I'm participating in today's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's prompt is:
Top Ten Tuesday REWIND! (Pick from previous topics you want to do again or may have missed)
THIS is where only being a book blogger for 4 months comes in handy, people. There were so many great choices to pick from, but ultimately my fascination with book cover art won out and I chose the prompt: Top Ten Book Covers I Wish I Could Redesign. Here's my list!
10. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I know it's a classic and all, but I've never warmed to it. I much prefer Baz Luhrmann's version from the film posters. Much more unnecessarily extravagant and glamorous.
9. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. I don't dislike this cover, but I don't think it does a very good job of capturing the tone of the novel. It does hint at its epistolary nature, I guess, so there's that at least.
8. Lucid by Adrienne Stoltz and Ron Bass. Um, excuse me, I think you forgot your pants...?
7. Under the Never Sky series by Veronica Rossi. Probably the most boring, generic covers I've ever seen. Not remotely representative of the fantastic, exciting story inside.
6. Gilt by Katherine Longshore. Alternate book title: Here, Let Me Show You the Inside of My Nose.
Arc Cover:
5. The Girl of Fire and Thorns series by Rae Carson. The original cover isn't so bad, really, but this series features a curvy, dark-skinned protagonist, and I would have loved if the cover artists embraced that instead of hiding Elisa's face behind her godstone and cutting out her beautiful, curvacious body. At least they changed it from the ARC cover. (Because, GOOD GRIEF.)
4. The Shape of Desire by Sharon Shinn. I'm actually a huge Shinn fan, but this cover just makes me shake my head. What on earth is going on? Is she supposed to be demurely sitting on a log? Because she just looks uncomfortable. And the green smoke behind the title and author's name is just weird. And don't even get me started on those werewolf eyes.
3. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. I'm probably making enemies by including this one, as I know there are many people who love this cover image, but I can't help but think of Fifty Shades Darker when I look at this cover. The mask just gives off such similar vibes in both books that, even though they actually have very little in common, are now seared together forever in my brain. The fact that the two books were released within a couple of weeks of each other doesn't help things either.
2. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Now all I can think of is Samwise telling Frodo, "Stay gold, pony hobbit."
1. Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce. I'm copying this one from Writer of Wrong's list because I think she is spot on. This is a case of a cover I wish I could un-redesign. The lovely, graphic, haunting cover on the left is the original. Then they redesigned it to the horribly generic cover on the right. WHY.
Great pick! I love covers and I wish more books had gorgeous covers. I prefer the UK Under the Never Sky covers but they aren't that nice either... it doesn't portray how much wonderfulness is waiting to be discovered inside. Nice list :) My TTT.
ReplyDeleteHi! Thanks for your comment! I totally agree with you on the Unde the Never Sky covers. The UK covers are an improvement, for sure, but I still don't think either cover really captures the adventure and excitement and swoons contained in that fun dystopia. Oh well. Looking forward to reading your TTT!
ReplyDeleteYES, to all of these! The cover for Gilt is terrible, not only can you see up her nose but it looks like the title is either coming out of her mouth or stuck to her lipgloss! I hate when that happens. I also agree about Sisters Red, that cover was fantastic! Why the redesign?
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you. A few years ago there was this weird trend where the cover art just did a close up of lips. Remember that? While lips are nice and all, the image usually included an unpleasantly detailed close up picture of at least one nostril. Distracting and off-putting for sure. Gilt seemed to be the worst offender, but there are dozens more in that same category. Glad you agree about that cover! She Sisters Red, too! Why the redesign?? WHY???
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