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books

Covers Through the Years: The Golden Compass

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Long-time readers of Stacked may remember our inaugural post where we discussed our favorite books. Easily occupying my top spot is The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, which meant a great deal to me when I first read it as a young teen and still holds immense power over me today. It continues to be popular and highly-regarded among today’s readers and critics, meaning that its cover has gone through several incarnations since I first read it. I thought it might be interesting to review these various covers through time as Kelly has done for other books and authors previously. The His Dark Materials trilogy, beginning with The Golden Compass, is a curious case study for me, as a battle has raged since its publication over the “proper” age of its audience, ranging from middle grade to adult.

The book was first published as Northern Lights in the United Kingdom in 1995 by Scholastic. The US edition, retitled The Golden Compass, followed in 1996 from Alfred A. Knopf. For this post, I’ll focus mostly on the US covers throughout the years since then – the covers I’ve come across in my own reading and collecting. Otherwise, the scope would be too large for me to cover adequately, especially since the book has since been published in many more countries.

Here are the original US hardback covers of all three books in the trilogy. One of these things is not like the others. While the first two books were published very close to each other (1996 and 1997), the third wasn’t published until 2000, three years later (not a huge wait, but notable considering the small gap between the other two). This, including the tremendous acclaim for the first two novels, probably accounts for the design change for the third book, which is much more sophisticated and expensive to produce (if you can’t tell from the image, the gold portion is a cut-out).

I believe the series was always marketed to youth in the US, but the delineation between middle grade and young adult wasn’t as clear then (some would claim it’s not even clear now). It wasn’t unusual, at least to my recollection, to find covers featuring illustrated characters on novels aimed for teens in the mid-90s. These days, you usually find illustrated covers on middle grade novels, not YA novels. Our 2014 eyes would probably peg these books as middle grade, which is accurate – Amazon lists the suggested age as 10 and up, and the first two were in my middle school library (I assume the third made it in when it was published). The books are also meant for teens (and appeal to them), but most teens of today would probably pass these by as too juvenile.

These paperback versions were published in 1997, 1998, and 2001 by Del Rey. Again, the third book looks different. I couldn’t find an image of the third book that matches the first two more closely, so I’m assuming there isn’t one. These do look like they’re geared for a slightly older audience, but they’re still dated.

In 2001, Alfred A. Knopf gave us these lovely paperback editions of all three novels. With the images of the daemons and children in the background, I think they still demonstrate that they’re for teens (though perhaps older teens), but they look more modern and a bit more sophisticated. The gold foil portion in the center is raised and gives a deluxe feel to the covers. Also worth noting, this is the first time all three books completely match each other.

Yearling published a few more paperback editions in 2001 (the first two) and 2003 (the third). These are definitely geared for the younger end of the target audience (10-12). They actually remind me a little of the new Animorphs covers. I’m not a huge fan of them personally, but if it widens the audience, I’m for it. These are the paperbacks currently in print and the ones you’re prompted to purchase when you visit an online retailer such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble. They’re also the first editions with bonus content. Since these came out around the same time as the Knopf versions above, I think they’re interesting to compare – they’re each going for very different readers.

Laurel Leaf released these mass market versions in 2003. These are unrecognizable from adult mass market fantasy titles. I like the design; it’s above average for mass market books. The image doesn’t clearly show that the middle illustrations are actually cut-outs, showing through from the pages behind. It seems the publishers were going for as broad an audience as possible with these, if they weren’t marketing to adults specifically. I own these versions and I’m pretty sure I purchased them from the adult section of the bookstore.

In 2006 (and 2007), we get the deluxe tenth anniversary editions from Knopf. They’re lovely and very appealing for adults. These are covers to attract established fans and collectors. They also have a tremendous amount of new material, including new illustrations, spot art from Pullman, and a lot of “archival” documents from the characters’ lives. They’re hardback with a deckle edge and a ribbon bookmark. Note that the same background images have been used in three editions so far (paperbacks of 2001, mass markets of 2003, and these).

These deluxe editions are no longer in print – I couldn’t find them to purchase from any usual retailer. If you want a hardback edition of any book in the series, you’re pretty much out of luck unless you want to buy used or from a re-seller. The only editions (of any format) currently in print that I could find were the Yearling paperbacks from 2001/2003. I don’t own those, but they appear to be mass market rather than full-size trade versions. (I’m able to purchase the original 1996 hardcover from Ingram, but they have limited quantities and I suspect the books are leftovers from many years ago.)

