Surprised

When we’re surprised, our nerves spike, and we become alert and hyper-vigilant. A surprise can come out of nowhere, such as a loud noise like a balloon pop, or in a movie when a monster jumps out onto the screen with a thunderous roar.

But in books, the surprise has a very different effect. It’s a surprise that’s created in the mind, in the imagination. It has the effect of overturning our expectations, giving us the chills (goosebumps), even spinning the wheels of our mind’s eye as it tries to process what’s going on (the twist, the irony, etc.).

Being surprised in this way is kind of like having an epiphany: seeing something we didn’t know was possible, seeing something in a completely new way. It’s a revelatory surprise–one that keeps us turning the pages of the book to find out what the next surprise will be.