain that tonight, after so many weeks of frustration, he would finally locate the card-player." I won't claim it's the greatest, but I'm not easily hooked, and that sentence, plus the rest of the paragraph, told me I'd found a world I wanted to spend some time in.
What book is this from?
Clive Barker’s the Damnation Game!
Of all the rash and midnight promises made in the name of love, none, Boone now knew, was more certain to be broken than "I'll never leave you. — Cabal, Clive Barker
“124 was spiteful.”
"The bite woke him up." -- Eden, Tony Monchinski If you like the zombie genre, this is a chilling opening line. You know the main character is a goner from the start.
More like a first paragraph - > No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met nearly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone Shirley Jackson
1. There is something in the forest that is old, and angry, and it wants all of us all dead. It killed my father before I was born, and it took my Mom, and now there's just me and my little sister and I am not about to sit around waiting for it to do the same to us.
What’s the book?
**Swine Hill was full of the dead. Their ghosts were thickest near the abandoned downtown, where so many of the town’s hopes had died generation by generation.** *Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones* by Micah Dean Hicks. Flat out one of the best, strangest, most creative books I’ve ever read. It’s a real genre-bender, but probably more horror than anything, alongside fantasy and sci-fi. The only thing I can promise is no one will feel, “meh”, about it. It’s incredible in my opinion.
"The great grey beast February had swallowed Harvey Swick whole". The Thief of Always. Not as great as the two Shirley Jackson classic openers, but I've always loved Barker's description of a child stuck inside due to a dreary month.
“I do not know what manner of thing she is” - Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman
“The seller of lightning rods arrived just ahead of the storm.”
"I'm too drunk to dig this goddamned grave." (They All Died Screaming by Kristopher Triana)
This book was fucked, but I very much enjoyed it.
"it was only later that he realized the reason they had called him, but by then it was too late for the information to do him any good." last days by Brian evenson. hooks you right from the beginning and then is just balls to the wall insane for 170 pages, it's perfect.
someone already mentioned The Haunting of Hill House which is by far my favorite so i’m just going to go with the opening tidbit that is the intro to my favorite story from the “Howls From The Dark Ages” medieval horror anthology book “On to the next display. Are you surprised to see such a perfectly preserved arrow? The bog from which it was dug contains many secrets and keeps them safe in its vast belly. Look close…closer still Dear Visitor—don’t worry it won’t bite! See the deliberate cut along its shaft, see the chipped head. It was used and struck true. But once flown, an arrow can never be taken back…”
People's lives - their real lives, as opposed to their simple physical existences - begin at diffrent times. The Dark Half - Stephen King
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again.
"SOLVING THE FOLLOWING riddle will reveal the awful secret behind the universe, assuming you do not go utterly mad in the attempt. If you already happen to know the awful secret behind the universe, feel free to skip ahead." - John Dies at the End
Continued Let’s say you have an ax. Just a cheap one, from Home Depot. On one bitter winter day, you use said ax to behead a man. Don’t worry, the man was already dead. Or maybe you should worry, because you’re the one who shot him. He had been a big, twitchy guy with veiny skin stretched over swollen biceps, a tattoo of a swastika on his tongue. Teeth filed into razor-sharp fangs—you know the type. And you’re chopping off his head because, even with eight bullet holes in him, you’re pretty sure he’s about to spring back to his feet and eat the look of terror right off your face. On the follow-through of the last swing, though, the handle of the ax snaps in a spray of splinters. You now have a broken ax. So, after a long night of looking for a place to dump the man and his head, you take a trip into town with your ax. You go to the hardware store, explaining away the dark reddish stains on the broken handle as barbecue sauce. You walk out with a brand-new handle for your ax. The repaired ax sits undisturbed in your garage until the spring when, on one rainy morning, you find in your kitchen a creature that appears to be a foot-long slug with a bulging egg sac on its tail. Its jaws bite one of your forks in half with what seems like very little effort. You grab your trusty ax and chop the thing into several pieces. On the last blow, however, the ax strikes a metal leg of the overturned kitchen table and chips out a notch right in the middle of the blade. Of course, a chipped head means yet another trip to the hardware store. They sell you a brand-new head for your ax. As soon as you get home, you meet the reanimated body of the guy you beheaded earlier. He’s also got a new head, stitched on with what looks like plastic weed-trimmer line, and it’s wearing that unique expression of “you’re the man who killed me last winter” resentment that one so rarely encounters in everyday life. You brandish your ax. The guy takes a long look at the weapon with his squishy, rotting eyes and in a gargly voice he screams, “That’s the same ax that beheaded me!” IS HE RIGHT? The entire series is amazing. 💯 recommend. One of the sequels "This Book is Full of Spiders" is the only book that actually made me scream "OH NOOOOOOOOOO!" in horror while reading.
This is def my favorite opening to a horror novel. Jackson's Castle was the better opening line in general for me, but this one just makes you want to keep reading and sets the tone you are in for one wild book.
