If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if you dumped an entire folder of fantasy clip art into a design program and said, “Yeah, that’s the cover,” then allow us to introduce Make a Wish — a cover so overloaded with mystical detritus, it looks like a magical scrapbook exploded mid-spell.
First up: the background — a swirling purple bokeh storm that feels less like “whimsy” and more like the desktop wallpaper of a middle school witchcraft phase. Into this void comes an all-star cast of visual chaos: dragons, gargoyles, castles, Celtic knots, a magnifying glass(?), a candle(??), and a teddy bear just vibing in the lower corner like it’s lost in the wrong book entirely.
Yes. A teddy bear. On a fantasy cover.
It’s either enchanted or tragically misfiled.
The title MAKE A WISH is rendered in a fantasy serif font that’s trying to be dramatic and enchanted, but comes off more as “school play poster with budget ambitions.” It’s fighting for space against the tagline:
“A Dragon, A Gargoyle, and a Faery”
Which reads like the setup to a punchline no one remembered to write.
The typography overall? A medieval mess. We’ve got all-caps serif, title case, small caps, italics, and that classic author name split with two different font weights like even the credits are unsure what genre this is.
And then there’s the layout.
Rather than designing a cohesive scene or even a strong focal point, the cover takes the “why not both?” approach — but for every single fantasy cliché available in silhouette. It’s less a book cover and more a “fantasy-themed PowerPoint slide titled: Clip Art We Had on Hand.”
The tone is confusing.
Is this middle grade? Cozy fantasy? Parody? Craft tutorial for faery-themed candle-making? With all these scattered elements and no visual cohesion, your guess is as good as ours.
Final thoughts?
This isn’t a whimsical fantasy novella.
It’s a Pinterest board of magical elements dumped into a blender with a purple filter and no supervision. There’s a story somewhere in here — we’re sure of it — but it’s buried under so many icons, textures, and fonts that it needs a search party to find it.
This isn’t Make a Wish.
It’s Make a Design Decision.
Preferably before that teddy bear gains sentience and takes over the kingdom.