Hi all!

Welcome to my first ‘First Lines Fridays!” This is a weekly meme for book lovers to judge a book by its opening lines rather than by its cover, its author or its prestige. I saw this on Mani’s Book Corner but was originally hosted by Wandering Words.

Rules:

1. Choose a book from your shelves/ current read.
2. Open the book to the first page.
3. Copy the first line on the page, making sure you don’t give away the book title.
4. Reveal the book.

First Lines:

At the age of eleven

I fell in love

with death.

I found a gecko

in a dark corner

of a room.

Its lifeless eyes open,

its small bulbous toes

splayed

as if about to leap away.

Do you recognise which book these words come from?

This week’s book is…

Lottie collects dead creatures and lovingly cares for them, hoping to preserve them, to save them from disintegration. Her father understands—Lottie has a scientific mind, he thinks. Her aunt wants it to stop, and she goes to cruel lengths to make sure it does. 

And her mother? Lottie’s mother died long ago. And Lottie is searching for a way to be close to her.

The Art of Taxidermy is a heartbreaking verse novel exploring love and death, grief and beauty, and the ways we try to make sense of it all. 

Have you read this book? How did you find it? Share your thoughts down below.

Jen