[Tapper]

QuickTidal, on 03 July 2012 - 05:47 PM, said:

Cover art has been released...and BOY is it shitty.



Sorry, but this is awful. These are McDonalds colours. The publisher has set out to accomplish only one thing...make this stand out...and so it will...but I can't help feeling that other books in this genre are so much better looking.

I realize nitpicking about cover art is a silly thing to do, but this is bargain basement garbage with zero design sense. Also, what's with the lower case "i"? Dafuq?

Hipster crapola. Poor Rowling having to deal with Little Brown picking this design.

It looks akin to the lettering of the original Peter Sellar's Pink Panther.
It also looks like .
Or

Also, I don't think it is a murder mystery. Blurb doesn't say so, either - that's just our assumption because according to the blurb, someone dies. Rather, it is quite likely a reflection on life in a tiny, tiny village where everyone had connections to this Fairweather dude, and there are a lot of rather silly and idiotic tensions underneath the calm exterior.

As for a Potter prequel: it would be totally from Severus Snape's point of view.

[Aptorian]

Voldemort: The Younger Years.

[QuickTidal]

Tapper, on 03 July 2012 - 07:47 PM, said:

Also, I don't think it is a murder mystery. Blurb doesn't say so, either - that's just our assumption because according to the blurb, someone dies. Rather, it is quite likely a reflection on life in a tiny, tiny village where everyone had connections to this Fairweather dude, and there are a lot of rather silly and idiotic tensions underneath the calm exterior.

Fair point, in which case perhaps it's aping stuff like THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHTTIME for primary colours and the stark imagery...but I think it kind of fails at that as well.

I dunno, this just screams amateur to me. If I saw it in a bookstore and didn't see the name at the top I would immediately look around for the Indie author with their folding table and a stack of unbought books looking bored.

Perhaps that's harsh, but it's Monday gods dammit...you can't hide from me disguised as a Tuesday, Monday!

[worry]

Actually you're kinda right. It looks like three covers in one to me: Her name is in a Jonathan Safran Foer style. Then the X part is like Curious Incident as you say. And then the title is reminiscent of The Marriage Plot. And while the Curious Incident cover uses that style for simplicity's sake, adding the other two elements here just mars the effect, especially as the title overlaps the image.

Now you've made me think too much about something I don't really care about, and I curse you.

[QuickTidal]

Success! LOL

[QuickTidal]

....and early review pans it.

http://nydn.us/Sl11iR

Also makes me less inclined to read it. The name Barry Fairbrother (a social activist) makes me cringe alone...but it sounds like the book is filled with not particularly likeable characters...and that's usually a dealbreaker for me.
o
I'll wait to see what the general consensus is once it's released....but this was the same problem with Alice Sebold's follow up to THE LOVELY BONES, the ALMOST MOON had almost all very unlikeable characters (including the protagonist) and a story that was attempting to "shock" more than properly entertain.

[Orlion]

QuickTidal, on 26 September 2012 - 01:32 PM, said:

....and early review pans it.

http://nydn.us/Sl11iR

Also makes me less inclined to read it. The name Barry Fairbrother (a social activist) makes me cringe alone...but it sounds like the book is filled with not particularly likeable characters...and that's usually a dealbreaker for me.
o
I'll wait to see what the general consensus is once it's released....but this was the same problem with Alice Sebold's follow up to THE LOVELY BONES, the ALMOST MOON had almost all very unlikeable characters (including the protagonist) and a story that was attempting to "shock" more than properly entertain.

The main problem with Almost Moon is that the first, oh, one hundred pages were a terrible attempt at stream of conscious... and terrible writing to boot. After that, it was not too bad... but god, those first hundred pages... it was like she had written them in high school, locked them away, and decided to publish them later!

[QuickTidal]

Orlion, on 26 September 2012 - 01:42 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 26 September 2012 - 01:32 PM, said:

....and early review pans it.

http://nydn.us/Sl11iR

Also makes me less inclined to read it. The name Barry Fairbrother (a social activist) makes me cringe alone...but it sounds like the book is filled with not particularly likeable characters...and that's usually a dealbreaker for me.
o
I'll wait to see what the general consensus is once it's released....but this was the same problem with Alice Sebold's follow up to THE LOVELY BONES, the ALMOST MOON had almost all very unlikeable characters (including the protagonist) and a story that was attempting to "shock" more than properly entertain.

The main problem with Almost Moon is that the first, oh, one hundred pages were a terrible attempt at stream of conscious... and terrible writing to boot. After that, it was not too bad... but god, those first hundred pages... it was like she had written them in high school, locked them away, and decided to publish them later!

I noticed this as well, with sentences beginning in the present and ending in the past....it was...the first book I ever wanted to hurl at the wall.

[Orlion]

Heh, I DID hurl it at the wall. Read it for a book club and was surprised at how many people defended the book. Incidently, I do not do book clubs anymore.

[worry]

Imogen Poots....Mackintosh Muggleton....Barry Fairbrother...

British people just have stupid names, they can't help it, and the rest of us just have to live with it. Not a dealbreaker for me.