STACKED

books

Fonts, Color, Page Decor: The Visual Impact of Book Design

|

I talk a lot about cover designs and what works and doesn’t work for me, but lately, I’ve been thinking a lot more about all of the other elements that can give a book a real visual impact. There are so many little things (and big things) that can go into the design of a book and some work really well for me while others distract me from the reading experience. I’d love to hear any of your thoughts on favorite and not-so-favorite uses of these features in recent (and even not-so-recent) books.

Jackets and Covers

I talk about covers all the time, but one thing I love about hardcover books is when the book designer chooses to make use of both the boards and the jacket to give the book more visual punch. I don’t buy a whole lot of hardcover books, and when I do, I tend to take the jacket off because, for me, it’s tough to hold on to while reading. So when there are little surprises underneath the jacket, I get really excited.

The Age of Miracles is one of my favorite recent examples: 

It’s a fairly unassuming cover, but all of those little circles on the title are actually perforations. So what you’re seeing is the board underneath. It looks really neat because you can see the very bright orange and yellow peaking out, and there’s a texture to the jacket with the perforations.

But the real fun part is the board itself:

I love the silhouette of the girl. It’s a complete surprise, especially after seeing the jacket itself. This is one of those books where not having the jacket on the outside maybe even enhances the visual impact.

Another one of my favorite covers — and this is a hard cover without a jacket — is Katie Williams’s The Space Between Trees.

Sure it doesn’t look all that special. It’s a bunch of dark trees and a girl running in the background. But the trees are actually cut out of the board. It’s not an image but really a piece of art you can poke your fingers through:

I grabbed this image from a reader on Goodreads. The intricacy and the fine detailing of the cut out trees are unexpected and worth spending time studying. It’s not fragile either — the cutouts are pretty sturdy so you don’t have to worry too much about breaking any of the branches as you obsessively run your fingers over them (that can’t just be me). Again, it adds an element to the design that makes it stand out just a little bit more.

Colored Font

I feel like this category might make me sound old, but I really dislike colored font in books. I find it challenging to read and distracting unless it’s used carefully and purposefully. One that stands out in my mind as a particularly challenging reading experience was Anna Dressed in Blood. The font inside is a rusty red and the pages themselves are not bright white, but a little more cream colored. Although it looked neat and certainly fit with the book itself, I couldn’t read straight. I kept finding myself unable to focus because it was hard to read the red-on-cream font. As I look through a lot of other reviews, though, I’ve noticed others have loved this effect because it’s different and adds to the atmospheric element of the story.

I haven’t read the Shiver series by Maggie Stiefvater in a finished format, but in the galley for the final entry in the series, Forever, there’s another instance of red font (though the paper is whiter than it is for the Blake title):

I’m sure there are other examples in other colored fonts, but I’ll be okay in being old and saying I prefer black font because it is the easiest and least distracting to read.

Font Style

Continuing the theme of font selection, I put my foot down very solidly on the fact I prefer my books to have a serif font. I’m not particularly choosey on which serif font is used, but I have a hard time reading sans serif on a print format. I blogged about this way back when STACKED was a baby, but I’ve noticed it’s still popping up once in a while. The most recent example I can think of is SD Crockett’s After the Snow and for me, the font detracted entirely from the reading. The book required me to pay attention to a dialect, which is in and of itself challenging, but adding the sans serif font in the mix made it even harder.

It’s challenging to read because there’s not a visual line connecting the letters to one another as there is in a serif font. I find there’s too much space between the letters and in this particular case, the letters themselves are so thin, they’re difficult to focus on.

Chapter Designs

I love the little touches that go into the pages themselves, and this usually happens on chapter openings. Which, of course, makes sense since that’s where there tends to be more space for designing elements.

Here are two of my recent favorites. The first one is from a galley of Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock. I haven’t had the chance to see the finished version of it, but knowing that images are always enhanced when they make it to the final stage, I bet the design looks even better than it does here:

The design is so simple and yet adds a lot to the visual aspect of the book. It brings the entire page together. Bonus points for fitting with the elements present on the cover.

A few of the chapters inside Courtney Summers’s This is Not a Test offer us a nice double-page blood splatter. It’s minimal enough not to impact the already-strong and stark visual impact of having the chapters start so low on the page (rather than mid-page) and the fact it falls in the gutter of the pages makes it stand out even more. There’s another great visual element in this book, but because it’s a spoiler, I won’t post an image of it.

