JudgeABook: Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

Welcome to the inaugural post of my new series called JudgeABook that is all about the cover. You can read all about where this came from HERE.

Let's jump straight into it:

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

(In the rules, I've said that you should only write one sentence about how the cover made you react, but I'm going to expand a bit.)

When I first saw this book, I was riveted by it. I visit a lot of book shops and I think 2 or 3 of them had it in stock and every time I went back I would find myself picking this one up and just looking at it. I'm pretty sure it was a long time before I even read the back cover. In any event, after 6 months of periodic gazing at it, I finally bought it, still knowing very little of what the book was about. I have now owned it for almost a year, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. It even has a spot on my coveted spinner (one of the beautiful, wooden Vintage Classics ones I scored from one of my old jobs) which is in my lounge room and reserved for my favourite books as that's the shelf that gets browsed by visitors. But there it is, it's gorgeous cover staring at me while I watch TV. 

A while into my affair with this cover image, a friend of mine told me it's a Shaun Tan cover! Amazed, I looked in the publishing details and lo an behold, there it is, copyright Shaun Tan. I basked in the confirmation of my own good taste. Later, when he released The Bird King, I would discover a preliminary sketch of this very cover image. 

In all honesty, the amount I think about this book, I cannot believe I haven't read it yet. Maybe I'll select it for my choice next time for Bookclub. 

But that's enough of that. I'm sure you can see by now how I feel about this cover. On to part 3!

Rather than a synopsis, I think I'll write a glimpse of the story that the cover tells me.

The time she had spent in that forest would surely be coming to an end soon. Scratched and bruised, she clung to her friend who had been more humane to her than the man she had fled. Tear-matted fur stuck to her face; she could feel the setting sun on her back, falling beyond the reach of the trees (for the last time?). The wrath of an ignorant man is a terrible thing; too ready to trample and claim. She shivered as the last of the light died on a barcoded horizon. Was this the price of love? 

Cover Rating:

5 Gold Stars

Find it on Goodreads

Other JudgeABook posts.

The Red Tree by Shaun Tan

 I almost don’t know where to start with this book.

It was given to me by a very close friend for my 19^th birthday as a second choice. (I had asked for another book that had looked interesting but it had been sold from under her nose). But it did two things for me:

First, it introduced me to the brilliance of Shaun Tan. My heart has never wavered since. When people ask me who my favourite picture book author is, while this is a difficult choice and to use the simile that most authors I’ve heard speaking about the books they’ve written: how do you choose your favourite child?... But after the struggle, Shaun Tan wins. He’s won from that first moment for another reason too.