Starry Reads

First lines of books set the tone for the entire story, and these 17 opening lines from YA lit foreshadow something quite ominous. . .

“The weight of their pity is like a stone tied about my neck.”
–– Defiance by CJ Redwine


“She spoke to him before the world fell apart.”
–– The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

“I was raised to marry a monster.”
–– Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge


“Here is the boy, drowning.”
–– More Than This by Patrick Ness


“The night I cut off my hair, my mother told my father to leave.”
–– The Things You Kiss Goodbye by Leslie Connor

“My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die.”
–– Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta


“They say that just before you die your whole life flashes before your eyes, but that’s not how it happened for me.”
–– Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver


“They took me in my nightgown.”
–– Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

“I was seventeen years old when I saw my first dead body.”
–– Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley


“Sometimes I think that everyone has a tragedy waiting for them, that the people buying milk in their pajamas or picking their noses at spotlights could be only moments away from disaster.”
–– The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider


“Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she’s been told that she would kill her true love.”
–– The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

“This is how you get your ass kicked.”
–– Fake ID by Lamar Giles


“I’m standing at the edge of existence.”
–– Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts


“‘You stop fearing the Devil when you’re holding his hand.’”
–– Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke

“There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.”
–– The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman


“As my bare feet sank into the wet earth, I tried not to think about the dead bodies buried beneath me.”
–– Unbreakable by Kami Garcia


“I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen.”
–– Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs


What are your favorite ominous opening lines? Tell us in the comments below!