Keeper of the Lost Cities Thoughts

Cover Analysis: Stellarlune

First Impressions:

This cover makes absolutely no sense before you read the book. There's Sophie, wearing her Team Valiant pin, holding a crystal that's shooting out beams of light; Maruca, who's summoning glowing energy rings that are probably a force field; and Marella, with a torch that looks kind of like those oil slicks on the puddles in parking lots, or at least I think it's Marella. She has Marella's hairdo, but is somehow a redhead. I'll discuss that part later. They're all stepping through, like, a portal made of weird opalescent flowers, surrounded by crazy red stained glass.

I love how Marella and Maruca both got to be on the cover. They're two of my favorite characters, but, then again, like, everyone is one of my favorite characters (including some of the Neverseen). But this is Marella and Maruca's first cover.

It's definitely a very vibrant cover, with all the red stained glass, the three girls' clothes, the ring of flowers, Maruca's force-field-in-progress, Marella's torch, and that iridescent rainbow behind them. In fact, I suspect it is the most colorful cover so far.

And I like how the word "Stellarlune" is glowing. That's a really interesting effect.

Current Impressions:

Marella and Sophie are both blond, so why does Marella's hair look red, but Sophie's doesn't? They're standing right next to each other. They're in the same lighting. This really annoys me for some reason. And there's something off about Marella's eyes. As for her tunic, I love the color, but those poofy sleeves look like they'd get in the way, especially when you have the power to control fire. That tunic looks very easy to accidentally set on fire.

I feel like there's something off about Maruca's left pinky, but that's a lot more minor than Marella's hair. Maruca's dress/tunic (I'm not sure which, I don't know much about elvin fashion) is an amazing shade of purple and I like all the silvery details. I know I like her bracelets.

Usually, I don't like Sophie's clothing much. This is an exception, but maybe just because I love the color blue. It still looks a little fancy for Sophie, but there's finally a lack of white ruffles. That shade of blue is gorgeous, and that tunic looks a lot more convenient than Marella's outfit. This is my favorite Sophie outfit so far.

Overall, I think the scene is represented pretty well, but that might be because the scene in the book left a lot of room for interpretation. The description left a few gaps, that the Stellarlune cover could fill in all sorts of ways.

This cover is a bit busy. There's the rays from the Illusion Breaker mixing with Maruca's psionipathy, mixing with the Noxflares (which honestly look more like a sculpture of flowers made out of jewels than actual flowers), mixing with everyone's moving hair, all against the stained glass. I feel like there must have been a less cluttered way to portray this scene, though I'm not sure what. Still very pretty. I like the bright colors.

Alternate Scenes:

Overall, I think this scene represents the book pretty well. Two other options would be some other scene at Elysian, or the meeting with Trix.

I don't have any particular suggestions for other scenes at Elysian: the current one is as good an option as any. And the meeting with Trix wasn't as major, though it did introduce the alliance with Vespera—which became very important later on.

The current scene is a pretty good choice, if a little confusing.

Conclusion:

This is a pretty cover that represents the scene accurately enough. The portrayal of Marella is definitely not quite right, and there is a lot going on in the scene, but, overall, I like it. Like Neverseen and Everblaze, I'd give the Stellarlune cover a score of 7.25/10.