Batty About Books reads Shadowshaper by Older Cover Appeal



It's been a while since Batty About Books hit the trail. Last year seemed so crazy - so hectic - that we really didn't get a chance to read anything together.





What would it take to get us moving? What kind of book would push us to get the band back together again? Well... take a LOOK at this one.




Shadowshaper
by Daniel José Older (Goodreads Author)
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published June 30th 2015 by Arthur A. Levine Books (first published January 1st 2015)
ISBN 0545591619 (ISBN13: 9780545591614)


(Join us on our blogs  (Kathy is at The Brain Lair) , on Facebook, or Tweet/IG with #BattyAboutBooks and/or #Shadowshaper. We'll post brief thoughts and quotes from the text during the week.)

I'll admit, I had heard about this book before seeing the cover. There were rumbles about this being an intriguing storyline. When I saw the cover, though, I was hooked.

FRONT:

+ The first thing that strikes me is the strength in that face. So often I feel like a young woman on a cover (be it a book or magazine) is posing to capture the gaze of the person observing. This lady isn't looking at me. She's looking at something beyond me... something I can't see. That's fascinating, isn't it?

- ? Of course, I then have to mention the fact that the lighting appears to have washed out her skin tone. Is her skin truly this pale, or does the artistic nature of the cover strive to make her appear lighter than she is? That could be a strike against the cover, once I read on and find a description of her appearance.

+ The colors are striking! The rainbow swirls that surround and accent her face add to the mystery about this character. It fits so well with the tag line that starts with art.

+ The tagline itself pulls me. I love how the "Paint a mural" part feels like such an odd pairing with the second and third lines: "Start a battle. Change the world." The odd juxtaposition of art and war immediately pulls at my curiosity.

+ I love the skyline shown at the bottom. We get a sense of the setting as well as the main character through that little detail. I like that they chose to make the silhouettes of the buildings in brown instead of black. It makes it a little less obvious and keeps the focus on the young woman's face and pose instead.



SPINE:
- I don't think the spine would attract my attention enough to get me to pull it off a shelf. Here's hoping it gets stored face out in book stores and libraries!







BACK:
+ The color swirls continue the artistic look of the front. I also love that the blurbs are placed on a purple background. I'm curious about the red details toward the bottom. Are they hands? 









I know I am ready to dive into the book! We'd love to have you read along and chime in with your thoughts here, on our FB page, or even on Twitter/IG! (You can use #BattyAboutBooks and/or #Shadowshaper)

We will post our discussion on the first 140 pages (20 chapters) on Saturday, August 1st. We plan to finish the book the following week. It's relatively short, and we don't want to lose the flow, but you can read at your own pace.

We'll also post brief thoughts and/or quotes along the way. See you then!






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