I stumbled upon this today and had to do a double-take.
Have the people who done the cover actually READ the book?
The new 'Flowers in the Attic cover' is inappropriate on so many levels:
- Misleading
- Inappropriate
- WTFery
Ahem. If you've read the book or know the story, a set of four siblings (two sisters, two brothers - two of them teenagers, two of them twin children) and their mother are forced to return to the 'Grandparent's house' after the death of their father. The mother had been disinherited years before for living what the grandparents considered a "sinful relationship." The mother hopes to return and win back her father's love - really, his money, as the guy's majorly loaded and on his deathbed. There's a catch, though - he can never know she had children with the "evil" marriage. So the four children are locked away in the attic in secret from him. While there they are greeted daily by the super religious and vicious grandmother who does all kinds of terrible things to them.
I won't go into exact spoilers really, but let's just say this book matches the cover NOT AT ALL.
Breaking down the points above -
Misleading - It is a dark, depressing, Gothic, melodramatic, horrific story. The cover makes it look like a rosy, young adult novel. It makes it look like a romance novel. Despite some vague hints of sibling incest, this is not a typical romance young adult novel. AT. ALL. The colors of the pink shirts, the light colored writing, the mansion in the background with green shrubbery and lightness, yeah - the ultimate- ultimate of misleading. Seriously. VC Andrews name in pink too? Earning another facepalm at this ridiculous cover.
Inappropriate - Beyond just misleading, the book's cover has the gal to mislead, but also mislead serious stuff. That makes it climb into the completely inappropriate level. I mean, come on, this is about children and siblings being tortured, starved, and there is death in this book. It's tragic, it's sad, it's haunting. The romantic angle of the siblings is bizarrely twisted. Le Sigh.
WTFery - Going off the cover of this one, why don't we redo some other serious books too to make them more pretty and visually appealing?
Oh, I know! How about some of these nifty ideas:
The Diary of Anne Frank - Most of these covers are too serious and depressing, right? We should totally play up to market. Maybe a picture with Anne dancing, smiling, and singing with a large group of her peers at an outdoor party?
Cujo - We totally need to play up the angle of a boy and his dog and the love of that powerful relationship. Maybe a smiling child with his arm wrapped around the St. Bernard, and throw in some colorful wildlife in the scene while we're at it - singing birds, friendly bats, cuddling rabbits? Ya know, a Disney type scene. They could be in the forest having a picnic together!
