You Have Five Pages, Revelator by Daryl Gregory, to Tell Me You're Good.

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! The first sentence of Revelator by Daryl Gregory alludes to a kid meeting "the family god," so I just don't know how the stakes can go down from there. This story's got a feeling of the Southern Gothic in its voice and style, a dark, murky magic hidden in its green Kentucky valleys. The first pages not only provide an authentic voice for the little girl Stella, but a sense of true dread as we follow the adventurous child down a path into a church embedded in the mountain. What could possibly go wrong in such a place? I'm going to guess a lot.  And what will you, fellow creatives, make of these first five pages? Let's find out!