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Science fiction can use garden path sentences to set up a situation that defies the reader's expectations. They can set up what appears to be ordinary life but turns out not to be or present what seems like a familiar SF trope and then pull a switch.

A couple of examples from Heinlein. At the start of _Methuselah's Children_, Mary Sperling objects to a candidate for marriage because "there's too much difference in age." The person she's talking with takes this to mean Mary thinks she's too young, but we soon learn she's vastly older than she appears. _Stranger in a Strange Land_ opens with "Once upon a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith." Someone with no previous knowledge of the story would imagine a non-human with an oddly Earthlike name. The story then reveals that Mike is a human who was born on Mars and raised by native Martians. Frederik Pohl's "The Midas Plague" has the sentence "It was a small wedding — the best he could afford." The uninitiated reader will assume the man couldn't afford a larger wedding, but the story then unfolds an upside-down economy in which the mark of wealth is not having unwanted stuff foisted on you.

Other genres, such as mystery stories, could similarly set up a situation that seems to look one way but turns out to be something unexpected.

The device can turn into a cheap trick. If the garden path description is laid on too heavily or relies just on wordplay, readers may feel they were unfairly treated. The opening of Collodi's _Pinocchio_ arguably lays it on too thick. He starts with "Once upon a time there was..." then insists that the reader will complete it with "a king" and says that the reader is wrong. He intended it humorously, but it's a bit irritating.