Some Of My Favorite Starting Hooks

Today, I was going through some of my favorite starting hooks to get some inspiration and thought I would share them with you. Some are fairly recent, while others are very well known. All of them grab me as a reader and I am hooked! Enjoy!


In the beginning there were nine of us. We left when we were young, almost too young to remember.
     Almost.
     I am told the ground shook, that the skies were full of light and explosions. We were in that two-week period of the year when both moons hang on opposite sides of the horizon. It was a time of celebration, and the explosions were at first mistaken for fireworks. They were not...

                     -I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

The two men appeared out of nowhere, a few yards apart in the narrow, moonlit lane. For a second they stood quite still, wands directed at each other's chests; then, recognizing each other, they stowed their wands beneath their cloaks and started walking briskly in the same direction.

     "News?" asked the taller of the two.

     "The best," replied Severus Snape.

     The lane was bordered on the left by wild, low-growing brambles, on the right by a high, neatly manicured hedge. The men's long cloaks flapped around their ankles as they marched.

-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

They took Mother away today.

     I was on my energy board when they came. They didn't knock. They just came in, men in black uniforms. Enforcers. I shut off my board and stumbled, hitting my hip against the metal sidebar. They didn't say anything but held up their hands in a way that told me to stop and not come any closer. My meter was only halfway to the finish point. Mother had gotten off her sleeping mat when she heard them at the door and stood there, head down. How tangled her hair looked, gray and lifeless.

     They asked which sleeping mat was hers. She pointed to mine. I started to say, "No that's mine," but she gave a little shake of her head so I kept quiet. One of them rolled up the mat and put it under his arm. The other one tied short, dirty ropes to Mother's wrists. I knew not to cry in front of the Enforcers but tears burned hot behind my eyes.

-Agenda 21 by Glenn Beck with Harriet Parke

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

     However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

-Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

I see visions in the fire sometimes, images of the past or what is yet to come. The fire-sight does not lie. But I did not see the witch hunter who would ride in to scour our town of sin, so I did not know to run.

-Dragonswood by Janet Lee Carey

If I had to do it all over again, I would not have chosen this life. Then again, I;m not sure I ever had a choice.

     These were my thoughts as I raced away from the market, with a stolen roast tucked under my arm.

     I'd never attempted roast thievery before, and I was already regretting it. It happens to be very difficult to hold a chunk of raw meat while running. More slippery than I'd anticipated. If the butcher didn't catch me with his cleaver first, and literally cut off my future plans, I vowed to remember to get the meat wrapped next time. Then steal it.

-The False Prince:Book 1 by Jennifer A. Nielsen

What are some of your favorites? I would really like to know.