If you’re wondering how to write the beginning of a book, I’ve got just the thing for you: a first chapter checklist that will help you ensure your opening chapter engages your audience, is full of action, establishes the essentials of your story, and makes your readers ask questions that will have them dying to continue reading.
In today’s blog post, we’ll be analyzing Six of Crows Chapter 1 by Leigh Bardugo to see if it checks all the boxes on the first chapter checklist and how it compels readers to continue reading.
Six of Crows First Chapter Summary
For those of you who’ve never read it or have forgotten, we’ll start with a summary of Six of Crows Chapter 1.
This chapter follows a man named Joost, who is a guard watching a wealthy merchant’s house in the city of Ketterdam. Joost just wants to impress a Grisha healer named Anya, but when he goes to see her on his rounds, he finds that she and another Grisha are missing. The remaining Grisha in their workshop tells Joost about their disappearances and believes he’ll vanish next.
Joost is called to report to the boathouse. There he finds the captain of the guard, the merchant who owns the house, another merchant, a bunch of other guards, and Anya. Anya is in a big steel box, and Joost watches through its glass panel as, with her magic, she heals a little boy’s cut.
A guard then gives her a powder called parem. They cut the little boy again, and Anya heals him, this time with ease, leaving no trace of the wound. When the merchant tells the guard to cut off the boy’s thumb to see if she can heal it, Anya tells the guard to shoot the glass instead. He obeys.
Anya commands everyone in the room to wait, and they all do. Joost forgets why he was afraid. His only thoughts are on his need to wait. Anya tells the merchant to join her in the box and pick up the knife.
First Chapter Checklist Example – Six of Crows First Chapter Analysis
Does Six of Crows follow the first chapter checklist? Here’s my analysis of Chapter 1. You can find a detailed explanation of each item on the first chapter checklist here.
Character:
The interesting thing about this chapter is that it doesn’t include any of the six main characters that the book follows. Instead, it acts almost like a prologue as we follow a character who is never seen again.
But even though this is the one and only chapter that includes Joost, he is a fully developed character with wants, flaws, and quirks.
Joost wants to impress Anya by saying something clever and romantic, but he can’t think of what to say. He also wants his mustache to grow in because he’s insecure about his young looks and thinks it will make him look older. He dreams of a promotion and wants more excitement in his job. When the other guard is ordered to cut off the boy’s thumb, Joost thinks about stopping it but realizes he wants to keep his job more than he wants to be courageous.
POV:
This chapter establishes the point of view used throughout the Six of Crows series: third person limited. No matter whose perspective the story shifts to, Bardugo always uses this POV type.
Tone, Mood, and Genre:
Between the gritty setting of Ketterdam and the events of the chapter, the tone, mood, and genre are plainly established. The book has a dark tone, though not without humor or hope. While there is some violence, it isn’t overly graphic, which fits with the age of the intended audience (YA). The setting and use of magic clearly put this in the fantasy genre.
World and Setting:
This chapter describes the immediate setting of the merchant’s house along with the broader setting of the harbor city of Ketterdam. Those who are familiar with the previous works of Bardugo and the Grishaverse will catch references to other familiar settings in the world, but connections to the previous series don’t weigh down the chapter.
Trouble:
The conflict in the chapter starts with Joost’s struggle to know what to say to Anya. It builds when Anya isn’t where she’s supposed to be, and further grows as Joost watches the power Anya has when she takes the drug called parem, which plays into the book’s main plot.
Action:
While Joost isn’t a particularly action-driven character, there is plenty of action as he makes his rounds, encounters other guards, and watches the events in the boathouse. I believe the choice of having Joost be more passive was intentional on Bardugo’s part. With a less active character, she can showcase the effects of parem, letting it take the spotlight in the chapter.
Questions:
Readers leave the chapter wondering: What is parem exactly? How will it impact the people in the world? It gave the Grisha woman the powers of mind control; what are people going to do with such a dangerous ability?
Compelling First Paragraph:
“Joost had two problems: the moon and his mustache.”
Immediately, this first line has readers chuckling at these unconventional problems and wondering why this character has issues with them. They’ll keep reading to find out.
The first chapter of Six of Crows completes each item in the first chapter checklist. It’s an engaging chapter that draws readers in through the setting of Ketterdam and the mystery of parem.
I hope you enjoyed my analysis of Six of Crows Chapter 1 (and I hope you now want to read this book if you haven’t already; this chapter only scratches the surface of a brilliant series). Best of luck writing your own first chapter!
