This smartly crafted book trailer for Patrick Ness’s YA novel A Monster Calls actually makes me want to read the book. The After Effects animation was done by Eric Guémise based on artwork by Jim Kay.
I like seeing animated book trailers… but sometimes I wish I didn’t. For some books, fantasy items in particular, if animators materialize a known enigma, then the video chances a removal some of the mystery of the original story. Novels of all genres rely on the reader to imagine for him or herself certain characters (or villains, or creatures)… and so I wonder if these animated trailers in any way actively shape or guide the imagination of potential readers in circumstances where they probably shouldn’t. Not that this would be a new concern, for that matter… the same thing has been said about book covers for ages.