A US omnibus edition was published in 2007 by Knopf prior to the release of the Golden Compass film adaptation (which isn’t a good adaptation, but I like it anyway). It’s….a little retro, in my opinion. This is as close as I could find to a US movie tie-in edition, which I don’t normally care for anyway. I do like the cover’s colors, which are reminiscent of the aurora borealis, an important part of the plot.

Selected UK Editions

Here we get a true movie tie-in edition, though it’s from Scholastic UK. It looks a bit like a movie poster, which I suppose is the point. The second image above is a 2011 omnibus edition from Everyman’s Library, another UK publisher. It’s so different from anything else, which is part of why I like it. I think that’s supposed to be Iorek on the cover, but it looks more like a wolf than a bear, so I’m not sure.

The first picture above is specifically called an “adult edition.” It’s from Scholastic Press (UK), published in 2001. I think it’s pretty terrible. I’m not really sure what they were going for. None of the imagery seems relevant to the story at all. It seems like it might be a historical painting, but I wouldn’t be able to place it. (Anyone have any ideas?) I’m not a fan, but I do find it interesting that an adult version, marketed as such, exists, especially since there are plenty of other versions out there that don’t scream “I’m reading a kids’ book!”

The second cover is a Scholastic (UK) paperback from 2011. I think it’s lovely and all ages friendly in its appeal. When I visited London last year, I picked up a copy of this version.

These are images from a special Scholastic (UK) edition published in 2008. I own this one, which comes in a lovely blue and silver box (shiny!) and looks even more deluxe than the US special edition.

Selected International Editions

Most of the international versions actually use a lot of the same imagery as the UK and US versions. The image of the alethiometer reflected in the above covers is the one used by the initial paperback UK version. The background and typefaces are different, but the basic design is the same. The first cover is Greek and the second is Persian. You’ll find many other international covers that look very similar to these.

Here are two very different international versions. The first is the Danish cover, which takes the title literally and puts an actual compass on it. The second is the Spanish cover, which takes the common image of Lyra on Iorek, but draws it in a different style.

These are the Slovak and Italian versions, both nice in their own way, though I really like the Italian cover (it might have something to do with the language as well). I think it’s also interesting to consider which countries opted to translate the original UK title (Northern Lights) and which ones chose to translate the US title (The Golden Compass).

Graduation Day by Joelle Charbonneau

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 Graduation Day is Joelle Charbonneau’s conclusion to her trilogy that began with The Testing and continued with Independent Study, and I’m disappointed I didn’t enjoy it more. The Testing and Independent Study were both exciting, edge-of-your-seat page-turners, full of action and plot twists. Graduation Day felt lackluster in both action and twists – not enough action and a few too many twists.

After the events of Independent Study, Cia is determined to get rid of the Testing once and for all. She can’t do it alone – she must partner with some of her classmates, including those who killed other teens during the events of the first book. She’s also asked to carry out a special assignment by the president, who claims that she, too, wants to abolish the Testing. But what are her true goals? Who can really be trusted?

I think what I missed most were the actual tests that pervaded the first two novels. They were clever and cruel and tremendous fun to read about. The tests were where Charbonneau’s imagination was at its best, and they were also a great way for us to get a feel for how characters behave in very tough situations. Graduation Day sacrifices these tests in favor of a more straightforward plot where Cia investigates who really wants to get rid of the Testing and what each person’s motives truly are. I say straightforward, but that’s really only true initially. By the end of the story, we’ve gone through at least three double-crosses, and I was never quite able to wrap my mind around who did what and why. It’s more than a little muddled and grew tiresome after a while.

Beyond my frustrations with the plot, I felt like many of Cia’s actions were out of character. I can understand that she would resort to more drastic measures here than she would have in the first book, but the way she reacts to certain events, the things she says – they often seemed a little off. I can’t go into much detail without revealing major plot points, but what I can say is that Cia didn’t always resemble herself from the previous two books.

Whereas I read the first two novels almost straight through in one or two sittings, this one took me several days, and I never counted down the minutes until I could pick it up again. The final confrontation, which I was hoping would be a big showdown with more secrets revealed, instead felt anticlimactic. This is obviously a must-read for diehard fans of the first two novels, but it’s not a completely satisfying conclusion, and I was left feeling a bit let down.

Review copy received from the publisher. Graduation Day is available now.

Complicit by Stephanie Kuehn

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Jamie Henry’s crazy sister Cate is coming home.

She’s spent the last two years behind bars for starting a fire at a barn that not only killed horses, but it severely harmed one of the local girls. Everyone suspects she did it because she didn’t want that girl to be involved with the boy she had a crush on.

But what worries Jamie isn’t just that she’s coming home (and really, she’s 19, she legally doesn’t need to “come home”). It’s that Cate is coming back to see him.

