209: Saving Eden

Synopsis 

Sixteen-year-old Angela and her father are the last survivors on earth. She dreams of adventure and romance but only finds it in books. In the confines of her garden paradise, she’s untouched by contaminants that caused the rest of humanity to mutate into murderous beasts or die. But staying in the garden sure gets lonely.

When a seventeen-year-old boy stumbles upon Angela’s home with news about a thriving community, his presence upheavals everything she knew about the world. She dares to leave her garden for the first time to find a better home.

In the authoritarian society that she finds the line between man and mutant is murkier than she expected. Her father is danger, and the men tasked with protecting the settlement are extremely fond of murder. With their lives on the line, can Angela create one last happy ending in a hopeless world?

Fans of dystopian societies, post-apocalyptic futures, diverse characters, fantasy, and coming-of-age adventures with heart will fall in love with this post-apocalyptic fairy tale.

The Good 

🌱Having a naïve/innocent Black girl as main character

🌱Talks a bit (not that much) /alludes to race which would not happen that much if the author was not Black. 

🌱Has interesting ideas as a dystopia – I found the dystopia world not being devoid of technology and having advanced tech as something that got my attention. 

🌱Diverse dystopia

The Bad 

🍃Should this book been longer?  First and second book needed to be mashed up into one? This needed padding it crammed 3+ book or 400+ pages storyline into 230 pages in ways the story suffered because of this. 

🍃How the story suffered- everything was too obvious, world felt undeveloped, character development choices was off, we did not get to know many of the characters, and the romance was not built.

🍃Disappointment in story being a okay not great one – it was not an engaging read. 

The Meh

🌿🍃🌱There is a pro/con for having advanced technology in a dystopia

Thoughts

🌾Assumption that dystopia will level the playing field- brute will be the deciding factor.

-so rich guy owning town, people with land and valuable resources have privilege which a lot of times is rich folks.

🌾We keep avoiding engagement with why people with powers would be harmed.

🌾 I want to see more Black young adult science fiction specific books- I think there is a lot of focus on fantasy but not enough on sci-fi. Then again sci-fi is considered a dead genre so as a whole it is not getting shine.

Black Science Fiction Recommendations ~Middle grade & Young Adult & Adult

A Phoenix First Must Burn Anthology – ya ~at least one dystopian short story

The Good Luck Girls – ya

Mirage by Somaiya Daud – ya

Shuri by Nic Stone – middle grade

Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord – adult

Skinned by Lesley Nneka Arimah – adult ~dystopian

(the synopsis/cover image is from goodreads)

203: Goddess In The Machine Spoilers

Synopsis 

When Andra wakes up, she’s drowning.

Not only that, but she’s in a hot, dirty cave, it’s the year 3102, and everyone keeps calling her Goddess. When Andra went into a cryonic sleep for a trip across the galaxy, she expected to wake up in a hundred years, not a thousand. Worst of all, the rest of the colonists—including her family and friends—are dead. They died centuries ago, and for some reason, their descendants think Andra’s a deity. She knows she’s nothing special, but she’ll play along if it means she can figure out why she was left in stasis and how to get back to Earth.

Zhade, the exiled bastard prince of Eerensed, has other plans. Four years ago, the sleeping Goddess’s glass coffin disappeared from the palace, and Zhade devoted himself to finding it. Now he’s hoping the Goddess will be the key to taking his rightful place on the throne—if he can get her to play her part, that is. Because if his people realize she doesn’t actually have the power to save their dying planet, they’ll kill her.

With a vicious monarch on the throne and a city tearing apart at the seams, Zhade and Andra might never be able to unlock the mystery of her fate, let alone find a way to unseat the king, especially since Zhade hasn’t exactly been forthcoming with Andra. And a thousand years from home, is there any way of knowing that Earth is better than the planet she’s woken to?

The Good 

What captured me in the beginning

A. the mystery 

B.  the language  

C. the setting

D. the  way the world is set up

All of it accumulated to this new world  and mystery. I saw the language as a mystery to decode alongside the overall mystery of what happened. 

The Bad

-The reveals

At first the mystery was enticing but as the story progressed it lost steam for me. 

A. Too many reveals in one book?

B. Reveals were not landing right.

Are the reveals going to go anywhere interesting? On paper the reveals are interesting but the execution was lacking. 

They were not landing right because they were not layed out in a flourish or in moments that felt right. It felt like the main character was like randomly having a epiphany about everything – there was no lead up to the reveals. 