Deckle Edges

My least favorite of all the design choices in book production: the deckle edge. If you’re unfamiliar with what the deckle edge is, think about older books, where the pages are all unevenly cut. It’s meant to look fancier, I think, but the uneven cut on the pages makes flipping through them challenging (and let’s not even talk about how it’s impossible to hold the book open fully because the shorter cuts won’t stay open).

I think I might fall into a minority on this opinion, though. If you head over to Asheley’s blog, you can see she loves the French flap look (and has some good examples of recent books getting that treatment). Spend a little time looking at some of the other design elements she hits on, too, because they’re different than the things I look at — since I’m a huge contemporary reader, for example, maps never cross my mind as an interesting aspect of a book’s design. But I could see how they’re crucial for fantasy readers to grasp a sense of place in the new worlds they enter.

I think part of what interests me so much in book design is that with ebooks, you can often see the same elements (like the chapter designs) but some elements are simply not going to be a part of the digital reading experience (like the jacket and cover pieces). I’ve read a lot about how designers are thinking about this much more now and working to make ebooks as much an art form as they do physical books. But for me, there’s somewhat of a disconnect, as the ereading experience feels more like a passive studying of elements, whereas holding the physical book and admiring the artistry in the design is much more active.

What are some of your favorite book design elements? What aren’t you a fan of? I’d love to hear more examples of good looking design elements, too, that fit in any of these categories.

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

|

Aria has been exiled from Reverie, one of the environmentally-sealed pods that protect the people in her society from the outside world. Cast into the “Death Shop,” as they call the outside world, she expects to die quickly, her body unused to the disease and climate. Fortunately, she runs into Perry, an Outsider – a savage to Aria, initially – who has his own reasons for helping Aria to survive. The two form an alliance, agreeing to help each other to achieve their own goals.    
With Under the Never Sky, Rossi has given her readers a stellar example of a commercial dystopia. It’s got a great hook, a fast-paced plot, two protagonists you can’t help but root for, and interesting world-building. Rossi has got some great stuff going on here – super-charged senses, crazy aether storms that resemble lightning storms but are way cooler (and more terrifying), a complex society on the outside and an alluring but also ominous society on the inside.
The story is told in Aria and Perry’s alternating third person,
past-tense perspectives. Rossi is quite good at getting the reader into
both of these characters’ heads without having to resort to a shift in
typeface or some other cheat. Unlike many dual perspective narratives,
it was easy to tell whose “story” was being told, even when both
characters were occupying the same pages. The chapter headings – “Aria”
or “Perry” – were almost unnecessary.
I liked that the world wasn’t explained in a giant infodump, although Aria and Perry do fill each other in on certain things at points. I like being able to figure out as I go what the author has done here that is new – it assumes some intelligence on the part of the reader and is all the more exciting because the author isn’t holding my hand while I read.
I can’t talk about this book without talking about the romance. Under the Never Sky isn’t primarily a romance, but the romantic subplot is strong and it is good. Rossi knows how to write a good love story. Aria and Perry start out pretty antagonistic toward each other, but even the densest reader will know their feelings will eventually blossom into love. And when they do, it is believable and pretty intense. Nothing is described in a whole lot of detail, but there’s enough there that teenage me would have dog-eared the heck out of those pages. 
There were some things I wasn’t wild about. Rossi is overly fond of the “fragment as emphasis” tactic. A couple times in a novel works; a couple times in a chapter is overkill. It brought me out of the story sometimes and seemed sloppy. I still think the title is hokey, and both the US and UK versions of the cover are kind of terrible, the UK version particularly so (although neither of those things are necessarily the author’s doing). Overall, though, this is a really solid book that stands out from others in its subgenre. I’m excited for the sequel (the somewhat painfully titled Through the Ever Night).

Display This: On This Island

|

I love settings in books. A book that has an okay plot and okay characters can be made stronger for me as a reader with a memorable setting. I’ve done book lists with settings by country, but I noticed an interesting trend this year, and that’s island settings. These are both real islands and fictional, and for me, that kind of setting is interesting as it installs both realistic and artificial barriers to character and plot development.