Because Cate has to set the record straight with her brother.

Stephanie Kuehn’s Complicit is a dark psychological thriller that takes everything she did so well in Charm & Strange and amps it up even more. Be warned that everything from here on out is spoiler.

The first thing you should know about Kuehn’s novel is that you know pretty quickly that things aren’t what they seem. That Jamie, our narrator, isn’t reliable. More than that, you know what he’s said about Cate and her connection to the barn fire might not be true. Perhaps you don’t know how it’s not true, but you know that it’s not. So don’t go into the book thinking that it’s a mystery — it’s not.

Jamie and Cate are adopted. The two of them grew up under Angie and Malcolm’s roof, where they live a pretty nice life. Their adoptive parents are wealthy, and the two of them have had every luxury available to them. The problem is that both of them are damaged from what happened before the adoption. Their mother, who was very young when she had Cate and not much older when she had Jamie, wasn’t the world’s most stable person herself. She was a bit of a drifter, did drugs, never had much money. Even though Jamie and Cate are siblings, they’re not necessarily whole siblings; that’s not known entirely, though. Their mother doesn’t know who either of their fathers are, but the differences in their skin colors suggests that they don’t share the same father. Cate’s darker than Jamie.

They came to be adopted when their mother was killed at home by a gun shot. Angie and Malcolm came to adopt the siblings because they themselves had lost two children in a tragic accident and Cate and Jamie fit well enough into the holes of their deceased kids.

Both Cate and Jamie went to therapy because of the grief and trauma sustained in their early lives. Cate didn’t take to the therapist in the same way Jamie did, and Jamie is upright in talking about how much his life has been impacted by Dr. Waverly. She’s taught him methods of coping with his feelings, ones which can be diagnosed and those which can’t be.

Two years ago, the day things came to light about Cate and the fire at the barn, Jamie began having awful problems with his hands. They stopped working.

Hearing that she was coming home — coming for him — made his hands stop working again.

Complicit is told in the present, as well as through flashbacks to the years prior to Cate’s incarceration. Bit by bit, we’re given flashes into the experiences Jamie had as an adoptee, as well as his experiences learning to make friends and control his emotional and mental states. It’s tough though, especially knowing Cate’s after him. And she’s after him. She knows where he’s at. She knows he’s settling into a new relationship with a girl named Jenny. She knows that he needs to be talked to.

But in every moment where Cate approaches Jamie and where it seems as though she’s finally going to get the chance to tell him what it is she needs to say, he passes out. This is beyond the hands not working. This is not knowing where he is or what he’s doing and waking up unaware of what’s happened except knowing that Cate had been there.

It’s a defense mechanism.

Throughout the book, Jamie leads readers to believe that Cate needs to be avoided. That she’s the embodiment of evil, of terrible decisions, of making poor choices that have forever impacted the family. The truth, though, isn’t at all that simple.

Cate is not the bad seed.

Kuehn deftly weaves Jamie’s reality against the reality of the world around him, and they don’t match up. Those rifts are where the light shines into the story, and in many ways, it’s Cate who digs her fingers into that rift and tears it open. Jamie distracts us though and he does so very well. He recalls something about the night with the barn fire. He was there. He was there to bury the evidence of his sister’s wrongdoing. She’d borrowed his backpack, and when he saw it there that night, he grabbed it and buried it. He didn’t want her to get in trouble and he wanted to do what it was he could to protect her. Except there was no need to protect her.

He was protecting himself.

The fire that night and the fires and burglaries happening around town now had nothing to do with Cate and everything to do with Jamie. The death of their mother years ago had nothing to do with some botched drug deal nor any other theory Jamie cooked up and presented to himself (and by extension, us). It was Jamie.

Complicit is a story about mental illness and about how sick someone can become mentally. It’s about how far other people will go to protect those they love who can’t be helped in the ways that they want to be helped. Kuehn offers us some words for what Jamie’s experiencing, except through the eyes of Jamie, those diagnoses don’t matter. What matters is that as readers, we’re actually experiencing the illness right along with Jamie. We know almost immediately he’s unreliable, and because of his defense mechanisms — his hands not working, his ability to black out and not face the emotions and thoughts in front of him — we’re also left in the dark about some of what’s going on in the present. But rather than being frustrating, it’s a brilliant mimicking of exactly what’s happening at that moment. We are right there with Jamie believing that Cate is a terrible, dark person, and we are right there with Jamie in his desperate search for understanding what happened to his mother, and we are right there with Jamie as he begins falling head over heels for Jenny. As the light breaks through though, we see why we should be worried about being there for him in each of those instances. When Cate reveals herself as not the “crazy” girl we’ve been led to believe she is, suddenly everything falls perfectly into place about the rest of the story. And yes, we do have to worry tremendously about the positive, fulfilling relationship Jamie’s beginning with Jenny.

