Gemstone Reviews [Closed for Catch up]

Review #9-Alex Masker

Title: Alex Masker.

Author: angel_0v0_lee 

Genre: Teen Fiction

Rating: PG-13 (Mild swearing, action, maybe make-out?)

# of Chapters: 9 (it's ongoing but I haven't kept writing.)

# of Chapters I've read: 2 (Prologue + Chapter 1)

Summary/Blurb: 

#BadassReads

She could never reveal her identity if she wanted to survive.

Alexandria (a.k.a Alex Masker) has one mission by the deals and order from Mr. Jack. She has to protect Sarah, his only granddaughter whose the richest teenager out there, from being kidnapped by gangsters from around the world for ransom. This means she can't have any distractions.

Life is a slice of bad luck for Alex, but fate suddenly changes after attending a new school at the start of a new year.

Can she hold up the charade? Can she keep up the pace? What identity of hers will she choose?

Review:

Cover:

After reading the blurb, I would've expected the title to be something more attention-grabbing than just the main character's name. Even The Harry Potter series has subtitles that summarise what each book is about—before the eponymous character becomes a household name, it has to be discovered first. It also makes me wonder whether Alexandria's last name just happens to be a pun (because she's some kind of secret bodyguard) or if this was intentional.

I strongly dislike when this is done—unless there is irony to be found in it (like calling someone's who's unlucky, Lucky)—because it doesn't show a lot of creativity. I mean, her first name is Alexandria, which sounds regal, but then Masker just... does not sound right.

There are a lot of things that don't work for me with the cover either—

a) The image seems to be from a fashion show or a photoshoot of some sort. Like one of those artsy ones—it has nothing to do with secret agents or bodyguards, etc. This would be more suited to a story revolving around the 19th century. I also don't understand what the smoke is supposed to symbolise, and whether it's part of the original photo or if it was edited in. Is the girl's dress on fire?

b) Four different fonts have been used (two of which work better for Horror books) and all the text has been squished to one side of the cover, to block as little of the woman's face as possible. The subtitle and author's name are both unreadable, and the entire ensemble is blurry.

c) The sticker, in fact, doesn't even seem to belong on that cover. When I read badass reads, I'm expecting a badass cover, but the two seem completely disconnected.

Overall—You need a better book cover (from a different graphics designer preferably).

Blurb:

This blurb feels like you've taken bits and pieces from different genres and sewed them together to create the Frankenstein monster. The first line seems to be taken out of a Werewolf novel, the first paragraph from an Action book, whilst the second paragraph from a Teenfic. What's going on? Where is the angry mob ready to take down this beast—with torches and pitchforks—before it kills any other innocent children? If that wasn't enough, it ends with three rounds of rhetorical questions, one after the other, to ensure that the potential reader is 100% dead. Maybe you should chop off their legs so they can't haunt you from beyond the grave.