In my experience, starting a new book is like going on a first date, and sometimes much more satisfying. with some books (or dates), you know right away they’re just not for you. you don’t connect with the dialogue, you’ve heard some plot variation a dozen times before, and while you know you shouldn’t judge a book by its, well, you know, the cover is totally bad. definitely not a guardian. other books take a bit of getting used to. Okay, the back flap summary doesn’t really convince you, but at about 50 pages you’re pretty convinced that you and this book will end up being good friends. so you make a little space for it in a corner of your bookshelf.
Then there are the weird, elusive and totally fascinating books that grab you from the first page and completely immerse you in their world. It’s a total “you had me at hello” moment. we all love stumbling upon books like these. Just like perfect first dates, they’re rare, but they do exist.
You are reading: Books that keep you hooked
Get ready to ditch all those fabulous plans you had this weekend in favor of snuggling under the covers with one of these gems. here are 12 books that will have you hooked right away, some even from the very first sentence.
1. zinky boys by svetlana alexievich
there’s a reason why the nobel committee just threw tradition out the window by awarding the nobel prize for literature not just to a woman, but to a non-fiction writer. “I don’t want to write another word about war,” svetlana alexievich tells readers at the beginning of zinky boys. so of course that’s exactly what she ends up doing. Alexievich felt that her story about the war between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan was too important to pass up, and from the first page, you will too.
See Also: The Dirty Little History Of Eight Pager Comics – Geek Slop
click here to buy.
2. everything i never told you by celeste ng
lydia lee is the favorite daughter of her parents, marilyn and james. she is beautiful, popular and destined for great success. unfortunately, she is also dead. her family just doesn’t know yet. So begins Everything I Never Told You from Celeste Ng, winner of the 2015 ALEX Award about family secrets, hidden identities and a tragedy that will either save the Lee family from itself or destroy their lives forever.
See Also: The Dirty Little History Of Eight Pager Comics – Geek Slop
click here to buy.
3. tell the wolves i’m home by carol rifka brunt
june elbus is 14 years old and seems to have only one friend in the world: her uncle finn weiss. So naturally, when Finn dies under mysterious circumstances, June’s young world is turned upside down. Tell the Wolves I’m Home is full of loss, mystery, intrigue and discovery. unfolds the way all great, can’t-put-down novels do: with expansive emotion, surprising twists and turns, and unwavering hope.
See Also: The Dirty Little History Of Eight Pager Comics – Geek Slop
click here to buy.
4. in cold blood by truman capote
From his lonely images of the high wheat plains of western Kansas to his haunting depiction of a family farm so isolated that four explosive shots in the middle of the night go unnoticed by the nearest neighbors, Truman Capote is in cold blood is a work of investigative journalism that you will not be able to stop reading, from the first page to the last.
See Also: The Dirty Little History Of Eight Pager Comics – Geek Slop
click here to buy.
5. a wild state by roxane gay
roxane gay is one of the few contemporary writers who can start her novel with the words, “once upon a time, in a faraway land” and get it right. an untamed state begins with an intensity already so high that you can feel her words moving inside you, and she keeps turning up the dial. “I was kidnapped,” she continues her first sentence, “by a gang of fearless but terrified young men with so much impossible hope pulsing inside their bodies that it burned their skin and strengthened her will to the bone.” wow.
See Also: The Dirty Little History Of Eight Pager Comics – Geek Slop
click here to buy.
6. the last american man by elizabeth gilbert
the last american man, an early work of nonfiction by the irresistible elizabeth gilbert, begins with the line: “when eustace conway was seven years old, he could throw a knife accurately enough to nail a chipmunk to a tree. ok, yes… but now you definitely have to read more, don’t you?
See Also: The Dirty Little History Of Eight Pager Comics – Geek Slop
click here to buy.
7. the goldfinch by donna tartt
Apparently this novel has become notorious for being unfinished towards the end, and I guess I can see why. the goldfinch starts off quite explosively: teenager theo decker witnesses his mother’s death in a terrorist attack at the metropolitan museum of art before making off with one of the world’s most iconic works of art. museum valuables. then it takes a psychoanalytic turn that completely changes the tone of the novel. penalty fee. but you should probably give the goldfinch the benefit of the doubt and just finish the thing.
See Also: The Dirty Little History Of Eight Pager Comics – Geek Slop
click here to buy.
8. the bell jar by sylvia plath
“It was a strange and sensual summer”, this novel begins, “the summer the Rosenbergs were electrocuted and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York”. If you’ve read The Bell Jar before, you know how hard it is to get through. yet you keep reading, because the writing draws you in, line by line by line. An intimate portrayal of a woman, Esther Greenwood, and her fall into madness, the writing is so intense you might wonder if you’re going a little crazy too.
click here to buy.
9. the liars club by mary karr
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“My clearest memory is of a single moment surrounded by darkness”. Thus begins The Liars Club, a memoir about Karr’s upbringing in an East Texas oil town, surrounded by fierce, savage, substance-addicted family members who somehow way are amazing and totally recognizable at the same time. weather. With an opening line like that, how could you resist this one?
See Also: The Dirty Little History Of Eight Pager Comics – Geek Slop
click here to buy.
10. hell’s angels by hunter s. thomson
From blue jeans so dirty they’re greasy to the deafening cacophony of motorcycle engines revving, hunter s. thompson’s hell’s angels grab you from the first image and take you to a scene you never thought you’d be a part of: the world’s largest and most notorious motorcycle gang. “The menace is loose again…” Thompson wrote, and indeed, his unrivaled storytelling has put that menace, the unpredictable, road-worn, violent and complexly human personalities of the Hell’s Angels, loose in your mind.
See Also: The Dirty Little History Of Eight Pager Comics – Geek Slop
click here to buy.
11. girl at war by sara nović
ana jurić is 10 years old when the Yugoslav war begins, transforming her once carefree childhood into a landscape of violence, child soldiers, air raids and escape plans. She fast-forwards to the much-changed setting of her 20-year-old ana, one in which no one knows the trauma of her past. Ana must travel the world and within herself to revisit and resolve this trauma. you can’t put girl to war until you know what she discovers.
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12. please take care of mom by kyung-sook shin
It’s been a week since so-nyo, 69, went missing, last seen by her husband at a subway station in seoul, where they were separated in the throngs of fast-paced commuters. it turns out that her family (her daughter, son and husband) never knew her at all. Told from four totally disparate perspectives, Please Take Care of Mom will have you turning pages to discover not only what happens to So-nyo, but also how each of So-nyo’s family understands him. her, and herself. .
See Also: The Dirty Little History Of Eight Pager Comics – Geek Slop
click here to buy.
image: betsbarnes/instagram
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