Saturday, February 27, 2010

Bookish things I hate: covers edition

This post is inspired by the always-lovely Alea of Pop Culture Junkie, who I love to sekritly snark on covers with.

I feel like talking about book covers, since it seems to be somewhat of a hot topic lately (I think, anyway. But if it's not we can pretend.)

And I thought that since I love to complain, I would just complain about covers rather than list my favorite things. I will save the happy for next week.

(Disclaimer: just because I hate certain cover-y things, that doesn't mean all covers like them are ugly. Most of them are pretty. It's more of the concept I don't like.

And really, I don't HATE most of these. Just dislike. I am dramatic.

And no, I don't mention whitewashing, etc., because that would require a million word rant and I thought that I would just mention cover composition stuff. But seriously, go read this post over at the Book Smugglers.)

- I don't like when covers change midseries. This is an obvious one, but it angers me. Like, my copies of Suite Scarlett and Scarlett Fever do not match.


These look terrible on my shelves together. Separately, they're great. But together? GRR.

- Black background with an object on it. It seems that the many paranormal book covers have to be black or near-black, and then an object has to be thrown on top of it for contrast or whatever. It annoys me. I know that paranormal covers should probably not be pink or yellow, but do they all have to be so dark with objects?

- I don't like "layered" covers, where there either a two separate pictures on top of each other or a few colors on top of each other and not mixed. And because this is a weird one, I have to pick on a cover and have an example:
s
The girls? Fine. The colors? Eeeeeeeerg. They are blended a little bit, but I still don't like how they are so separated and grr.

---Backs. I just think these covers are weird.

I'll leave this video here, which doesn't have THAT many YA books in it, but you'll get the point:




Posted by at 12:15 PM
Labels: ,

13 comments:

  1. It drives me nuts when the covers change midseries! My copies of The Mediator series don't match, and I always feel sorry for the last book; it sticks out like a sore thumb.
    ReplyDelete
  2. yup, it bugs me when they change mid series too.
    ReplyDelete
  3. I absolutely agree about the paranormal black-cover-with-object thing. I hate that. It's Twilight cloning.

    As for changing covers mid-series, that's the worst. I have at least four series with mismatched covers and it's just jarring.
    ReplyDelete
  4. LOLZ!

    The Robin Benway cover would work better is the color shift lined up with their faces, like between the yellow and blue. For some reason they didn't do it the same between the blue & red (the red overlaps the middle girl's face) and that's where the yuck is.
    ReplyDelete
  5. Great points!
    I agree with you - I hate when covers change midseries, especially from graphic picture to a photo, it just doesn't look good!

    Haha the video was awesome, so fun that everyone had a tattoo at the same place
    ReplyDelete
  6. I also hate when they switch up the covers mid series. I really don't get why they do it either.
    ReplyDelete
  7. The changing of covers midway through (not just for paperbacks) says to me "We are wishy washy and can't make up our minds and don't believe in our own choices." Hate it.
    ReplyDelete
  8. I don't like it when they switch mid series either, but Suite Scarlett and Scarlett Fever actually do have the similar covers.

    Paperback of Suite Scarlett: http://yafabulous.echthroi.org/images/giveaway-suitescarlett.jpg

    So yeah it is kinda wishy washy, but at least there's a version of it that looks the same.
    ReplyDelete
  9. Stevie-

    Yeah the Suite Scarlett pb and Scarlett fever hc match up so far. But for us anal folks that like our series to be all one format, it's frustrating.

    Plus the original concept was just cooler lol!
    ReplyDelete
  10. Alea -
    I don't blame you, but I have to disagree with that second statement, I like the new cover a lot better. But then again I don't like it when a picture of someone is on a cover, no matter how cool it looks.

    But there is a cover that matches the original design... I just don't know where you can find it. XD
    ReplyDelete
  11. Stevie- That's ok! I'm sort of the opposite! To each their own!

    And I have seen that cover and I love it which makes the whole thing even sadder that they designed it and then tossed it in the trash :(
    ReplyDelete
  12. Totally agree on the cover changes mid-series. Also see your point on the paranormal, black-on-contrast-color (although I still find the covers attractive, it's getting very cliched).

    But I actually love the April, May, June cover. So bright and whimsical looking.

    To each his own, I guess! (And thank goodness, because if all covers were the same, I'd be bored to tears.)
    ReplyDelete
  13. Love this post!

    I don't like the cover with all the different colors not blended either :)

    And the vid was hilarious :)
    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)