Keeper of the Lost Cities Thoughts

Cover Analysis: Exile

So, I think I'm going to do this for all of the covers, 'cause why not.

First Impressions:

Since I have already read Exile, I'll have to pretend I'm someone who's read the first book and is now staring at Exile's cover trying to figure out what's going on.

So, Sophie and Keefe are in a cave with a winged unicorn. I know that the title is "Exile," and, at this point, I know that Exile is the underground prison. And the scene is a cave. So I put two and two together and "deduce" that the scene takes place in Exile (the prison). Maybe Sophie and Keefe somehow broke into Exile with winged unicorn powers.

Current Impressions:

Aesthetically, the cover of Exile has the same contrasting light-and-dark thing going on as the first cover did. I don't know much about horses, but Silveny looks pretty well drawn. Sophie is in the center of the scene, which is logical because she's the main character.

Her hair is moving. This seems like something people often comment on (Why is her hair moving even though she's standing still?!), but I recently read a book on drawing people and I can explain why. Making long-haired characters' hair moving is an art technique used to make a scene look more dynamic and interesting. Still kind of weird, but it does look cool.

Okay, what's that glowing rock Sophie's holding? This scene is the scene right after Sophie and Keefe flew across the ocean, when they are at the Black Swan's hideout. My fangirl brain might've betrayed me, but I cannot remember a glowing rock in that scene. Please tell me if you can find one so I can update this.

We can see light coming from outside of the cave—light that happens to look white-hot. I seem to remember this scene took place at night, so why is it so bright outside?

Overall, the scene is pretty, though there are a few incongruities. I think it's pretty amazing that Silveny got to be on a cover. As of Stellarlune, she is the only non-elvin character to be on a cover (twice, actually), though I kind of really want Amy to be on a cover.

Alternate Scenes:

Like for the previous book, I don't feel like this scene represents Exile fully, and that perhaps an alternate scene would have been better.

The scene after Sophie got her abilities healed could have been good, because the Neverseen would be there, but I don't feel like it would be much better.

Alternately, the scene where Sophie first found Silveny could be nice, though that scene would probably be a bit "lighthearted," for lack of a better word, and incongruent with the darker parts of Exile (Alden's mind breaking, Sophie's abilities malfunctioning, etc.).

Another scene that could work could be when Sophie goes to Exile with Alden. It would be interesting for the cover of Exile to take place in Exile. However, that scene would have Sophie either alone or with Alden, and the only cover so far where Sophie has been alone is Unlocked, and there have never been adult characters on the cover, unless the Neverseen member in the foreground of the Lodestar cover is an adult (though I have my own theory about who that person is).

Overall, while the Exile cover scene probably isn't the ideal scene, I can't find another scene that would be better, so maybe we could just keep it how it is.

Conclusion:

Aesthetically, this cover is nice, but I find it slightly disappointing for some reason I can't fully define. I think it is one of my less favorite covers, though there are worse ones.

I'd give it a 6/10, slightly lower than the score for the first book cover.

I'll do an Everblaze cover analysis soon, I hope. (Unless I get side-tracked. It's happened before.)