So, yesterday, I published a post entitled “Top 5 Favourite Books Covers” to a great response from my readers. If you have not noticed yet, I am very fond of lists and compiling them, and so I felt as though it was very relevant to post an alternate side to my prior post. Thus, here we have 5 of my least favourite book covers, and book cover tropes I dislike to go along with them. Hope you enjoy!
Shatter Me
by Tahereh Mafi
Possibly my most unpopular opinion on this blog to date, I truly despise the covers of all of the books in Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me series. Frankly, I think they look tacky, and they have absolutely nothing to do with the story, aside from the birds, maybe, but they’re not the focal point, anyway. Click here to read my review of the whole series.
Amazon’s answer to books in the public domain
Here are a few examples:
Whilst these books are available for free and I’m not righteous to complain about this, Amazon’s answer to book covers for texts in the public domain is so mundane, it actually pushes me away from the book, not towards it. Most of the books distributed in this format come in that sickly green colour, like Nothanger Abbey at the top, and – if you didn’t know already – I hate the colour green! (Maybe that’s what makes me despise these covers so much!) Overall – despite being traditional-looking – they are extremely boring and plain.
Photographed People on the Cover
Here are a few examples:
This is more of a personal pet peeve than anything. In essence, I dislike the way people look on book covers, and – in general – they way they’re positioned/posed.
The Film/TV Tie-In Edition
Here are a few examples:
As beautiful as Lily Collins is, I’d much rather see her on my DVD cover, not my book. This is a lot like my previous peeve in the sense that I basically dislike all book covers with photographed people on them. I don’t know why, really, but tell me down below if you feel the same!
Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares
by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
The book isn’t bad, but God, do I hate the cover! At first glance, I couldn’t tell which was the title, and which was the author sign, and the editing is so awful it pains me; the text doesn’t even look like it’s the sign, it just looks like an overlay! Not a fan.(Maybe it’s something to do with photographs, again…)
Thank you very much for reading – I hope you enjoyed learning about my least favourite book covers/book cover tropes. Tell me in the comments what you least favourite book cover is, or the thing you hate to see on book covers!
I don’t like the Shatter Me cover either. I find it creepy. In general when there is an eye on a cover/picture, I find it to be creepy.
I don’t mind the traditional looking covers. However, I do think there are more beautiful traditional covers to be used, than the ones Amazon chose.
I’m not a big fan of people on the covers either. These days I hate the covers with a women in a dress. It seems to be the present trend (for fantasy novels, at least). I also don’t like it when they put the actors on the cover. I usually don’t like to watch the film before I read a novel, because I want to imagine the characters. If I see the actors, instead of using my own imagination, the actors’ picture pops up in my head. 😦
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I’m exactly the same with everything you said – especially the actors thing. I much prefer to imagine them myself beforehand and without direct prompting from the cover
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I thought I was the inly one who disliked the covers on the Shatter Me series! I completely agree with you–the covers just look tacky and weird and don’t really relate to the books at all.
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Thank God! I thought I was the only one, too!
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If you have a film edition of a book, I think it’s important that you like the actors. If you don’t, you will hate the cover.
(It’s difficult to write With an auto – correction! It always wants to speak German 😀 )
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I definitely agree with this!
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So agree with the people on book covers thing! I much prefer to imagine how the characters to look myself thanks. That’s what movies are for anyway!
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I haven’t read Shatter Me yet but I absolutely love the cover woops hahahaha , and even though I don’t like seeing people or faces on book covers, I think Since You’ve Been Gone has a gorgeous cover. 😀 My least favorite book cover is probably Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt. Or On The Edge (by Allison van Diepen) – the font of the title is incredible but the models are just.. ehhhhh. 😀
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Yeah, a lot of people love the Shatter Me covers. I guess I’m alone on that one haha!
I just Googled those two covers, and I totally see why you dislike them! Thanks for commenting 🙂
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