Something I’ve noticed about YA book covers lately is that they seem to be a lot…bloodier. All of the titles below were or will be published within the same six-month period, from April through September of this year (with the exception of Red Queen, which was published in 2016 but just finished its series run in May), and all feature blood – sometimes a lot of it – on their covers. This isn’t a design choice I had really noticed before, and it strikes me that eight titles all within a year of each other constitutes a mini-trend. I’m not sure how I feel about it overall. I’m pretty squeamish when it comes to visual depictions of violence, so a few are a bit too much – but they certainly grab the eye.

Aftermath by Kelley Armstrong

“Three years after losing her brother Luka in a school shooting, Skye Gilchrist is moving home. But there’s no sympathy for Skye and her family because Luka wasn’t a victim; he was a shooter. Jesse Mandal knows all too well that the scars of the past don’t heal easily. The shooting cost Jesse his brother and his best friend–Skye. Ripped apart by tragedy, Jesse and Skye can’t resist reopening the mysteries of their past. But old wounds hide darker secrets. And the closer Skye and Jesse get to the truth of what happened that day, the closer they get to a new killer.” (Goodreads)

The first thing I actually thought of when I looked at this cover was the blood splatter from shooting a monster up close and personal in a first-person shooter video game like Doom. But while that’s generally done for comedic or gross-out effect, this cover is much more chilling. It’s really in your face and hard to look at. I always find it challenging to read stories about school shootings, and this cover drives home how serious the topic is. This looks to be an intense read.

 

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

“This is a world divided by blood – red or silver. The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change. That is until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.

Fearful of Mare’s potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime. But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance – Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart.” (Goodreads)

I’ve read this one and thought it was a lot of fun. The blood is important to show on the cover because it’s a major plot point: Mare has red blood and is masquerading as if she’s a Silver. The blood dripping from the crown is metaphorical, too: playing a game of thrones is a bloody business. It’s striking and I think it’s pretty effective.

 

Devils Unto Dust by Emma Berquist

“Ten years ago, a horrifying disease began spreading across the West Texas desert. Infected people—shakes—attacked the living and created havoc and destruction. No one has ever survived the infection. Daisy Wilcox, known as Willie, has been protecting her siblings within the relatively safe walls of Glory, Texas. When Willie’s good-for-nothing father steals a fortune from one of the most dangerous shake-hunters in town, she finds herself on the hook for his debt. With two hunters, including the gruff and handsome Ben, to accompany her, she sets out across the desert in search of her father. But the desert is not kind to travelers, and not everyone will pass through alive.” (Goodreads)

This is another one I’ve read and enjoyed. The blood blowing away like dust is a great design choice and gives a good feel for the story, which is a fairly bloody zombie Western.

 

Lost by P. C. Cast

“Things have settled down at the Tulsa House of Night since Zoey and the gang closed the tear between worlds and sent Other Kevin back to the Other World. Neferet hasn’t stirred. Damien and Jack are falling in love all over again. Stevie Rae and Rephaim are back in Tulsa where they belong. The Depot Restaurant is being rebuilt with the enthusiastic involvement of local humans. A new school year has begun, and Zoey’s exchange student program with public schools is really taking off. All is well. But if all is well, why is Zoey increasingly withdrawn and moody?

Sadly, Stark is sure he knows the answer to that question. Zoey can’t stop thinking about following her brother to the Other World, and Stark isn’t deluding himself about why. Of course she wants to be sure her brother is okay. Of course she wants to help defeat Neferet in yet another world and be sure the balance between Light and Darkness is restored. But the real reason Z is so drawn to that other House of Night world is because Heath Luck, her childhood sweetheart, is alive in that world-alive and mourning her death.In Lost, we follow Zoey, Stevie Rae, and Rephaim to an alternative version of the House of Night, where dangers take the form of friends and allies are found in the strangest places. Will Z return to our world and leave Heath to his? And if she does, will Stark forgive her for leaving?” (Goodreads)

I think this is the first YA cover I’ve seen where a human is actually cut and bleeding on the cover, at least to this degree. This guy looks like he should maybe make a visit to the hospital, not stand on a frozen lake bleeding handsomely. I also think this cover looks much more like an adult paranormal romance than a teen book – what teen boy actually looks like that?