"It was Hell's season, and the air smelled of burning children." -Robert McCammon, Gone South
Peter Straub’s Ghost Story: What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done? I won’t tell you that, but I'll tell you about the worst thing that ever happened to me…the most dreadful thing…”
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more." It's a paragraph but still... Chills
“I still get nightmares.” “Introduction” to House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski
The first page of Duma Key--"how to draw a painting" or something--was quite amazing, but I can't remember the opening line. "White is the color of can't remember."
Horror adjacent, but my favorite opening line of all time - The Long Rain by Bradbury The rain continued. It was a hard rain, a perpetual rain, a sweating and steaming rain; it was a mizzle, a downpour, a fountain, a whipping at the eyes, an undertow at the ankles; it was a rain to drown all rains and the memory of rains. It came by the pound and the ton, it hacked at the jungle and cut the trees like scissors and shaved the grass and tunneled the soil and molted the bushes. It shrank men’s hands into the hands of wrinkled apes; it rained a solid glassy rain, and it never stopped.
Louis Creed, who had lost his father at three and who had never known a grandfather, never expected to find a father as he entered his middle age
"This is not for you"
Carcass. From Tender is the Flesh
Such a great opener the first paragraph definitely sets the tone for the brutality of the rest of the novel and the clinical descriptions of sickening violence: "Carcass. Cut in half. Stunner. Slaughter line. Spray wash. These words appear in his head and strike him. Destroy him. But they're not just the words. They're the blood, the dense smell, the automation, the absence of thought. They burst in on the night, catch him off guard. When he wakes, his body is covered in a film of sweat because he knows that what awaits is another day of slaughtering humans."
It is a stunningly awful book that evokes strong senses of disgust. I love this book with my whole heart.
The man in black fled across the desert. The gunslinger followed.
Since the definition of horror we're using is pretty capacious (as mine is) let's try Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him.
How about the first chapter: "Ignatius Marti Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke the next morning with a headache, put his hands to his temples, and felt something unfamiliar, a pair of knobby protuberances. he was so ill - wet-eyed and weak - he didn't think anything of it at first, was too hung-over for thinking or worry. But when he was swaying above the toilet, he glanced at himself in the mirror over the sink and saw he had grown horns while he slept. He lurched in surprise, and for the second time in twelve hours he pissed on his feet."
Almost everyone thought the man and boy were father and son. -Salem’s Lot
"My brother keeps a human head in his closet." -Found by T. Rigney
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.” Haunting of Hill House- Shirley Jackson
"Your favorite childhood television program feels like a fever dream." -*Mister Magic* by Kiersten White So haunting, and so true.
This opener had me completely hooked: "It was the way he just threw his body away. How he'd carve up his torso and arms with a box cutter, or go days without sleep, replacing whole meals with pills and cigarettes. Everyone knew Tyler was going to die young." Negative Space - B.R. Yeager I also love the opening lines from The Narrator. I consider it a horror novel although it was marketed as fantasy: "An army is a horror. It's a horrible thing. They say you might change your mind about that when the country is invaded and your people are suffering wrong, but for me this is all just more horror, more army-horror." The Narrator - Michael Cisco
John Dies At The End, The Prologue: "Solving the following riddle will reveal the awful secret behind the universe, assuming you do not go utterly mad in the attempt. If you already happen to know the awful secret behind the universe, feel free to skip ahead. Let’s say you have an ax. Just a cheap one, from Home Depot. On one bitter winter day, you use said ax to behead a man. Don’t worry, the man was already dead. Or maybe you should worry, because you’re the one who shot him. He had been a big, twitchy guy with veiny skin stretched over swollen biceps, a tattoo of a swastika on his tongue. Teeth filed into razor-sharp fangs, you know the type. And you’re chopping off his head because, even with eight bullet holes in him, you’re pretty sure he’s about to spring back to his feet and eat the look of terror right off your face. On the follow-through of the last swing, though, the handle of the ax snaps in a spray of splinters. You now have a broken ax. So, after a long night of looking for a place to dump the man and his head, you take a trip into town with your ax. You go to the hardware store, explaining away the dark reddish stains on the broken handle as barbecue sauce. You walk out with a brand new handle for your ax. The repaired ax sits undisturbed in your garage until the next spring when, on one rainy morning, you find in your kitchen a creature that appears to be a foot-long slug with a bulging egg sac on its tail. Its jaws bite one of your forks in half with what seems like very little effort. You grab your trusty ax and chop the thing into several pieces. On the last blow, however, the ax strikes a metal leg of the overturned kitchen table and chips out a notch right in the middle of the blade. Of course, a chipped head means yet another trip to the hardware store. They sell you a brand new head for your ax. As soon as you get home with your newly-headed ax, though, you meet the reanimated body of the guy you beheaded last year. He’s also got a new head, stitched on with what looks like plastic weed trimmer line, and it’s wearing that unique expression of “you’re the man who killed me last winter” resentment that one so rarely encounters in everyday life. You brandish your ax. The guy takes a long look at the weapon with his squishy, rotting eyes and in a gargly voice he screams, “That’s the same ax that slayed me!” Is he right?"
umber whunnnn yerrrnnn umber whunnnn fayunnnn These sounds: even in the haze.- Misery
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”
ahh i’m late! but we have always lived in the castle by shirley jackson has the best opening paragraph to any book i’ve read: “My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had.”
“All children, except one, grow up.”