The threads of this story are woven together seamlessly. We know there’s something going on, and we develop theories about them, but the what of it is never the point of the story. Instead, the point is the experience itself. What does it look like to be so mentally ill you don’t know right from wrong? What does it feel like to be so sick that no amount of help can truly help you? Kuehn forces some really fascinating questions, too, about culpability, about guilt, and about shame in the story too. Why doesn’t Jamie feel bad about the fire? How has he managed to block out shooting and killing his mother (which was accidental, probably, and for which he never took the fall nor the guilt)? What happens when those who love you do everything to protect you?

There are very smart allusions and layers built into the story, as well. Cate is a very smart girl, even though we don’t get to see much of her on page, and what we do see of her is filtered through Jamie’s perception. Complicit will appeal to readers who love psychological thrillers, and it’s fast paced and engaging immediately. It will also appeal to readers who want a novel that forces them to reread, picking up new clues through the second and third readers. What does “The Owl and the Pussycat” really imply here? What about the books Cate has given Jamie? What about the Richard Wright novel? And, perhaps the thing that really cemented this as not just a good novel, but a GREAT one for me, what about that ending? It’s not just a literal taking of the fall, but the burning of that photo which caused the fall. That was what made it clear to me just how sick Jamie was, and it made me want to turn back to page one and see where else those clear signs emerged that I missed the first time through. Without doubt, Kuehn’s expertise in psychology only aids in crafting this story and informs not just Jamie’s worldview, but also ours as readers.

Complicit leaves the reader with big questions, despite offering answers to the questions raised in the story itself. It’s unsettling in many ways, but that discomfort is exactly what readers should walk away with. There’s not a happy ending here, and it’s possible to take aways here are scarier than they are comforting. This book will appeal to readers who want a story that hooks them immediately, and it’ll appeal equally to readers who want a story that is going to challenge them. It’s a sharp, contemporary/realistic thriller that delivers on every level, and Jamie’s voice is memorable, haunting, and authentic.

Kuehn is an author to keep your eye on. She’s only getting better.

Complicit will be available June 24 from St. Martin’s Press. Review copy received from the publisher. 

June Debut YA Novels

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If you’re keeping track of this year’s debut young adult novels, here’s a roundup of what’s out in the month of June. As usual, the titles included here are actual debut novels, meaning that these aren’t books that are first YA novels or first YA novels by authors who have published elsewhere under different names. 

All descriptions are from WorldCat, unless otherwise noted. It’s possible I’ve missed titles out this month — and it’s a pretty packed month for debuts — so if there’s something I’ve missed, let me know in the comments. 

17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen: Claire Jenkins has finally found a boy worth kissing, but when she discovers that her best friend Megan also has feeling for him, Claire must decide what she is willing to risk to get what she wants.

Drift by M. K. Hutchins: To raise his family out of poverty, seventeen-year-old Tenjat joins a dangerous defense against the naga monsters that gnaw at his drifting island’s foundation.

Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis: A seventeen-year-old boy finds that every time he closes his eyes, he is drawn into the body of a mute servant girl from another world–a world that is growing increasingly more dangerous, and where many things are not as they seem.

Hexed by Michelle Krys: Popular cheerleader Indigo Blackwood, sixteen, finds her perfect life threatened when Bishop, a tattooed, leather-clad stranger, tells her the family Bible just stolen from the attic of her mother’s occult shop could mean the end to all witches, including, he says, Indigo herself.

I Become Shadow by Joe Shine: Abducted at age fourteen and trained by the F.A.T.E. Center to become a Shadow, guardian of a future leader, Ren Sharpe, now eighteen, is assigned to protect college science student Gareth Young, but with help from her secret love and fellow Shadow, Junie, she learns that F.A.T.E. itself is behind an attack on Gareth.

My Last Kiss by Bethany Neal: When a seventeen-year-old girl dies and can appear to her boyfriend, she learns that her death may not have been an accident, and must delve into her past to face all the decisions she made that led to her last kiss. 

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings: In a world where the murder rate is higher than the birth rate, fifteen-year-old Meadow, trained by her father to kill and survive in any situation, falls in love with Zephyr, a government assassin

Trouble by Non Pratt: When Aaron willingly signs on to be the pretend father of Hannah’s unborn baby, he is looking for redemption from a past that has a stranglehold on him. Hannah, more simply, needs support in the absence of the real father, but she’ll discover so much more. 

