Paper Towns Book Covers Novels & Stories

I crouched down and pulled it out halfway to get a better look. On the Matter of Souls: Death, the Afterlife, and Everything Between “Seems useful,” I muttered to myself and pulled it out. It was heavier than it looked. The cover was dark green, the papers gone yellow with age, and when I cracked it open, dust came flying up that made me cough and wave my hand in front of my face. The first page had a beautiful illustration of Death on it, although the ink had browned. I turned carefully to the table of contents and ran my finger down the list.

The book arrives in boxes on a Tuesday morning. "Always" is printed on the spine. My name is on the cover. The subtitle reads: "Thirty Years of Choosing Love." The photograph on the cover is of Dominic and me in the garden holding hands. It's simple and real and it's exactly what the book is. I open one of the boxes and I hold a copy in my hands. This is the book about what comes after. This is the documentation of sustained choosing. This is the thing I've been working toward for months. It's finally real. It's finally out in the world.

Five years later. The wind over the roofs of Ouroboros was no longer cold and biting. He wore the scent of flowering apple trees and wet earth through the wide, sun-filled streets. The city of scrap and silver breathed. I sat on my solid self-welded desk on the veranda our workshop. Before me there was a thick roller bound in dark brown leather. The pages consisted of recycled, handmade paper, the Betty and I in for weeks produced from the old pulp stocks of Bunker Gamma

I don’t try touching it again. Closing the box, I approach the shelves. I take out the book closest to me. Brushing off the dust, I realize it’s a strategy book, written in delicate penmanship. The paper is fragile, but the tome is bound with great care. The other side of the shelf seems to have hard-bound journals. It’s like an entire couple’s life secured in one small room. I hear a scraping sound, and I turn my head to see Robert picking up a stack of small portraits from one of the iron boxes in the corner.

Some were falling apart and otgers has strange covers with symbols I did not know. I walked slowly because everything felt heavy. Jax lit a small lantern on the table and the whole room glowed softly. “You said you saw runes like mine before. Are they in these books?” “Over there. I think the book is the second one on the left.”He nodded and pointed to one of the shelves. My hands shook a little while I pulled it out. The cover was dark brown and cracked. When I opened it the pages almost crumbled but they still held shape. And then I saw it. The same pattern across a belly. The same shape that curled on my own skin.

Both the pre-ruin and the post-ruin, I wasn't ready for any of it. My movements came to a halt when my gaze flitted across the street and landed on the poster of the new Fantasy series I had been waiting on; All the Beautiful Things. It was a trilogy. All the beautiful things are red, All the beautiful things are gold, and All the beautiful things are black. It was more like Romantasy actually. A wide grin crept up my face and I looked sideways, before slipping towards the bookstore even though I knew there was no car in sight. Volxe bookstore.

I sat down on the quilted blanket which covered her bed and looked about, taking in her neatly organised dressing table, the pile of books next to the small armchair which faced the window, and the thick, leather bound book next to her bed. I picked up the book and stroked the leather cover before I flipped it open and stared at the pressed flower on the page - a daffodil. Flipping through the book I noticed the pages filled with pressed flowers of every type, their names written in elaborate writing beside them. No matter what had happened over the years, a piece of April still remained in Harley and that made me smile. My phone rang and I set the book back, answering the call.

It is encased in old leather and there is a pencil attached to the side. The cover is blank, providing no insights to what might be inside, and my curiousity reaches new lengths again. After making sure I am not being watched, I flip the cover. What comes to view is...black. The entire page is covered in black, rough painting. There are lines here and there and...I flip the next page and the darkness continues. It is harder to breathe with each page I flip, because the darkness starts to look familiar, resembling something I have seen before. Somewhere I have been before.

In the background, a city skyline rises– tall buildings with lit windows, similar to the comic images of Gotham. Both cases feature a dark, comic-book style artwork and is made up of deep blacks, cool blues and muted grey. Together, the two cases create an image of Batman holding Catwoman and kissing intimately. These phone covers are more intimate that the phone covers they saw online and fit Zack’s style better. Zack’s green eyes widen dramatically at the sight of the connected covers. A slow, predatory grin spreads across his face as he immediately scoops both packages off the display case. “Holy shit, Anna– you have excellent taste,” he declares loudly enough to draw curious glances form

(Adelaide) Arkael smiled wide. "My favourite kind of story." He stepped beside her, carefully lifting one of the smaller volumes. "This one." He opened the cover. The moment the first page turned, Adelaide gasped. An entire paper forest rose from the book. Delicate trees unfolded themselves from the parchment, their branches twisting high above tiny cottages nestled amongst their roots. A paper fox no larger than her thumb peered out from beneath one tree while dozens of impossibly small birds seemed frozen in flight between the branches.