Skip to main content

Judging a Book by its Cover: Liar


In my review of Liar by Justine Larbalestier, one of the things I mentioned liking was the cover. I got curious about other editions of the book. It's been out since 2009, and I knew it was published in both Australia and America, so I figured there had to be at least three or four editions (AUS release, US hardcover, US paperpack). 

First of all, kudos to people who do these posts frequently. How do you find the covers?? I spent a lot of time typing different phrases into Google, and not coming up with much. 

But I was surprised to find out that in 2009 when the book was set for release in the US, there was a huge controversy about the cover. The ARC for the US feature the middle left-hand cover. You might notice that the cover model seems pretty obviously white. In my review, I mentioned that one of the things I loved so much about the book is its diversity...because Micah is at least partially black. 

You can probably imagine the uproar that the whitewashing caused. And luckily, Bloomsbury listened and adapted the cover the current one (top left, also featured in my review).  

The Australian covers are interesting to me because they focus on text and font instead of a cover model (top right and middle middle). The original cover is the one in the middle. It's great. Larbalestier supported it enthusiastically, and I find her reasoning sound: Micah lies about everything, why should we trust a cover that may or may not accurately portray her? 

But my favorite is the bottom right: France. I'm not entirely sold on the eyes: are they the model's real beautiful eyes or are they photoshopped? It's a little hard to tell, and I get kind of uncomfortable with that style of photo art. 

The middle right and the bottom left both come from Italy. They're beautiful too, but something just draws me to the French cover.

Which cover would get you to read the book?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

TBT: The Witch of Blackbird Pond

In middle school, I was a member of this reading club where we had a set of books to read as a team, and then we did like little quizzes on them against other teams. (SUPER NERD!). And now, I'm not entirely certain, but I feel pretty sure that club was where I read this book for the first time. The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare is a Newbery award winning historical fiction novel. Orphan Kit Tyler has been moved from her home in the Caribbean to her puritan relative's home in Connecticut.  She feels like she has nothing in common with these relatives, but she does form an attachment with an old Quaker woman and a young sailor, Nat. Of course breaking out of the mold is not without its price, and Kit learns this for herself when she is accused of witchcraft. This is one of those books that I think about constantly. I haven't reread it in several years, but I always want to. I recommend it frequently to other. This is a book for readers...
Hello Lovelies!! It's a very special Top Ten Tuesday because it's also my 100th post!! Woohoo!! Honestly this is probably the longest I've stuck with a hobby so I'm pretty excited about this milestone. So The Broke and the Bookish 's topic this week is.. I went with books that I own but haven't read yet which I would like to take to a beach (if I could get to one, hahaha, Montana is a landlocked state).  Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys by Kate Brian If I Stay by Gayle Forman Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani Read My Lips by Teri Brown Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti So that's my list! It's heavy on contemporary fiction novels because summer brin...
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll  is a very entertaining classic. I think everyone knows the story of young Alice who follows a White Rabbit into the world of Wonderland where everything is just slightly (or significantly) strange. For some reason, every time I've picked up Alice's Adventures before, I've put it down without making it more than 10 pages or so. But this time, I managed to finish it. It's a quirky sort of book, but I enjoyed it. It did make me think of The Phantom Tollbooth (here's my review of that classic), but I preferred Carroll's novel to Juster's. There's some great play on words and delightful misunderstandings because of homophones and characters not paying attention to each other. I think this is a worthwhile classic, but I don't actually have that much to say about it. Middle Grade March Count: 5