Annotate With Sara

Over Valentine’s Day weekend, Daggermouth by H.M. Wolfe reached Trending-topic status on Threads when fans of this rich, dystopian romance novel ardently fought back against a few callous hot takes and the nefarious appearance of an AI-created copycat version of Daggermouth on Kindle Unlimited.

The thing is, AI could never accomplish what this novel has done. The plot and the writing simmers with hidden artistic ingenuity. I submit the fandom’s quick adoption of an electric catchphrase as the perfect evidence of Wolfe’s artistry. The use of “Welcome to the rebellion” or “Welcome to the revolution” is highly visible on Threads posts, in comments sections, and inside Instagram reviews for the book. Readers feel like they are a part of the world Wolfe built, and there’s a warm inclusiveness in saying “Welcome to the Rebellion” to fellow readers on the internet. That ownership and kinship readers feel toward the book is inherent to the book’s opening lines.

Did you notice how Wolfe wove the “generic you” into the opening line? It’s really important rhetoric.

While “Welcome to the Rebellion” comes directly from Chapter 28 (which is titled Welcome to the Revolution), it is not the first time readers were welcomed to New Found Haven’s rebellion. Wolfe deftly and individually welcomes each reader to the revolution at the start of the book, making everyone who reads it feel immediately part of something bigger with the use of “you’ll” in the opening lines: “The first thing you’ll learn in New Found Haven is mercy no longer exists.”

Directly addressing the reader is such a natural and ingenious rhetorical choice for the novel’s opener. Not only does the use of “you’ll” make this sentence inclusive, it is incredibly suggestive and generously personal too. There’s narrative prophecy within that first line, as if the narrator and Wolfe have absolute confidence that readers will be drawn into New Found Haven’s fight for freedom, love, and equality. That there is no doubt each reader will want to learn why mercy no longer exists in this world.

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Go read this book! And if you have read it, I’m sure you’re suffering from a book hangover. I think my “Daggermouth” Pinterest board is pretty good medicine for that. Check it out!