Some book covers whisper mystery. Some beckon you with atmosphere. And then there’s Labyrinth of Shadows, which kicks open the door, shoves a wolf with red LED eyes in your face, and screams “BUY ME, I’M SPOOKY!” Subtlety has clearly been left for dead in the haunted forest.
Let’s start with the glowing peepers. Our heroine and her trusty wolf both look like they’ve spent too long staring at a microwave popcorn bag. If your protagonist and her animal sidekick could double as malfunctioning smoke alarms, you might want to rethink your lighting choices. Instead of “sinister enchantment,” we’ve landed in “PetSmart Halloween display with the batteries still in.”
Then there’s the typography, which reads like a domestic squabble in font form. “LABYRINTH” is a chunky horror-movie knockoff that practically drips fake cobwebs, while “OF SHADOWS” is in a soulless sans serif that looks like it came free with Microsoft Office 2003. It’s like pairing Dracula with a Walmart receipt—both paper, but not exactly compatible.
And the background? Imagine marinara sauce spilled across your monitor and then smeared with a damp sponge. That’s the “shadowy forest” we’re working with. Whatever eldritch evil is supposed to lurk here is probably just lost under all the blur filters.
So what do we have in the end? A witch glaring at us through Photoshop haze, a wolf fresh out of a laser tag arena, and text choices that couldn’t agree on a mood if their lives depended on it.
Verdict: Less Labyrinth of Shadows and more Labyrinth of “My Photoshop Trial Expires Tomorrow.”