I am thrilled to share the gorgeous cover of my new novel, The Walls Around Us, which was revealed on Tumblr Books (the first-ever cover reveal by Tumblr!) on August 4! Here it is, and this author couldn’t be happier:
This is a novel about killer ballerinas, a girls’ juvenile detention center, and yes, ghosts. It’s told in two voices, one still living, and one long dead. And it’s very me, in all the ways a novel can belong to a writer, so I think fans of Imaginary Girls and/or 17 & Gone are really going to like this and see how all of these books connect and feed off one another. When talking cover art with my editor, I truly had no idea what to suggest. I’m no cover designer—and I like to keep my mind open and blank for the space where the cover will one day be, so I don’t get my heart set on anything too specific.
And yet I knew I didn’t want a girls’ face on the cover. I didn’t want a photograph at all really, at least nothing too specific. I didn’t want a dirty ballet slipper or an orange jumpsuit behind bars or a coil of barbed wire. I wanted something that translated the mood and voice of the book into an image that would be striking enough to call readers closer… Not that I had any worldly idea what that might be.
When Algonquin emailed me this cover image to ask what I thought, I was stunned to delicious silence and then began smiling like a maniac. It was everything I wanted but didn’t know how to put to words. It is EXACTLY right. It speaks to the kind of writing inside the book, and to the twisty slope of the story you’ll be reading. It feels timeless to me. It feels so very evocative. And it will resonate even more once you’ve read the story and know why the artwork of the flowering vines was chosen.
The designer, Connie Gabbert, could not have done any better—and I am so honored and thrilled to have this cover on my book! I couldn’t love it more. Thank you, Algonquin and Connie!
Now that you see my cover, I hope this entices you to pick up the book on March 24, 2015! If you are a reviewer or media person, you should know that ARCs will be available THIS month—as in very soon, as in August—and you should get in touch with my publisher, Algonquin Young Readers, to get a hold of one.