Comments on: First Impressions 5.18.12

By: Naomi Johnson

Naomi Johnson — Sat, 19 May 2012 01:20:35 +0000

Urgh. Pretty unintriguing lot of openings. I wouldn’t bother with any of them except that I liked all of SJ Bolton’s books save the last one, Now You See Me. Despite the rather pedantic first paragraph, I’m willing to sample more of Dead Scared.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Fri, 18 May 2012 20:05:04 +0000

Ugh, felt the same way about the whole train thing. I want a mystery/thriller, not The Little Engine That Could.

So you went Jenn’s route with the falling object. I, frankly, didn’t even consider that a body was falling. My immediate reaction was something akin to a piano was falling and going to take out some poor schmoe on the ground. Now you HAVE to read it and tell us which it is. I think part of what influenced me was the last line, “most commonly the ground.” I kind of read that to mean that the instance being written about was NOT the common instance and there was something between the falling object and the ground. At this point in my diatribe, I think it’s likely a dead horse.

By: Pop Culture Nerd

Pop Culture Nerd — Fri, 18 May 2012 19:59:49 +0000

That’s funny—I also picked up on the “me time” as being something I don’t hear men say. Mr. PCN would probably say something like, “I’ll have some time to chill out.”

It’s so interesting for me to see what grabs you and what turns you off. Suzy’s Case‘s next paragraph describes her heart as going “boom, boom” and puts the whole string together as “Whistle, puff, puff, chug, chug, boom-boom.” And then repeats it. I thought, “OK, now that’s just beating the cutesy sounds into the ground. Move on.”

The Bolton wins this round for me. I was tense waiting to see who hits the ground. It’s funny that Lauren was waiting to see who the body falls on!

By: Lauren

Lauren — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:03:00 +0000

I’m with Jenn on a couple of things. “Little” (along with “kiddo,” especially for adults) drives me nuts. And a guy saying “me time” really rang false for me as well.

Where I’m polar opposite of Jenn (and you) is that I never read the opening of a book before I buy it. Based on these, I don’t think I would buy or read any of them. And that makes me wonder what I would miss.

I love the cover of Suzy’s Case, but the opening spoke to me the least. Almost a groaner. And I didn’t really care to read about Zack’s “me time,” even if something bad was coming down the road. So I guess Bolton’s wins by default. Not really for the opening, but because I want to know what’s happening. Interestingly, while Jenn focused on what was falling, I was waiting for someone on the groud to get plunked.

By: jenn aka the picky girl

jenn aka the picky girl — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:28:26 +0000

I really hate when people refer to kids as “Little” this or that. And yeah, cover is creepy, but that opening doesn’t really do it for me.

The second one opens with what is pretty common knowledge, and based on author, I’d bet I know exactly what is going to hit the ground.

The first, though, has me pretty curious, though I don’t think many guys say “me time” – but I’m curious whether he’s going to get it or Lilah will.

I’ve always read the opening paragraph when I’m buying books, but until you started this, I never really analyzed it. I either liked it or didn’t. Bought it or didn’t. It’s interesting not to be able to go any further, too.