Category Archives: Opinion

Dislike Karin Slaughter’s U.S. Book Cover

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unseenUK unseen version

I know cover talk is banal but, I can’t help myself. I have to remark on the awful US cover (left side) for Karin Slaughter’s new book: Unseen due to be published this summer by Delacorte Press. I’m sorry but what is that? A blood-red rose petal on the cover? The woman writes mysteries that are very dark and gruesome and that cover just doesn’t say that to me. The cover caught my attention for all the wrong reasons. I think it’s  bad but I’ve seen worse. I remember several years ago Slaughter had a cover with green foliage on it.  Thankfully that one was dropped before publication. Tried to find it at my old blog but couldn’t.

As for the UK version to the right, I’m not sure what’s on the cover of that one (knives?) but I like it better than the US version. The utilization of white lettering against a black background works for me and makes for a more representative look for the type of content that Karin Slaughter writes. Whoever picked the cover for the US version clearly doesn’t read this author. I realize that the selection of covers are a separate entity and are based on what will help sell the book.  I would think Slaughter would have more of a say in picking her covers at this point in her publishing career. Who knows. She may actually like this cover. I just know that I don’t. So UK +1.

Hollywood Realism

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Former Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor is a little touchy about the new Ben Affleck movie Argo in which Canada’s role in the Iranian hostage crisis all but vanishes.

Read this article  last week. I can see why he’s a little annoyed but still this is Hollywood where people lie for a living.

I did enjoy Ben Affleck’s Argo but  unless it’s a documentary, I know that the film version behind this “based on a true story” proclamation is not completely accurate. As often said there’s different versions of the truth. The film will only get part of it right. The rest is entertainment. Still, it’s good to know that Canada’s role was a bit more involved than just keeping house guests hidden from  extremists.

Don’t laugh (some people already have) but I learned late last year that the Cohen’s brothers Fargo was not based on a true story as it said in the opening credits. It’s based on a bunch of cases the directors had heard about. They just put them all together and made a fictional movie out of it.  Of course the director made a point to say this:

..If an audience believes that something’s based on a real event, it gives you permission to do things they might otherwise not accept.”[3]

Is that true for you? It’s certainly not true for me. #whoarewekiddinghere

Update: My mistake.  That article is 4 months old (linked at the top). Thoughts still stand though and anyway, I’ll stick to book reviews

Mini-Rant

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wtf-cartoon

I have a half-hearted rant. I started reading Hit Me  by Lawrence Block last weekend and realized after the first couple of pages of the first story, Keller in Dallas,  I’d read this novella before. In fact it was two years ago that I read Keller in Dallas and reviewed it on my blog in 2011. It was a good short story and it’s  featured in his new book along with some other short stories (didn’t know they were short stories). The thing is, I didn’t know that this novella would be re-introduced in the new book and nowhere does it say on the cover or on the book description that one of the stories was published separately. Continue reading →

Everybody Is Writing Young Adult Novels Now

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That title is a slight exaggeration. At any rate, I caught this Q&A on Twitter last night from mystery writer Harlan Coben who was asked about his transition from adult to teen fiction:

Heh, it ain’t that easy but readers will either agree or disagree with me… with their wallets. Seems though that most writers are stampeding into that market.  Unlike most readers, I won’t be following you there (you being a general you and not the author specifically).