To Prologue or Not To Prologue

I've seen a few comments about prologues lately, saying that if you're writing a prologue, you're starting your book in the wrong place but I don't agree with this in all cases. I love a prologue if they're used correctly and think they can create the tone for the book while teasing the reader. I recently read The Back Road by Rachel Abbott (my review is on Novelicious here), which started with a prologue and left me itching to get started to find out who the people were in the prologue, why they were in that particular situation and what happened to them next. The prologue was full of mystery and intrigue, which matched the rest of the book perfectly.

Another example of great use of a prologue is in Marshmallows For Breakfast by Dorothy Koomson. I don't want to spoil the book but I thought it was used in a clever way.

I don't think all books need a prologue, however. The book I recently finished writing has one because the scene is very important to the story but takes place ten years previously so it made sense to put it into a prologue. But the book I'm writing at the moment doesn't have one because a prologue isn't needed at all and if I did use one, I really would be starting my book in the wrong place.


What about you? Are you a fan of prologues, either reading or writing them?


Please note: the commenting system I was using is no longer working so I have had to delete it. This would mean losing the comments so I've copied and pasted them into the post.