I am sure most of us have read one of these stories, they start with a brief scene, and then the story jump’s back in time. Books that end where they begin can be a little hit and miss in my opinion. It’s all down to the execution, along with a smidgen of personal taste.
One’s that don’t work.
For me, the ones that leave me with a slightly disgruntled feeling are the cliff-hanger at the start. Yes, I know all the theories about cliff-hangers forcing your readers to just keep turning the page, but to be honest they just irritate me. Five pages in and it’s just getting exciting, and then it jumps back years. You keep turning the pages, hoping that it is going to get back to the action, but it doesn’t for – ever – and I am afraid I just want to throw the damn book out.
You keep doggedly reading, surely it has to get back to that little teaser sometime soon?
You hit mid-point.
You hit three-quarters!
Do I keep reading, well, sometimes, if the rest of it is interesting enough, but it generally leaves me – disatisfied.
One’s that do work
I am going to use one of my all time favourites for an example Use of Weapons – Ian M Banks
The book begins with a scene. It’s not a cliff hanger, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense.
It leaves you intrigued…
Yes, the difference is subtle, and the scene at the start is fairly short. You know it’s the main character, but as you read the story, that early scene almost feels like a different person, and you are – intrigued – as to what made this change.
It has one of the most awesome endings of any book I have read ever. Yes, that is a pretty bold statement. I re-read the last 10 or so pages about 5 times because I kept thinking (or wishing) I had read it wrong! Now that’s a good book, one that picks you up and takes you somewhere that you really don’t want to go.
At the end it plays out the original scene, and like any true revelation, it all makes perfect sense.
Conclusion
Reading is about as personal as it can get, and what works for one person may not work for someone else, but I do like a good circular story, so long as they get the subtle blend right.
Wow, I really want to read that book now. What genre is it?
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It’s a scifi and on the dark side, but I loved it 🙂
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Ooh, I love sci-fi because I like being made to think, to be challenged intellectually.
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You’ve sold me. I just bought it! Can’t wait to read.
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Awesome! Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think when you have finished 🙂
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No worries, will do!
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I think that structure is really hard to do well. Your analysis of how it’s done badly and well is spot on. Thanks for the book recommendation – it hooked me!
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Thank you! Would love to hear what you think of the book if you do read it 🙂
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Reblogged this on Kim's Author Support Blog and commented:
Good post!
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Thank you 🙂
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Just looked up the first one on Goodreads and it seems really intriguing. Definitely adding it to my list.
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Awesome, would love to hear what you thought when you get to it 🙂
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Tom Stoppard wrote a very entertaining one-act play called After Magritte. At the beginning, someone sees a very odd (Magritte-like) tableau in an apartment, and the rest of the play is explaining — in a very entertaining way — how that odd tableau came to be. I haven’t seen it in a very long time, but I remember the rather giddy feeling as I could see all the components slowly came into position.
Of course, if you don’t insist it be the very first scene, a lot of mysteries are like this. The detective finds a dead body, in a pavilion surrounded by unbroken snow, no footprints at all, the show stopped at midnight and the victim died between 3am and 4am. Nobody else, and no weapon, in the pavilion. Then you spend the rest of the book following the investigation of how this could have happened.
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