Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Ominous and Suspenseful
From the opening pages of We Were Liars, you know something bad is going to happen. On the very first page, Cadence says:
It doesn't matter if there's a cluster of pill bottles on the bedside table. It doesn't matter if one of us is desperately, desperately in love.
So much
in love
that equally desperate measures
must be taken. (1.7-11)
When a book opens like that, you pretty much know you're going to spend the next hundred or so pages finding out exactly what desperate thing the person did. Lockhart pulls us in by showing us a glimpse of the ending, and the rest of the book barrels toward tragedy.