"The End": Cover on New York Times Book Review

[lauren]

I agree with Dante. I reckon it's some tropical fruit growing on the island, possibly poisonous or disgusting in taste.
Close up, that definitely looks like an eye tattoo on his ankles so I will submit to the popular theory of the character being Olaf.
My first and current opinion of the rope around Violet's neck is that it is seaweed and she is making some kind of invention out of it.
And also I hate the spine colour, it is a rathy murky brown/green.I was hoping for a more vivid colour like white or yellow.

[Dante]

I'm okay with the spine. It looks rather sandy, and I think somebody (possibly me) suggested that the spine might be a sandy colour. It makes sense after the BBRE's hint that Violet would be returning to Briny Beach, and a lot of speculation is that the final confrontation will take place there. So I think it ties in well with the plot, and doesn't look too ugly (nor does it clash with the main cover background).

[Songbird]

ffwf said:

I hate to write quickly here, so be sure to infer my meaning. You know what I don't like? When people post off-topic in threads. This is a thread to talk about the cover - not the Shocking Secrets, for which there is a thread (AuthorTrackers and Shocking Secrets, handily stickied) or the title (the official The End speculation thread, also stickied), or to figure out how to post pictures (there's a general questions thread in FFeedback, along with instruction threads as well). Don't make me lock this and shunt discussion over to the big The End thread, as I really like to be lenient, believe it or not. Kids, have a look around the threads in BBooks before you take a guess at where to post.

[glow=red,2,300]Hey Dante, I understand your frustration but I did look around the message board and the thread wasn't there or it was titled differently so there is no need to threaten us. [/glow]

[Antenora]

General note: I suggest that you look at the first pages of the stickied threads, or use the search feature.

On the matter of the sugar bowl, I think it might have been specified as white at some point. Even if it wasn't, I'd assume that the red things on the spine aren't sugar bowls. They're circular, and sugar bowls are shaped more like urns or vases.

I remember speculating that the spine would be a dark yellow/golden color, but sandy yellow works better, as the recent spine colors have tied in a bit more to the plot.

[Dante]

ladypoe said:

[glow=red,2,300]Hey Dante, I understand your frustration but I did look around the message board and the thread wasn't there or it was titled differently so there is no need to threaten us. [/glow]

To your credit, it was differently titled, and I've now been able to come up with a more accurate title that actually fits the space. The boards do have a search function, though, and a basic look at the first post of stickied threads should be common practice if this is your first look here for a while; the Shocking Secrets document in particular has been online and discussed for the past two months. I'm not deliberately targeting anyone and trying to drive them off; it's simple fact, and I had to be rather blunt this morning as I had about ten seconds to write that message before departing for school, but I'm sorry if you were offended. If you have a problem with or a question about the way I do things, please PM me, and I'd be happy to address your concerns privately rather than go farther off-topic.

Would anyone care to express more views on the cover? I quite like the colours arranged around the main picture, i.e. the borders and outline and Baudelaire/mansion circles; they're very bright and tropical, and that's pretty much how I imagine the secret island to be.

[Songbird]

[glow=red,2,300]I was already told by you Antenora and I didn't disagree with you but I think Dante is overreacting just a little because you have already spoken to me about where that stuff goes. It is possible that I missed it on the first page though.
I like the idea that the red things might be apples and how the idea of original sin comes in, but like I said I still don't think this is the real cover. It's either a red herring or a clue or just there to make us annoyed[/glow]

[Antenora]

ffwf said:

Would anyone care to express more views on the cover? I quite like the colours arranged around the main picture, i.e. the borders and outline and Baudelaire/mansion circles; they're very bright and tropical, and that's pretty much how I imagine the secret island to be.

I think the border looks a bit gaudy, myself, though the red circles(fruit, most likely) go well with the concierge outfits the Baudelaires have on. The colors of the border(as well as the blue sky with pretty ethereal clouds) provide a nice contrast to the rather scary nature of the image.

I also like the idea that The End will incorporate a "Garden of Eden" theme, especially if it involves the island where one is forbidden to remove any fruit. And the return of a reptile previously thought missing--the Deadly Viper, I think.

[Dante]

It's a bit of a waste of some fairly good Helquist art if it's not the real cover, and there's now no indication that The End is merely a placeholder since it's appearing in a cover that is quite evidently completed, so I don't think there's much likelihood that anything's to change now. The AuthorTracker seemed fairly clear that this was the cover, too.

As for a Garden of Eden theme, weren't Adam and Eve mentioned in TSS? Something like a temptation theme does seem likely to come in, but I hope it's presented subtly, as I'm not a fan of overt religious connotations.

[Songbird]

[glow=red,2,300]Is the person who is lying in the water dead? Because in that instance I would think it was Lemony.
And Sunny doesn't look like herself but I'm not sure if that's because of the resolution of the picture or if it's just my opinion[/glow]

[Antenora]

I think the legs most likely belong to Olaf, as the striped pant cuff we can see matches the illustrations, as well as the faintly visible tattoo.

All three of the Baudelaires look pretty strange on the cover--they all look rather windswept and unkempt, and Sunny does seem to have a bizarre expression. That's probably partly because of the low resolution and small size, though.

And TSS did indeed mention Adam and Eve, in a very irrelevant fashion, something about them deciding to put some clothes on and leave their snake-infested garden. While Handler may work in Biblical allusions, it doesn't seem entirely like him to slip in a forced religious message, so he'll probably present such a theme in a subtle, semi-joking manner.

[Wizz]

I was just thinking about something, may have already been discused but im not around often. On every book so far the pattern around the picture repersents something to do with the story.(i just realised it now). e.g TGG had anchors all around the picture, TSS had snow gnats around the picture, but TE, seems uite wierd, looks like barbed wire, or twigs with thorns. What do you think? If its already been discussed just ignore this post.

[cwm3]

ffwf said:

Why would the sugar bowl be red? Most sugar bowls are white, and I'd guess that's the colour most people assumed it would be, and a conventional-looking sugar bowl would make it easier to relate to on the cover.

i have a brown sugar bowl and that's what i assumed most sugar bowls looked like as i never saw any others.

and why would the sugar bowl look like an ordinary sugar bowl? if that's the case, what's to stop somebody from just mixing the sugar bowl with lots of others so nobody knows which is the VFD one?

[MikeT]

Fan-flipping-tastic.

Haha, had to pay a visit when I got the new author tracker! Woohoo. So excited.

Is there a better quality picture we can look at? Or is that within the previous five pages. Rofl, oh man.. I'm not how I used to be, I would have sat and read every post.

Cannot wait, and it comes out the day after my birthday too!

[Gigi]

BN.com has the big version up!



So much clearer!

That is definitely an eye tattoo on the man's ankle. He appears to be wearing pajama pants.

The children are covered in seaweed. I think the thing behind them is actually a cage of some sort.

The border seems to be either tomatoes or apples.

[twistedbrain]

Whoa, fish. I definitely couldn't see that before. And the Quagmires aren't there.