First Line Friday (22): Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

My current read this week Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling.

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

Goodreads synopsis 

When a letter arrives for unhappy but ordinary Harry Potter, a decade-old secret is revealed to him that apparently he's the last to know. His parents were wizards, killed by a Dark Lord's curse when Harry was just a baby, and which he somehow survived. Leaving his unsympathetic aunt and uncle for Hogwarts, a wizarding school brimming with ghosts and enchantments, Harry stumbles upon a sinister mystery when he finds a three-headed dog guarding a room on the third floor. Then he hears of a missing stone with astonishing powers which could be valuable, dangerous - or both. An incredible adventure is about to begin!

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I'm sure everybody and their mother already knows the first line of the Harry Potter series, but it's my first time reading it, so I wanted to share anyway. You can add it to your Goodreads TBR here!

First Line Friday (21): What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

First Line Friday is a bookish tag hosted over at Abstract Books that is used to showcase your favourite first lines of books.

There really is something to be said about a good first line, and I'm going to be using this tag from now on to showcase my current read's first lines.

My current read this week is What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher.

The mushroom's gills were the deep-red color of severed muscle, the almost-violet shade that contrasts so dreadfully with the pale pink of viscera. I had seen in an number of times in dead dear and dying soldiers, but it startled me to see it here.

Goodreads synopsis

When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruravia.


What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.

Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.

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As a reimagining of The Fall of The House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, it's only right to kick off the story mentioning the mushrooms that surround the house. This was my final spooky read of October and I absolutely loved it. If you're looking for a quick horror story, I would highly suggest this one. It released just last year on July 12, 2022, and you can add it to your Goodreads shelf here!