C. Real convenient

I have heard other reviewers say it felt like we did not get enough time to process the events- agreed. Also, I feel it felt like reveals were put in to fix story stuff in the aftermath. Like we hit a wall with x thing so let me make y happen.

Do all the reveals make sense looking at the entire story?

-Weird about race?

I think this is the start of what turned me off of the story (I had to reread the first 5 or 6 chapters because I got it from Bookishfirst for free so I was reading it like wait so Lew-Eadin is brown, wait is he not the one who Andra said she’ll call him what she wants not what he prefers, wait isn’t he the one who lost his arm because of the pocket). 

A. Andra told Lew-Eadin she was not going to call him what he preferred  to be called, Wead.  I know it was probably supposed to be a joke but it rubbed me the wrong way. 

B. Why did Lew-Eadin have to lose his arm, leave his family, and die for the main characters (I know Andra is biracial, still)

Then he is the help. 

C. It killed multiple people of color for the main characters.

D. It felt like the people of color were wallpapered in the background. 

-Repetitive

A. Repeated the same assassination attempt (at least 3 times) with the same resolution for said attempt. 

B. Repeated the same putting person into cryogenic sleep at least three times. 

That would have made the story lose some of its shock or punch if I had not already been underwhelmed by the rest of it. 

The Meh

I did not start off disliking the language- for me it added to the mystery and the world at first but after a while it felt like it was just there making story draggy.

Thoughts

I am finding myself more interested in the “bad” royal brother we are not supposed to like than love interest disinherited brother. A lot of nuance/perspective is lost by making the royal brothers automatically bad guys instead of exploring them ruling an entire kingdom.

We need to explore alternatives to court intrigue in sf&f.

 There are going to be consequences to the push for less expansive shorter stories. One of the issues we are probably going to come up against is with all these duologies is that there are stories that have so much twist and story  that may be too much for even a trilogy.

(prediction for this story: Maret was being corrupted by something in crown he was wearing. Tsurina is not the main villain technology/rogue AI is- it is the reason that they never left earth and why the dome failed.)

I won Goddess in The Machine from bookishfirst and the synopsis/cover image is from goodreads

👑 Royal Readathon Wrap Up

My {A Late} Royal Readathon TBR

Onto my wrap up…

👑 Long Live the King – read a book with a male protagonist

Star Trek Discovery: Fear Itself = the chapters are so long that it takes me a while to read this (same for A Phoenix First Must Burn). I listened to the audiobook so that probably makes me take even longer (45 min chapters). 

King of Ithaka

*The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run = no spoilers. just felt after finishing Mulan (more on that later down in prompts) this story really maintains the Spongebob legacy. It feels like a very fun episode of Spongebob. 

👑 May the best woman win – read a book about women fighting for power

Three Dark Crowns {DNF}  this was the first book I started and only book I gave a dnf. Although, I did not get that far it made me have the resolution to seek enjoyment over everything else. Even if I did not finish any books I wanted to make sure that I was enjoying the books I was reading. 

A Phoenix First Must Burn- This is a good/bad book for a readathon. good=has  a variety of 16 stories with black girls as the main character written by black people so it can encompass many prompts. bad= personally it takes me a while to read the stories like days (the stories are not bad or anything).

The Lily & The Cross

👑 Who run the world? Girls – read a book set in a Queendom

Three Dark Crowns {DNF}

The Lily & The Cross = sucks that this series was cancelled because it is written in many ways better than other fantasy series. 

👑 Bells Will Be Ringing – read a book featuring a romance

Three Dark Crowns {DNF}

The Lily & The Cross

Mulan Live Action Novelization =  no spoilers. After  all the conversation around the film I wanted to  read the novelization to see my thoughts and to read it before it came out for free in December. So my verdict… people were not wrong for the critiques that is all I will say. 

*Saving Eden = I was disappointed  by the dystopia and  the overall story. 

So this is the only prompt I completed (twice with two different books). 

👑 A Name Fit for a King – royal, prince, princess, king, queen, throne, crown (or any other “royal” word in the title)

Three Dark Crowns {DNF}

King of Ithaka = this is such a hard book to describe it feels like something you would not get in the current ya landscape. 

👑 Group Book~ A Song of Wraith and Ruin~

I have tried before the readalong to get into A Song of Wraith and Ruin but have not been able to get into it. 

