Bullet by Laurell K. Hamilton

Bullet begins with Anita slipping backstage at a dance recital. Her former friend Monica forgot the hat for her son’s costume, so Anita brings it to her, and the two women have a bit of a spat. Then, in chapter two, Anita sits down to watch the performance with her various boyfriends and —

Wait.

When I was a preteen, I used to read the BABY-SITTERS CLUB series. There’s one cardinal rule for reading BSC books: Skip chapter two. Chapter two was where Ann M. Martin always introduced the characters, describing each baby-sitter’s hair color, eye color, fashion sense, backstory, parents’ marital status... This benefited new readers, but once you’d read a few of the books it got repetitive. By the time you were a die-hard fan, not even the prospect of a new Read More