Losing Normal cover

After a lot of back & forth with my editor/publisher, I have a final cover for my book. Here were the initial suggestions:

The first one I had an emotional connection with, because I designed it. But I think Jose was right in saying it was too clipart-y. #s 2 & 3 didn’t do much for me, and #4, although I liked the particles flying off, the figure looked like a robot, or an Oscar statuette.

#5 was kind of whimsical, but too upbeat for the book, which is dark. Jose said the boy in #6 looked like he was crapping his pants, which, given the odds against my hero, might have been a logical response.

Then we came up with this, which Jose, his artist, Phyllis & I all loved:

Let me know what you think (Comments below–if you click on this post headline).

Now I’m waiting for proofs of the paperback for final typo corrections. I’m thinking another week or so before the book is available. As promised, subscribers to my newsletter will get a discount on the e-book, and I’ll see if I can set up a discount for the paperback.