 

Actually Read List

Three Dark Crowns {DNF}  

Star Trek Discovery: Fear Itself

The Lily and The Cross

King of Ithaka

A Phoenix First Must Burn

Mulan Live Action Novelization

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run

Saving Eden

 

(All images are from goodreads)

234: The God Game

Synopsis

You are invited!
Come inside and play with G.O.D.
Bring your friends!
It’s fun!
But remember the rules. Win and ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE.™ Lose, you die!

With those words, Charlie and his friends enter the G.O.D. Game, a video game run by underground hackers and controlled by a mysterious AI that believes it’s God. Through their phone-screens and high-tech glasses, the teens’ realities blur with a virtual world of creeping vines, smoldering torches, runes, glyphs, gods, and mythical creatures. When they accomplish a mission, the game rewards them with expensive tech, revenge on high-school tormentors, and cash flowing from ATMs. Slaying a hydra and drawing a bloody pentagram as payment to a Greek god seem harmless at first. Fun even.

But then the threatening messages start. Worship me. Obey me. Complete a mission, however cruel, or the game reveals their secrets and crushes their dreams. Tasks that seemed harmless at first take on deadly consequences. Mysterious packages show up at their homes. Shadowy figures start following them, appearing around corners, attacking them in parking garages. Who else is playing this game, and how far will they go to win?

And what of the game’s first promise: win, win big, lose, you die? Dying in a virtual world doesn’t really mean death in real life—does it?

As Charlie and his friends try to find a way out of the game, they realize they’ve been manipulated into a bigger web they can’t escape: an AI that learned its cruelty from watching us.

God is always watching, and He says when the game is done.

The Good

• The whole premise is a really good idea
• The characters stupidity is kind of entertaining- I would involuntarily laugh at their poor decisions all the time
• The story was fun to react to – I used up all of my orange post it notes commenting on the characters foolishness
• The chapters are incredibly short which made it a kind of quick read, flow quicker: things are constantly happening, the chapters shift point of view through the characters a lot
• Really good at portraying certain type of guys (white male rage dudes)

The Bad

• Diversity= they are basically white people painted black/brown

-a white man obviously wrote this it comes off very on brand for how white dudes (especially scifi) write people of color

• Characterization: it feels like the characters are all buzzwords and stereotype one dimensional shells

• The book feels all over the place, it felt like a bunch of stuff just happening instead of introducing characters and their history over time in the right place. It feels like you are bombarded with information.

• The characters voices kind of blend together. On a few occasions  mistaking characters for each other was an occurrence.

Overall

I enjoyed this book and having finished it I think more of the good than the bad. Or the bad somehow turned into the good because it was part of the entertainment/reaction factor of me reading the story. 

I won The God Game in a email contest from St. Martin’s Press

(image and synopsis  are from goodreads)

Novelization/Tie-Ins: Update, TBR, Book Haul

In honor of finishing  the Suicide Squad Novelization its time to talk about more novelizations.

I’ve done two novelization TBRS: one in 2017 and one in 2018

2017: 

Spartacus: Swords and Ashes~ currently reading

Spartacus: Morituri~ read and reviewed

Man of Steel ~ read and reviewed

The Flash: Haunting of Barry Allen~ still unread

Ever After~ still unread

Wonder Woman~ still unread

Mean Girls ~ DNF, I did not like it funny enough I bought Riverdale: The Day Before which I think is lackluster too. But I bought it so I feel I have to finish it, awesome.

Miles Morales Spider-man ~ read and reviewed. Also, go see Spiderman: Into The Spider-Verse with Miles Morales.

Mass Effect: Initiation ~ on the fence about reading this because I don’t think I like N.K. Jemisin writing

Star Wars: Phasma ~ DNF, I just couldn’t get into it

Rise of The Isles of the Lost~ on the fence a bit about reading this but leaning more towards reading it because Uma and Cruz is not a bad writer. It’s just for the most part she is an overall eh writer.

2018:

Black Panther Junior Novel~still unread

Thor: Ragnarok Junior Novel~still unread

Spiderman: Homecoming Junior Novel ~ still unread

Alien: Covenant ~still unread

Kong Skull Island ~still unread

Love, Simon (or Simon vs Homosapiens Agenda) ~still unread

Annihilation~ DNF, I think the book is more literary sff which has been shown to not be my cup of tea. 

Monster~ on the fence, on  one hand it is good to see another book talking about police and black people. On the other hand I don’t know if his writing is for me having dnf one of his books. If anything I want to see the movie (even though I recently saw The Hate U Give it was a lot emotionally as a black person, it was a lot).