In developing this YA book list, I’ve left off classics, including Anne of Green Gables, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Lord of the Flies, and others in that tradition (and arguably, these might not technically be considered YA titles anyway). I’ve tried to limit to YA titles, too, as I’m aware of a few strong middle grade candidates (like Gordon Korman’s entire “Island” series, though you’ll see I did include one or two middle grade titles with good YA appeal). My interest is in more recent offerings, and I am interested in island settings in any genre. I know I’m going to miss a few, so feel free to drop in any other suggestions in the comments. The bulk of these books are available now, but I’ve noted the instances where they are not published just yet.

All descriptions come from WorldCat.

Abarat by Clive Barker: Candy Quackenbush of Chickentown, Minnesota, one day finds herself on the edge of a foreign world that is populated by strange creatures, and her life is forever changed.

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko: A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards’ families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray: When a plane crash strands thirteen teen beauty contestants on a mysterious island, they struggle to survive, to get along with one another, to combat the island’s other diabolical occupants, and to learn their dance numbers in case they are rescued in time for the competition.

Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan (September): On remote Rollrock Island, men go to sea to make their livings–and to catch their wives. The witch Misskaella knows the way of drawing a girl from the heart of a seal, of luring the beauty out of the beast. And for a price a man may buy himself a lovely sea-wife. He may have and hold and keep her. And he will tell himself that he is her master. But from his first look into those wide, questioning, liquid eyes, he will be just as transformed as she. He will be equally ensnared. And the witch will have her true payment.

A Brief History of Montmaray by Michelle Cooper: On her sixteenth birthday in 1936, Sophia begins a diary of life in her island country off the coast of Spain, where she is among the last descendants of an impoverished royal family trying to hold their nation together on the eve of the second World War.

Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian (September): Three teenaged girls living on Jar Island band together to enact revenge on the people that have hurt them. 

Lost Girls by Ann Kelly: In 1974, fourteen-year-old Bonnie, eight other Amelia Earhart Cadets aged nine to seventeen, and their irresponsible young leader are stranded on a forbidden island off the coast of Thailand on the brink of a deadly storm and must fight to survive.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs: After a family tragedy, Jacob feels compelled to explore an abandoned orphanage on an island off the coast of Wales, discovering disturbing facts about the children who were kept there.

The Forsaken by Lisa M Stasse: After the formation of the United Northern Alliance–a merger of Canada, the United States, and Mexico into one nation–sixteen-year-old Alenna is sent to an desolate prison island for teenagers believed to be predisposed to violence.

Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Childs: When her mother suddenly decides to marry a near-stranger, Phoebe, whose passion is running, soon finds herself living on a remote Greek island, completing her senior year at an ancient high school where the students and teachers are all descended from gods or goddesses.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater: Nineteen-year-old returning champion Sean Kendrick competes against Puck Connolly, the first girl ever to ride in the annual Scorpio Races, both trying to keep hold of their dangerous water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.

The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman: Born in the eighth year of Enclosure, ten-year-old Honor lives in a highly regulated colony with her defiant parents, but when they have an illegal second child and are taken away, it is up to Honor and her friend Helix, another “Unpredictable,” to uncover a terrible secret about their Island and the Corporation that runs everything.
 

Island’s End by Padma Venkatraman: A young girl trains to be the new spiritual leader of her remote Andaman Island tribe, while facing increasing threats from the modern world.

The Floating Islands by Rachel Neumeier: The adventures of two teenaged cousins who live in a place called The Floating Islands, one of whom is studying to become a mage and the other one of the legendary island flyers.

Ten by Gretchen McNeil (September): Ten teens head to a house party at a remote island mansion off the Washington coast . . . only for them to picked off by a killer one by one.

The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe: Sixteen-year-old old Kaelyn challenges her fears, finds a second chance at love, and fights to keep her family and friends safe as a deadly new virus devastates her island community.

Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook: When seventeen-year-old Isobel’s mother marries a man she just met and they move to his gothic mansion on an island, strange occurrences cause Isobel to fear that she is losing her sanity as her artist father did.

Blackwood by Gwenda Bond (September): On Roanoke Island, the legend of the 114 people who mysteriously vanished from the Lost Colony hundreds of years ago is just an outdoor drama for the tourists, a story people tell. But when the island faces the sudden disappearance of 114 people now, an unlikely pair of 17-year-olds may be the only hope of bringing them back.

Of course, there are these two, too, which would make nice read alikes to each other beyond simply their island setting: 

The Turning by Francine Prose (October): A teen boy becomes the babysitter for two very peculiar children on a haunted island in this modern retelling of The Turn of the Screw.

