The promise on the back cover

Text: an original contemporary book-review-style practice extract.

The back cover promised a shocking secret. I began the novel watching every character for signs of concealment. A neighbour offered soup; I wondered what she wanted. A brother missed a train; I assumed he was arranging an alibi. The publisher had given me a question before the first page had given me a person.

There was a secret, but its disclosure occupied less space than the changing friendship around it. By concentrating on clues, I had hurried through conversations in which those changes occurred. On a second reading, the soup was still soup, though the neighbour’s kindness was less comfortable than I had first noticed. The missed train mattered chiefly because of the apology that followed it. I began reading consequences instead of searching for a trapdoor.

A cover must offer a reason to open a book; I do not expect it to describe every possible reading. This one did not lie. It selected a true feature and made that feature sound like the governing rule. The novel became larger when I stopped requiring every scene to keep the cover’s promise.

In this extract, the writer tries to persuade readers that a publisher’s description can shape their reading too narrowly.

Evaluate how successfully this is achieved. Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.