The Darkest Minds ~on the fence about this but mostly its a no from me. I liked Alexandra Bracken’s The Princess, The Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy(+) I already saw the Darkest Minds movie and thought it was okay (+/-) Sampled first chapter of the book it felt like average ya dystopia fare (-) this one is probably really going to come down to if I find it for cheap somewhere. 

Snow Falling ~ just got this from the library couple of days ago and it’s already a DNF. Only read a little bit but it’s poorly written and obviously thinly (very thinly) veiled reenactment of the show in historical time period.

Assasins Creed: Origins ~still unread

Charmed: The Power of Three ~still unread

Fringe: The Zodiac Paradox ~still unread

War for the Planet of the Apes: Revelations ~still unread

Battlefront II: Inferno Squad ~ read and reviewed, I made a comment in my 2017 tbr about  Phasma. Oddly, I’m more into the Star Wars tie-in novels than the novelizations or the movies.

Surprises Not On The TBR 

Now lets talk about novelizations/tie-ins that I did not have on my TBR that got finished.

Brave (Mini-Rant) ~ Hated it. *inserts In living color gif*

The Ghoul Next Door ~Hated it.

Star Wars: The Princess, The Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy ~ enjoyed it a lot. 

Girl Meets World: Let’s Do This~ surprisingly had fun reading this

Four Acquired, Four Unacquired

I want to mention  quickly that I created a 2019 and 2018 novelizations  releases list on goodreads.

Four I Bought

Star Trek Discovery Drastic Measures ~ wanted to get Desperate Hours first because Michael is the main character of that one but its cool. I’m excited to get a Star Trek discovery novel overall.

Riverdale: The Day Before = 50% through it don’t like it but is does read fast.

Independene Day: Crucible

Independence Day: Resurgence

Four I Don’t Own

Dater’s Handbook ~ excited its black woman authored, black main character in a romance, romance is rare in novelizations

Star Trek: Discovery Desperate Hours

Dishonored: The Veiled Threat

Warcraft Novelization ~ I really think that this story will be improved in a 300+ page format. This one has been on my tbr for a very long time the fact that it’s not cheap cheap is causing me not to get it.

258: Here And Now And Then

Synopsis

To save his daughter, he’ll go anywhere—and any-when…

Kin Stewart is an everyday family man: working in I.T., trying to keep the spark in his marriage, and struggling to connect with his teenage daughter, Miranda. But his current life is a far cry from his previous career as a time-traveling secret agent from 2142.

Stranded in suburban San Francisco since the 1990s after a botched mission, Kin has kept his past hidden from everyone around him, despite the increasing blackouts and memory loss affecting his time-traveler’s brain. Until one afternoon, his “rescue” team arrives—eighteen years too late.

Their mission: return Kin to 2142 where he’s only been gone weeks, not years, and where another family is waiting for him. A family he can’t remember.

Torn between two lives, Kin is desperate for a way to stay connected to both. But when his best efforts threaten to destroy the agency and even history itself, his daughter’s very existence is at risk. It’ll take one final trip across time to save Miranda—even if it means breaking all the rules of time travel in the process.

(I won this arc on goodreads from Mirabooks)

The Good

Started already with him being stranded for years

Part of me did feel emotions throughout this so that  is something

The Bad

my prediction from the prologue:  it was going to be mediocre my reader senses be tingling.

So not to replicate this book I am going to keep it simple these are the three main problems:

I- No depth and the characters are flat= this is the number one problem because  if the world was rounded all the rest of the problems would not exist/be so much of a deal. Also, for a story that is very much about family the characters and their relationships have to be written well.

II-Story is very tell (or summary as I described it in my goodreads updates) it was like being constantly above scenes instead of in the scenes.

III-Repetitive = repeats the same things over and over. There is really nothing to this story other than what is on the synopsis.

The Meh

Not enough shown of the 2142 world.  Overall, this story was okay so I do not have a lot to say.

(synopsis and cover image are from goodreads)

Library Checkout Reviews: The Gods Are Not Appeased

So when I picked up these books from the library I had it pointed out to me that all these books had God in the title.

The Prey of Gods (DNF, ch 12, pg 87)

• don’t love/really like it
• feels like a bunch of characters that are not in same story
• deals with social issues wonky in my opinion
• there was interesting things happening in it which is why I read it so far

Talon of God

• so much repetitiveness and rehashing~ there was a large chunk of the story that felt like it was not moving forward
• Is the story living up/using its lore/mythology to its highest level/potential?
• It felt very surface level
• there are some interesting seeds in the story

Made me think of Sleepy Hollow. Talon of God would probably be elevated by being turned into a show.