Tighter by Adele Griffin: Based on Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw,” tells the story of Jamie Atkinson’s summer spent as a nanny in a small Rhode Island beach town, where she begins to fear that the estate may be haunted, especially after she learns of two deaths that occurred there the previous summer.

Eve and Adam by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant

|

Those of you around my age may not believe this, but I have never read an Animorphs book. Books about animals were so boring to me as a kid, so why would I want to read a book about kids who could turn into animals? Seemed like a recipe for a nap to me.
So let’s just say I am glad that Applegate’s and Grant’s return to collaboration does not involve a resuscitation of that series. In fact, I don’t think there’s a single animal in Eve and Adam. 
The book starts off badly for Evening Spiker, whose mother is a renowned and very wealthy scientist who runs Spiker Biopharm. Eve is hit by a car on page 1, and she’s rushed to the hospital. Her mother promptly picks her up and takes her back to Spiker Biopharm, where apparently she will receive better treatment.
As she recuperates, her mother decides to give her a project to work on: use some of the company’s educational technology to “create” a perfect boy in the lab. This aspect of the story is actually smaller than the jacket copy would have you think. For most of the story, it provides a few laughs but is of little importance.
The more important aspect involves Solo Plisskin, a teenage boy who works for Ms. Spiker. He’s got some sort of vendetta against her that he’s managed to keep hidden, but we follow his plans to eventually bring her down. He’s drawn to Eve, though, and as Eve begins to unravel some of the secrets of her mother’s company, Solo starts to see how they involve to his own secrets. 
The story is told in Eve’s and Solo’s alternating points of view. There’s a clear romantic attraction there, but since Eve is the daughter of someone Solo hates, there’s resistance, too. There’s plenty of suspense as well. Although Solo clearly knows what he has against Ms. Spiker, he’s not telling until the absolute last moment, so we can only guess.
The set up is interesting, but it seemed like Eve and Adam was more of a gimmick than a story. There was nothing outstanding about the writing – if you made all of the pronouns gender-neutral, I doubt I’d be able to tell you who was narrating at any particular point. The big revelations weren’t terribly interesting or original and I was a bit bored throughout, although I know the authors were shooting for a fast-paced sci fi thriller. And I was never engaged in either Eve’s or Solo’s problems. In fact, I found Eve’s mother to be a more engaging character than either of the two leads. There will be a sequel, but I doubt I’ll bother reading it.
All that said, there will be people who get more out of this reading experience than I did (like always). Readers a bit more invested in romance will probably enjoy it more, and those who are just dipping their toes into sci fi might find this a good place to start. It’s certainly an ephemeral book, though.

Review copy received from the publisher. Eve and Adam hits shelves October 2.

Recent Reads, Twitter Style

|

Here are a few of my recent reads, reviewed in short blurbs (not quite 140 or less, but close!)

Where We Belong by Emily Giffin: I really, really liked this one. For me, this was a return to form for Giffin after the slightly disappointing Heart of the Matter. Marian wasn’t the most likable protagonist, but the characters were deep, the relationships were spectacularly built, and the characters of Kirby and Conrad were amazing. It felt like a real world was created within this novel.

Spark (Sky Chasers #2) by Amy Kathleen Ryan: I loved Glow, the first book in this trilogy, and admired its careful handling of religion and its ability to shift between the three main characters’ points of view. Ryan accomplished a similar feat here, as the voices of Seth, Waverly, and Kieran are all distinct and the reader can somehow sympathize with all three, even as they all act in morally ambivalent ways. While this wasn’t as compelling as Glow, it was a decent middle book in a trilogy.

Real Mermaids Don’t Hold Their Breath by Helene Boudreau: I adored Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings, and Boudreau delivered a solid sequel. This is a book that I would have loved in middle school. Jade is an endearing character: she’s literally a fish out of water, and her common worries (should she tell her best friend her secret, does her crush (and her first kiss!!!) really like her) are mixed with more….”interesting” concerns, such as: how can she find her Mom, who is in the process of transitioning from mermaid back to human? Boudreau writes winning dialogue and creates utterly real characters.

The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner: This wasn’t my favorite of Weiner’s. While I usually love stories about Hollywood, especially about newcomers and outsiders in show business, the characters in this book felt slightly flat for me and the ending almost seemed like it just…ended, a bit too simply.