A cover of a book can often give us a sense of direction of its contents. It is no mystery that a book about a dragon has a dragon on the cover or for a Young Adult genre, a beautiful girl or a boy. Sometimes it expertly captures a moment from the pages like the Harry Potter series. But what if they don’t tell you anything? What are some of the most misleading book covers you have seen? Here are some of mine.
Twilight
Yes, this book was a phenomenon. But what is up with the covers? Did anyone know that a pair of pale hands holding a red apple meant it was going to tell a story of a vegetarian Vampire falling in love with an awkward human girl? It did not get better with book 2, 3, or 4. A “flower” for New Moon, “ribbon” for Eclipse, and “Chessboard” for Breaking Dawn? It’s as if no thought was put into this.
The Body Finder
Another example that is quite similar, yet a very fine read- “The Body Finder” series. I am not going to lie, I picked up this book at a book store simply because of its cover. It looked beautiful, mysterious and enchanting. Frankly, it looked more to be in the genre of Science Fiction. But of course, this book is about a girl who can sense the dead from a very young age. I’ve only read the first two and I will eventually read the rest but from where I left off, she was getting involved with the police because of her ability to find deceased people. It is refreshing for a young adult fiction and the romance is quite mature and real.
Author Ellen Hopkin’s books (Impulse and Crank series)
What can I say, these book covers feel like a work of art. Each one of them screams out loud to be noticed and heard! Personally, I haven’t read any of her books since all of them seem a little depressing and too real for my taste, but most of her books are on the New York Times bestsellers list and with high recommendation from most people who have read them- I should really give her a try. Powerful covers!
Author Amelie Nothomb
Undoubtedly one of my favorite French authors. She is witty, creative, a bit scary and so FRENCH! By the way, this is her, the author on the cover, which she does for most of her books! I have yet to find another author who does this and would love it if somebody could give me other examples of such a brilliant and brave person! Unfortunately, the body language she uses on the covers don’t say much about the title nor the contents of her books. Regardless, this makes me feel like she must be a very approachable author. =)
Various
There are so many books out there with “ambiguous” covers. But as I was going through my bookshelf I realized, having read most of these, I didn’t really care if the title matched the covers or not. Mostly you don’t think about it afterwards- but I do like covers that are powerful, colorful and outstanding! After a while of going through my list of books to find these examples, I felt a little deceived.
We’d love to hear your opinion about a book cover that you loved but didn’t necessarily match the story! Or anything that you think it is worth adding at the end of this list! =)
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