Future Home of the Living God

DNF Limbo?

The main reason this got a dnf is  I don’t know if I felt that tug of needing to pick it back up. I don’t know if I’ll pick this up later but right now it is deleted off my goodreads.

 

 

Netgalley Reviews: Clearing Finale

I received all these in exchange for my review.

Novels
 

The Becoming of Ellicia Wayfield

Pub: 9/22/15

Cover: Which cover is cooler?

Why DNF? From the start of the book it was a no for me, transitions are off (jumps from story point to story point), tropey (I know what is going to happen)

The Beauty That Remains

Pub: 3/6/18

Why DNF? I enjoyed the first chapter a lot but as the story went on I lost interest.

Like: It is representative of grief in the modern age.

Awoke

Pub: 9/10/17

Why DNF? I don’t feel this pressing need to continue.

Like: Slowly reveals stuff, immediately got pumped soon as I read it

Tooth and Talon

Pub: 11/30/17

DNF? Emotional detachment.  Honestly, I don’t know if I’m making the right decision to dnf this.

Like: Interesting premise, starts off from jump action, does good job giving information here and there without being info dumpy, big topics (ex: colonization, immortality) that the story seems like it is going to deal with

Picture Books

Baby Bird

3/1/18

Like: Doesn’t give bird magic cure

Simon and the Big, Bad, Angry Beasts

Pub: 4/26/18

Art: Animals are manifestations of his anger (like they are his avatar made me think of Pokémon). It is interesting looking at how his relationship with the animals (thus his anger) changes as the story goes on. In the earlier part of the story he is with the animals directing them while in the later part he is losing control of his anger that is when the animals are attacking something without him being next to them.

Story: Shows it can be very satisfying to display your wrath, different forms of anger can take (lion = temper tantrum =loud), teach kids (and adults reading to deal with discourse), teach not bottle emotions, there is a guide at the end of the book at the end that talks about anger and mediation

Cat Who Ate Christmas

10/9/18

Art: Glitter (looks like you can touch  it ) so I wish I could see physical copy

Story: Overall I felt the story was okay

The Picky Eater

8/1/18

Art: Picking pigs (who eat everything) as picky eater, bright colors

Story: It was okay (for me) but I feel it may be good for kids (especially) picky eaters and offers a solution to young picky eater situation, I could see parents having their kids name foods with letter p or another letter as they read this

Harrison P. Space Invader

8/1/18

Art: Facial expressions of animals, color were darker more earthy

Story: Cute, allowing him to be expressive but thinking about other people, teaching kids lesson but it was fun

A Place for Pluto

8/1/18

Art: Colorful, fun

Story: The story was worthy (Pluto losing its planet status)  of being told. I just felt you could tell this was a message/facts book it wasn’t bad but I could feel things pushing so they can give you certain facts. In a way it felt like the facts moved the story.

Gabi’s If/Then Garden

9/1/18

Art: black girl with afropuff, cute things with dog going on in background

I don’t know if kids will be able to understand coding from this. But coding can be very complex.  I do like the art and that it is talking about coding with  two girls (one of them being a black girl with an afropuff)

Too Much! Not Enough!

8/14/18

Art: There are a lot of background objects which stands out because most of other picture books I’ve been reading recently are minimal in that aspect.

Story: Always can appreciate a fun cute picture book. They are the cutest roommates/bffs. It also does a good job having a conflict, climax, and resolution.

 

Netgalley Reviews & DNFs

(received all these from netgally for review)

Killer Fashion

Why DNF?  DNF (for now) because I waited too long on book and its expired/got archived probably going to finish it from the library later. Other than that I did not like the poems and it was only 56 pages but felt longer. I cannot tell if this feeling is because of the ebook format or just the book.

Liked: The art gave the story the right tone for what it is about, information given gives the reader a look into not only the deaths but the life of the people at the time period of the clothing malfunctions

Art The art is in black and white with red put in certain parts (like feathers, belts, etc)

Ladybug In Plant City

Why DNF? (for now) I could not really read it because how it looked on adobe reader.  I am going to get it later from the library.

Liked: Cover

Noble vol. 1

Why DNF? I read the first issue and felt that it was confusing. I just did not feel engaged by the story.

Liked: Seeing a black family

Art was okay not amazing

Black Girls Rock!

