The covers to this book are always pretty and always full of story. It isn’t just the character and the actions but the composition and scene setting. We see Ginny sitting in a trenchcoat wiping the blood off her sword, but the drips are more like leaves falling to the ground. The drama of bloodshed is more symbolic than simple droplets on the snow. This principle applies to the rest of the page, if not the whole book. The ruins of a building imply destruction on a massive scale with only Ginny the survivor. Instead of colouring the ruins the same, Emma brings variations in grey and white to the stone bricks. There is a ghostly otherworldly feeling to the whole image, as what has come before will come again. There is scope for imagination and personal inflection or quite simply the stones are illuminated by the natural light of the sky in varying ways. This is what I enjoy most about the book, every aspect balances the horrid reality of the events but also the spiritual and soulful world that exists beyond. It is incredible how Kelly, Emma and Jordie balance those themes but it does rely, in part on the reader letting themselves become immersed in the art.
House Of Flying Scalpels 