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Blog Tour: Last Girls by Demetra Brodsky “Story Behind The Cover” GUest Post

Last Girls

Author: Demetra Brodsky

Publisher: Tor Teen

Release Date: May 5th 2020

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

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No one knows how the world will end.

On a secret compound in the Washington wilderness, Honey Juniper and her sisters are training to hunt, homestead, and protect their own.

Prepare for every situation.

But when danger strikes from within, putting her sisters at risk, training becomes real life, and only one thing is certain:

Nowhere is safe.

“Story Behind The Cover”

Coming from a background in design and art direction, an eye catching cover is one of the most important parts of the publishing process for me. It can also be the most stressful. I’ve been fortunate with both my debut novel, DIVE SMACK, and my sophomore novel, LAST GIRLS, in that the team at Tor Teen was very receptive to my suggestions and feedback, a courtesy I don’t take for granted. For every book I write, I set up a Pinterest board for the cover, and LAST GIRLS was no exception. I sent an invitation to my editor to join that private board as a jumping off point for ideas and vision. Add to that an agent with a keen eye for what may still be trending in book cover design by the time a book launches (in this case illustrated covers) and you get the makings for a full team determined to give a book its best possible visual representation. The original title for LAST GIRLS was THE JUNIPER SISTERS, and the Pinterest board I created reflected that as a concept. Three sisters huddled together talking, similar to some scenes in the book was another starting point for the cover you see today. Tor Teen had three different illustrators in mind for the cover and solicited my opinion on them as part of the process. In the end, we all agreed that Dana Ledl (@MY0KARD), a brilliant Czech artist who is also responsible for the stunning covers for The Education of Margo Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera, Internment by Samira Ahmed, and Siobhan Vivian’s latest, We Are The Wildcats. Suffice it to say, LAST GIRLS was in excellent company. Still, it took a few rounds until we got to a place with the illustration and design that represented the funny, fierce, and fearless Juniper sisters. I love this cover and think it speaks volumes to what readers can expect between the pages. I hope you’ll agree after you’ve read their twisty, unconventional story.

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about the author

DEMETRA BRODSKY writes twisty thrillers about dark family secrets. She is an award-winning graphic designer & art director turned full-time. A native of Massachusetts with a B.F.A from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Demetra now lives in Southern California where she’s always exploring and researching, looking for clues to things that might feed into her next book. She is a first generation Greek-American and a member of International Thriller Writers. Dive Smack, her debut YA Thriller, is a 2018 Junior Library Guild Selection, an (ALAN) Pick (The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE), and a Publishers Marketplace Buzz Book for Young Adults for Spring/Summer 2018.

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