I like my first lines short and declarative. No complicated sentences. Of course, that's not really a Scott thing. It's pretty classic grab-the-reader technique.
You can't blame a match for a house made of straw, Alek.
I feel like sometimes my best friend is not my best friend but my mortal enemy
Life doesn't come with an instruction manual.
It's just the way things are." she shrugged. "It's no one's fault." "Or everyone's.
I'd watched too many schoolmates graduate into mental institutions, into group homes and jails, and I knew that locking people up was paranormal - against normal, not beside it. Locks didn't cure; they strangled.