Liar is stirring up some controversy and it isn’t even out yet! You can read all about it here:
Publishers Weekly
Jacket Whys
Bargain Librarian
Justine Larbalestier
Seeing as I reviewed it, I kinda feel the need to put my two cents in. I like the cover (gasp!), it’s striking, it’s bold, and it’s got the whole “look at me I’m an edgy YA book” thing. As a cover, I think it does its job–to get readers to pick up the book. It’s also the cover’s job to represent a book, and the characters inside the book. The problem is, once readers have read the book, the cover is grossly inaccurate. Sure, she’s a liar, maybe she’s lying about her hair/race/gender/whatever, but she does give a description of herself, and that’s probably the one that readers are going to have in their heads while reading it, so the cover image just confuses things. But hey, if all of this controversy gets this book into more hands, I say “yay!” Just DON’T GIVE ANY SPOILERS!!! NO.
Ooo. I must read the controversy. I wasn’t too keen on the cover. Maybe it’s better in person.
Haha, now I REALLY want to read this. I was in Borders the other day and wanted to buy it, but then remembered that you had an ARC and it wasn’t out yet. Sad day.
I also was in a Borders and wanted to buy it before I realized Carly read an ARC.
Okay. First can I say WOAH. I didn’t realize Larbelestier was married to Scott Westerfield. I don’t know why that matters. Also, I just read the PW article. And I can see why people might be upset when the start reading. Because I don’t like it when the cover misrepresents the book. But yeah, all this talk about it and also the symbolism of the cover will definitely increase sales!
Yeah Parisa, they’re like super amazingly talented fabulous writer couple. Not that it matters. Also, I wanted to add that I didn’t really touch on the whole racial issue w/ the cover, but the more I think about it, the more pissed I get. Maybe books with not-white people don’t sell because THERE AREN’T ANY TO SELL. One day when I’m a fabulous YA editor…. one day.
Except that there ARE books with not-white people but they usually get housed in a different part of the bookstore than they should be. I was in a borders the other day and I stumbled upon an “African American Literature” section which is great, except that some of those books I noticed were romantic suspense and erotica and probably other genres. Why can’t they all be housed in the same place? That’s awfully close to segregation to me. (Though I do understand how it makes it easier for someone looking for African American Literature specifically to find them all in one place.)