 

Fatal Throne by Candace Fleming, M.T. Anderson, Jennifer Donnelly, Stephanie Hemphill, Deborah Hopkinson, Linda Sue Park, and Lisa Ann Sandell

“He was King Henry VIII, a charismatic and extravagant ruler obsessed with both his power as king and with siring a male heir. They were his queens–six ill-fated women, each bound for divorce, or beheading, or death. Watch spellbound as each of Henry’s wives attempts to survive their unpredictable king and his power-hungry court. See the sword flash as fiery Anne Boleyn is beheaded for adultery. Follow Jane Seymour as she rises from bullied court maiden to beloved queen, only to die after giving birth. Feel Catherine Howard’s terror as old lovers resurface and whisper vicious rumors to Henry’s influential advisors. Experience the heartache of mothers as they lose son after son, heir after heir. Told in stirring first-person accounts, Fatal Throne is at once provocative and heartbreaking, an epic tale that is also an intimate look at the royalty of the most perilous times in English history.” (Goodreads)

I like the subtle teardrop of blood in this cover, particularly on the artistic rendering of one of the queens in the style of the day.

 

The Unfortunates by Kim Liggett

“When seventeen-year-old senator’s son Grant Tavish is involved in a fatal accident, all he wants to do is face the consequences of what he’s done, but the consequences never come, even if headlines of ‘affluenza’ do. The truth soon becomes clear: Due to his father’s connections, not only will Grant not be held accountable for his actions, he’s going to get away with murder. When a long Tavish tradition approaches, a cave excursion on the Appalachian trail, Grant seizes the opportunity to take justice into his own hands by staging an accident and never coming back. But before he has a chance to enact his plans, the cave system collapses, trapping him miles beneath the surface with four other teens from much less fortunate circumstances. As they struggle to survive, they share their innermost secrets and fears, and just when it seems they might be on track to finding a way out, they realize there’s something else down there. And it’s hunting them.” (Goodreads)

This cover is certainly attention-grabbing, but I get more “corporate thriller with a high body count” than “rich boy trapped in a cave” from it. There’s a mismatch between design and description, though if it grabs readers, maybe that doesn’t matter so much.

 

Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer

“Nita doesn’t murder supernatural beings and sell their body parts on the internet—her mother does that. Nita just dissects the bodies after they’ve been “acquired.” But when her mom brings home a live specimen, Nita decides she wants out — dissecting living people is a step too far. But when she tries to save her mother’s victim, she ends up sold on the black market in his place — because Nita herself is a supernatural being. Now Nita is on the other side of the bars, and there is no line she won’t cross to escape and make sure no one can ever capture her again. Nita did a good deed, and it cost her everything. Now she’s going to do a lot of bad deeds to get it all back.” (Goodreads)

This book sounds super intriguing and it has a cover to match, though it doesn’t scream supernatural to me.

 

The Sacrifice Box by Martin Stewart

“A horror story about friendship, growing up, and finding a place in the world: Gremlins meets The Breakfast Club by way of Stephen King and Stranger Things. 1982, the summer before seventh grade. Five kids with nothing in common–Sep, Arkle, Hadley, Lamb, and Mack–become instant friends. On the last day of summer, they find a stone box buried in the forest, and each places an object inside to seal their friendship. And they make rules:

Never come to the box alone.
Never open it after dark.
Never take back your sacrifice.

1986, the summer before eleventh grade. The five haven’t spoken since that day in 1982. Sep has gone through the past four years alone and plans to escape to boarding school. But strange things are happening–mirrors are breaking unexpectedly, electricity is flickering in and out, and people are coming down with inexplicable physical ailments. Someone has broken the rules. And it seems the five committed more than objects to the box’s ancient stone–they gave it their deepest secrets and darkest fears, and now these are being returned in a flood of shambling corpses, murderous toys, and undead pets. The gang must reunite in an attempt to discover the secrets of the sacrifice box–and Sep might be the only one who can stem its tide of evil before it’s too late.” (Goodreads)

This cover has a very retro feel; the designers are definitely trying to invoke Stranger Things. The version published by Penguin in January (presumably the UK version, it’s not available in the US) has a much more modern cover (sans any bloody footprints).

 

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

“There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook. First there was the car accident—two girls gone after hitting a tree on a rainy night. Not long after, the murders happened. Those two girls were killed by the man next door. The police shot him, so no one will ever know why he did it. Monica’s sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheer squad. No one wanted to be reminded of the girls they lost.

That was five years ago. Now the faculty and students at Sunnybrook High want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But for Monica, it’s not that easy. She just wants to forget. Only, Monica’s world is starting to unravel. There are the letters in her stepdad’s desk, an unearthed, years-old cell phone, a strange new friend at school. . . Whatever happened five years ago isn’t over. Some people in town know more than they’re saying. And somehow Monica is at the center of it all. There are no more cheerleaders in Sunnybrook, but that doesn’t mean anyone else is safe.” (Goodreads)

The blood on this cover is subtle, not overwhelming and in your face like some of the others in this post. I think it works well – just a touch of sinister for this murder mystery.