Cover Tells All #3: Our Friend Billy!

Welcome to our third official post of Cover Tells All! This is a weekly meme that we created that we feel everyone is going to absolutely love. Here's how it works: We sit down with some of our friends and family and show them a few book covers that they've never seen before. The people we ask are not big readers and do not have any access to the internet or anything other than their own imaginations. Looking only at the cover of the book, they have to tell us (in the most detail possible) what they think that the plot is about. This is super fun because some people actually guess super correctly, and some answers are so wacky that they're just hard to believe. So on every Saturday we will be putting up a new #CoverTellsAll post with an interview with a whole new person! So the question remains - CAN you judge a book by it's cover?

*Note: The answers posted here are word-for-word what our friends and family guessed!

Today we have our friend Billy here for our third-ever #CoverTellsAll post!

Book #1: 

The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

Billy's Summary:

Okay, from the cover I think it's about a girl named Alice who has problems about her self image and she has to find her true self.

Actual Summary:

Rumor has it that Alice Franklin is a slut. It's written all over the bathroom stall at Healy High for everyone to see. And after star quarterback Brandon Fitzsimmons dies in a car accident, the rumors start to spiral out of control. In this remarkable debut novel, four Healy High students—the girl who has the infamous party, the car accident survivor, the former best friend, and the boy next door—tell all they know. But exactly what is the truth about Alice? In the end there's only one person to ask: Alice herself. 

Our Judgement:

Billy was sort of right, because Alice has to deal with a lot of self-image problems and people have to find out what the real Alice is like - although the book is centered more around everyone else's views of Alice rather than Alice herself.

Book #2:

The Lies About Truth by Courtney C. Stevens

Billy's Summary:

I think it's about four friends who run away from their life and try to be on their own, and they all have dirty secrets and they will all in time be surfaced, and the main characters will see the ugly truth.

Actual Summary:

Sadie Kingston, is a girl living in the aftermath. A year after surviving a car accident that killed her friend Trent and left her body and face scarred, she can’t move forward. The only person who seems to understand her is Trent’s brother, Max. As Sadie begins to fall for Max, she's unsure if she is truly healed enough to be with him — even if Max is able to look at her scars and not shy away. But when the truth about the accident and subsequent events comes to light, Sadie has to decide if she can embrace the future or if she'll always be trapped in the past.

Our Judgement:

Billy was really, really off with this one. XD But he definitely came up with a very creative answer based off of the cover alone!

Book #3:

Crewel by Gennifer Albin

Billy's Summary:

Okay, I definitely think it's an action book about a girl who has the power to save the world in a short amount of time.

Actual Summary:

Incapable. Awkward. Artless. That's what the other girls whisper behind her back. But sixteen-year-old Adelice Lewys has a secret: She wants to fail. Gifted with the ability to weave time with matter, she's exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen to work the looms is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. It also means the power to manipulate the very fabric of reality. But if controlling what people eat, where they live, and how many children they have is the price of having it all, Adelice isn't interested. Not that her feelings matter, because she slipped and used her hidden talent for a moment. Now she has one hour to eat her mom's overcooked pot roast. One hour to listen to her sister's academy gossip and laugh at her dad's jokes. One hour to pretend everything's okay. And one hour to escape. Because tonight, they'll come for her.

Our Judgement:

Billy actually nailed this one! The summary may not fully describe it, but Adelice does go on to realize that she has the power to save the world -- with not a lot of time to spare. And it's definitely an action book. So this one can be chalked up to a definite win!

Book #4:

Emancipated by M.G. Reyes

Billy's Summary:

I think it's about teenage or college kids that cause trouble in the neighborhood and have to deal with drama.

Actual Summary:

The good girl, the bad boy, the diva, the hustler, the rock star, and the nerd. Six teens legally liberated from parental control for six different reasons, all with one thing in common: something to hide.  Now they’re sharing a house in Venice Beach, acting like a family, and living their lies. No parents. No limits. No alibis. One witnessed a crime, another might be a murderer—and one’s been spying on them all. As they cling to a fantasy of freedom and slowly let down their guards, the past creeps up on them. And when one of them gets arrested, everyone’s carefully constructed facade comes crumbling down. 

Our Judgement:

Billy was actually kind of right with this one! They all did cause some drama...

Book #5:

Falling into Place by Amy Zhang

Billy's Summary:

I have to guess that it's about like someone's life who was bad and everything falls into place and it becomes better.

Actual Summary:

On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road. Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect? 

Our Judgement:

...Yeah...more like the complete opposite happens...

Overall, Billy was a pretty good guesser! We were very impressed! We're also super exciting to be doing this every week, so comment down below with who you think we should ask next! Our sisters? Parents? Teachers? What do you guys want to see? Let us know, and thank you so much for taking the time to check out our third Cover Tells All post! What did you think of it?