First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if, instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

The Rules:

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page.
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first.
• Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

“So there I was in the office, processing paperwork to register a batch of undead ducklings.

Four of the yellow fluffballs crowded the scarred table in front of me, the glint of malevolent intelligence in their beady eyes the only clue that they’d been raised through black magic to serve as familiars. The were angrily testing the boundaries of the ward circle that kept them penned in, while the fourth fought valiantly to stay awake. None of them were having much success.”

Malevolent, undead ducklings raised to serve as familiars? I’m immediately intrigued, and can already tell I’m going to like this one.

Do you recognize the lines?

Here’s a hint:

This is an upcoming queer urban fantasy novel.

Still not sure? Here’s another hint:

It is written by Jared Poon.

The First Lines Friday book is:

City of Others.

About the Book:

• Title: City of Others
• Author: Jared Poon
• Page Length: 361 pages
• Publication Date: January 13, 2026
• Publisher: Orbit

Synopsis:

In the sunny city of Singapore, the government takes care of everything – even the weird stuff. Benjamin Toh is a middle manager in the Department for Engagement of Unusual Stakeholders (DEUS), tasked with taking care of the supernatural occurrences and people no one else wants to deal with, from restless ghosts to immortal gods to conniving jinn. Overworked and under-resourced, he has to juggle the demands of senior management, an elderly father, and a new boyfriend, all while trying to keep his team out of trouble.

When an entire block of flats goes missing in the town of Clementi, drowned in an otherworldly wave, the information he needs to prevent another catastrophe lies in the pasar bayang – the shadow markets. But the demigod protector of the markets has neither forgotten nor forgiven their humiliation by the Singapore authorities decades ago. Ben will need to wrestle with the legacy of his government and the whispers of his own insecurities, navigating landscapes both urban and fantastical, both inside the soul and outside the real world, all so he can just do his goddamn job.

Links: Goodreads     

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase through my links.