Welcome back to Cover Snark!
Elyse: I read this as The Earl Train
Choo-choo!
Sarah: First I saw Carl Frain, then Carl Train. I had to look for the middle arm in that E because it looks like a ribbon off her dress.
Maybe the Earl’s name is Carl?
Train also has a few meanings which makes this rather interesting to ponder.
Elyse: Now I have logistical questions
Is the Earl running the train or is he receiving the locomotive as it were
Sarah: A query I had as well!
From Denise: At first, it might appear as cover awe, ethereal with the flowers and the pink, but then the skirt of the dress doesn’t make sense–it doesn’t flow the way it should. Her body is strangely contorted at the waist–I don’t think Barbie can even twist like that. But four fingers on each hand? Maybe one is hidden on her right, but her left clearly only has four.
Sarah: I was thinking this was AI but now I’m not so sure. She definitely only has 4 fingers. And I don’t know what’s going on between her knees and her hips but it isn’t good.
Claudia: The proportions are all wrong too. Like her upper body is too long/lower body too short
Sarah: I know this is the least confusing aspect of this image but I cannot get over the hair. SO MUCH HAIR.
Amanda: I think it’s just bad digital editing. But as someone with a lot of hair…my brother was married in Korea in a traditional ceremony and the hair stylist kept referring to my hair as “Bridgerton hair” when they were trying to style it.
Sarah: That’s adorable.
Amanda: This particular hairstyle on the cover, though, is giving Toddlers & Tiaras.
From Pam G: I give you. . . .
NapAlien Boneyparts and the Blast from the Ass
Bonus points if he’s conducting Holst’s The Planets.
Sarah: NapAlien Boneyparts. HA!
Why does it look like he is wearing pantyhose over his head? Also, his arms look like challah.
Amanda: Is Chux his Christian name?
Sarah: Ok first I have a question about his neck and that question is, “What?”
Second, how do you say that? Choo? Is this the plural of Churu, the kitty gogurt my cats are obsessed with?
Wilbur! Katie! Time for your Chux!
Also Chelsea Cameron is a bestselling sapphic romance author so SHENANIGANS upon that name.
Elyse: Chucks (not Chux) are the name of those disposable pads they put under patients in the hospital.
Susan: I thought they were shoes, so this changes some things I’ve read.
I was tempted to submit the Chux cover myself. However, my reasons were very localized and I did not think a wider audience would laugh as hard as I did. Chux Landscaping is a local business in my hometown. ALL of their trucks say Property of Chux on them.
I read the first as The Carl on the Train?
@Kris, I also read the first as Carl on the Train, and wondered, “Who is Carl?”
Chux “borrowed” Sophia Loren’s 1970s sunglasses, and she would like them back, please. Also, you know for sure that Chux listens to Andrew Tate’s (or as I call him Andrew Taint) BS :-/ Also also, there is a brand of the absorbent pads that uses the name Chux!
I read THE EARL ON THE TRAIN as CARL TRAIN. Her legs look scalded (by locomotive steam?). Perhaps the earl followed the advice of “Get on the Funk Train”? https://youtu.be/SNt3vVLW844?si=bSHCZSDtvCFpa_2B
ROSE’S dress may be a sentient alien.
The ALIEN HOPE looks like a horny, dehydrated lucha libre wrestler.
CHUX may be the name of a biker gang of woodchuck shifters. But I love the proposed pronunciation of “Choo”! One of the other books could be CHUX YOUR FOOD.
I feel the alien has a bird’s face on the back of his head à la Voldemort and Professor Quirrel. That beak looks fierce.
I hope the model on Earl Carl isn’t planning on wearing that dress on the train. Not exactly suitable for travel.
I too read that as Carl Train at first and wondered if that was the ML’s name? Or maybe she has a long line of infatuated earls/Carls following her around?
I really liked the Rose cover until I looked at it more closely. Legs definitely don’t work like that.
Whoever is that alien’s mate will need to replace their mattress daily. And wear industrial gloves to bed.
Re: Rose, maybe not AI, but yeah, at the very least bad editing—if you zoom in on a higher-res version, her left wrist looks distinctly blurry (like the hand maybe didn’t originally belong to her?), as does the bit of her dress where it seemingly blends into the top of her thigh. And then there are wall details, close to the couch, that clearly don’t line up.
In the author’s defense, she credits the cover creator in the front matter, and has a statement that indicates she’s very anti-AI across the creative board, so if it is generative AI, she was presumably bamboozled by whoever she hired and didn’t use it knowingly.
Anyway, am I the only one trying to read Chux’s tattoos, just to see how silly and/or pretentious they might be?
Lucynka, was checking out the tattoos! It looks like his chest is the Pater Noster (the Lord’s prayer in Latin).
Okay, so I read the subtitle of “Alien Hope” as “Fated Moles of the Sea Sand Warlords” and I instantly was thinking this was a planet of aliens who are weremoles or maybe can just shapeshift into moles whenever they want. Yes. The animal.
ALIEN HOPE: The hope is that he never sleeps on his back in a waterbed.
These are amazing, as usual.
Camaron means shrimp in Spanish. That’s my contribution to the highlights of Chux.
I was laughing at the thought that Chux’s tattoo was Loren Ipsum. Thank you, @C, for recognizing it as actual Latin.
@Zuzus: Omg, I think I would actually have more respect for our dear Chux if it was Lorem Ipsum.
@C: Another thank you for the Latin recognition! With that mystery solved, I now find myself wondering about the layout of the words on his chest—like, surely the spacing of everything could be a lot better, right?
My first impression of Rose is that she has a matching bedspread and nightie, and I want it!
Chux is the leading brand of paper towels in Australia and New Zealand. I guess we are all keen about a guy who can tidy up in the kitchen, but that name isn’t exactly sexy.