Vivian Divine is Dead by Lauren Sabel: Teen celebrity Vivian Divine’s movie-star mom has been murdered, her famous-director dad tried to kill himself, and her boyfriend is cheating on her. When a death threat arrives with her fan mail, Vivian has no choice but to go on the run to Mexico. She soon discovers, through, that her Oscar-nominated performance killing villains on-screen did nothing to prepare her for escaping a madman in real life. Vivian finds an ally in Nick. He is everything Hollywood boys are not-genuine, kind, and determined to see Vivian for who she really is. But even he, seems like he can’t be trusted. Beat up, hungry, and more confused than ever about who she’s running from, Vivian realizes this isn’t the stuff bad TV movies are made of; this is material for a full-on blockbuster horror flick.  

My Faire Lady by Laura Wettersten: After breaking up with her boyfriend, seventeen-year-old Rowena takes an out-of-town summer job at a Renaissance fair, but romantic entanglements soon follow.

Take Back the Skies by Lucy Saxon: To escape from a planned arranged marriage, teenaged Cat Hunter disguises herself as a boy and stows away on a smuggler’s airship where she discovers a world of excitement and adventure.

The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Matthieu: When ugly rumors and lies about Alice Franklin start after one of the guys she allegedly slept with at a party dies in a car accident, questions about truth arise in her small town. 

Cinderella’s Dress by Shonna Slayton: Being seventeen during World War II is tough. Finding out you’re the next keeper of the real Cinderella’s dress is even tougher. Kate simply wants to create window displays at the department store where she’s working, trying to help out with the war effort. But when long-lost relatives from Poland arrive with a steamer trunk they claim holds the Cinderella’s dress, life gets complicated. Now, with a father missing in action, her new sweetheart shipped off to boot camp, and her great aunt losing her wits, Kate has to unravel the mystery before it’s too late. After all, the descendants of the wicked stepsisters will stop at nothing to get what they think they deserve.

Push Girl by Chelsie Hill and Jessica Love: Kara, a high school junior, is popular with a great group of friends, an amazing boyfriend, and expectations of being Homecoming Queen until she leaves a party angry and wakes up in a hospital bed, paralized from the waist down, but as she is forced to adjust to her new physical reality, she also learns that her friends are not who they seemed to be.

Behind The Scenes by Dahlia Adler: High school senior Ally Duncan’s best friend may be the Vanessa Park – star of TV’s hottest new teen drama – but Ally’s not interested in following in her BFF’s Hollywood footsteps. In fact, the only thing Ally’s ever really wanted is to go to Columbia and study abroad in Paris. But when her father’s mounting medical bills threaten to stop her dream in its tracks, Ally nabs a position as Van’s on-set assistant to get the cash she needs.  Spending the extra time with Van turns out to be fun, and getting to know her sexy co-star Liam is an added bonus. But when the actors’ publicist arranges for Van and Liam to “date” for the tabloids just after he and Ally share their first kiss, Ally will have to decide exactly what role she’s capable of playing in their world of make believe. If she can’t play by Hollywood’s rules, she may lose her best friend, her dream future, and her first shot at love. (Description via Goodreads). 

Essence by Lisa Ann O’Kane: Neutrality is the key to longevity. This motto has governed 17 year-old Autumn’s life in the mid-21st century Centrist cult, which believes that expressing emotions leads to Essence drain and premature death. But Autumn’s younger brother’s death casts her faith into question. While sprinting through a park in violation of Centrist teachings, she encounters Ryder Stone, an Outsider who claims Essence drain is nothing more than a Centrist scare tactic. She agrees to join his Community, a utopia of adrenaline junkies living in the abandoned remains of Yosemite National Park. Autumn learns about sex, drugs, and living life to the fullest. But as she discovers dark secrets beneath the Community’s perfect exterior, she realises that this illusion of paradise could be shattered.
The Girl Who Never Was by Skylar Dorset: On her seventeenth birthday, Selkie discovers that she is a half-faerie princess and that the mother she never knew wants to kill her.

It Happens Update

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Just a quick post to say if you are interested in ordering It Happens, you can do that now through VOYA’s online store. If you’re a subscriber to their magazine or to Teacher Librarian, you get a 20% discount, and details on how to take advantage of that are on the site.

I put up a short excerpt last week, too, so you can get a taste of what the book looks like.

I haven’t seen a finished copy yet — I haven’t seen anything since a digital proof a few months ago — so I hope this means there will be some hitting my doorstep soon.

Editing to add you can also get it at Barnes & Noble now, with discount.