Why DNF? I realized after getting this that I am not into essay collections, for some reason I thought this was an art book. I do think that there are people who will really enjoy this way more than I would.

Liked: Celebrating black women is always a plus

Ten Cents A Pound

Art: It was okay a lot of earthy tones

Story: Stories that push long-suffering of parent who is let behind to rot in poverty = the future is young, inequality works where only small amount of people can get out. I guess it sucks the whole situation.  It is a valuable story to tell but I wish it was not a that had to be told.

Petra

Art: Simple white with not a lot of stuff in the background which (I think) is meant for reader to focus on Petra

Story: It was okay. It went by fast I felt. Petra and the art is cute.

Cloudia & Rex

Art: Kind of ultraviolet look

Story: Halfway confused by certain events in the story did not like that, liked the art, the daughter is the typically written teen (actually not necessarily something you see in young adult books but more in television/movies), in the end I feel it was okay but not something I’d probably continue

 

 

Analyzing Book Covers

Quick catch-up: after a mostly great months reading novels I’m in a not slump but everything that I’m reading is okay.  They are in that ugh middle ground of being neither bad or amazing. Bummer.

So a couple of days ago I randomly analyzed a book cover which was really fun so now I want to do more. All of these are from my goodreads to read shelf so I know at least a little bit about them making this not a just based on cover alone thing.

Monday’s Not Coming

First thoughts: The cover is atmospheric the red color makes me think of an alarm blaring. Look at her facial expression and body language. She doesn’t have her hands around her knees but it still looks hectic with the color.

Second Viewing: A couple of things I did not notice or know how to pinpoint- I did not notice that the red is not just a background that the character is sitting on top of it is lighting her skin, shoes, and clothes (I know there is a word to describe what the red is doing to her but I can’t think of this exact word/wording).The red lighting makes the white  words stand out even more. I did not notice that the words are basically white chalk.

Further into her facial expression which I couldn’t pinpoint. Looking at it now it seems like she is distracted, her mind is somewhere else. This probably ties into her being distracted thinking about her missing friend.

Princeless Short Stories Vol. 1

Black girl riding a light pink/purple dragon in the air. She looks like she is ready to go into battle seeing as she has her knife out in the air. She and the dragon are not going angry or sadly into battle but happy. The warrior princess is very in line with the Princeless series.

Babysitter IV

Tagline: Her life is still on the line…

She is obviously in the kitchen on the phone. This is the fourth Babysitter but she has the window opened…drapes opened…(Or the blinds are those type of drapes that cannot be closed).  Also, she has her back turned to the window with all the aforementioned things… Definitely can tell it is the 80s-90s because she is on a cordless phone (side comment: some people say the cellphone killed a lot of horror trappings). It is midday about to turn to the darkness of nighttime so she is doing all of this when it is about to be dark out.
Her face is scared and she is holding the cord on the phone tightly. It makes me think of Scream since I sampled (but did not finish) the script and saw the movie trailer. I feel like a scary movie character wore the exact outfit the main character wears on the cover but I have not seen enough scary movies to really tell.

Tooth And Talon

Don’t remember what this is about so this is going to be interesting?

The main character has a high tech suit in a forest. What does that mean? Is the forest she is going into dangerous? There are red leaves that look like feathers so is the “Talon” referring to a bird she is trying to get to? Look at how huge the leaves are they are almost taller or are taller than her. What is the blue-ish bulbs on the leaves?

The woman pictured has a look of searching that blank what is going on look.

The Legend of Shadow High

Tagline: Ever After High meets Monster High!

Mirror: The broken window in the middle I’m assuming signifies the portal between the worlds. In the mirror is the forest which is usually something you see in Ever After High than Monster High.

Sides: From monster high there is Frankie Stein and Draculaura, from ever after high Raven Queen and Apple White (these are  usually the spokesman from both worlds which ugh since I don’t like Draculaura and Frankie Stein but that is another conversation)

Anyway, the emblems around the mirror incorporates monster high skull (bottom) and ever after high girl with hood (top). On the top above the ever after high emblem is the two skull crests leaning on each other. All of the emblems and lining around mirror are in gold and black.

Background: There is a grey symbol that starts off big then gets smaller. The symbol is distinguishable at the top until it all bunches all in together at the bottom.

The overall style is something that Ever After High first series by Shannon Hale does which makes sense seeing how the story is set in Ever After High and written by Hale.

It would be interesting next time analyzing covers of books I know absolutely nothing about or have already read.