Attention Grabber #2: Witchfinder: Dawn of the Demontide by William Hussey

Attention Grabber is my new weekly feature where I post what I think is a great opening paragraph to a book, the sort of opening that pulls young readers in and hooks them from the start.

This week's Attention Grabber is the one I had originally intended to launch this feature with, and it comes from Witchfinder: Dawn of the Demontide by William Hussey. If any of my students start a story with "It was a dark, stormy night" I immediately direct them towards this:

‘HELP! Someone – anyone –please, help me!’

A roar of thunder drowned out Luke’s cries. Step by stumbled step, the strangers dragged him across the bay. The boy’s pyjamas dripped with rain and his bare toes squelched in the wet sand. A rope had been tied around his wrists and, with every tug, he looked up at the figures that held his leash. Robed and hooded, the strangers appeared ghostly in the moonlight.

‘Who are you? Where are you taking me?’

No answer – just the rumble of the sea, the screech of the wind and the whip-crack of lightning.