I’ve highlighted some 2013 YA cover trends already in this post and in this post, but I’m not quite done yet. I’ve got a few more worth sharing. Again, this is only a selection of the covers that will be out next year, since not everything has been revealed yet.

If you can think of other books fitting these categories, chime in. This is a bit of a longer post because I wanted to cover all of the remaining categories I had left. As such, I’ve decided to forgo pasting the WorldCat descriptions. All of the covers here are clear enough you can catch the title and author and look them up easily. If not, let me know in the comments.

Back Side


Earlier this year I posted about covers and how they portray the female body, especially when it comes to denying the female agency. In 2013, we’re still going to see a lot of the backsides of teen girls, but we’re going to have a few guys joining the ranks, too. I still don’t think it makes some of the portrayals better, but at least there’s more out there to diversify the back sides. Also, there are more couples but the girls still mostly have a lot of long hair.

Objects, Not People


Maybe one of the trends I’m really liking is the one where there are fewer people on covers and more things representing the story. These covers stand out to me as a reader and as a browser because they’re different. Kim talked a little bit about this being a favorite treatment in fantasy novel covers, but I’m noticing it through all kinds of genres now. I know I am missing many covers in this category, so please, lay them on me in the comments if you can think of more. Note I don’t want a person or a shadow of a person at all.

Neon & Bright Lights


The brights aren’t just for your local Target clothing area (seriously — has anyone else noticed that day-glow explosion?). They’re making an appearance on book covers, too.

Pops of Red


I mentioned in the first post in this series I thought red titles might be as — if not more — popular than the purple ones I noted. But I decided not to cover those because I think the pop of red in the cover might be more interesting. So these covers feature just enough red to be noticeable.

A YA Rainbow


Since we’re on the color trend theme, I couldn’t resist. Books are getting COLOR cover treatments in 2013. I’m digging this trend of bold colors in the background. For a very visual person like me, this helps a cover be memorable.

 

Personal Favorites

Some of these covers made other trend categories and some have not. But these covers are a small sample of some of my favorites coming out in 2013. They all evoke something for me — either by color, treatment, or the whole package as one. Some feature people, some feature images, and some feature a little of both. But what they all do, I think, is capture mood and tone perfectly well: I know what I’ll be in for when I read one of these books (and in the cases where I have read the book, they’ve fit well). These aren’t in any order. Of course this is also an incomplete list. I’ve seen some other covers I really like for 2013, but some are ones I can’t share and some are ones I’ll share next year in other cover posts.

Last week, I showcased some of the cover trends for 2013 YA books, and today, I bring you part two of the three part series (it might be four part — I haven’t quite figured that out yet). Again, these are things I’ve noticed after looking through tons of lists, cover reveals, and publisher catalogs, and they only represent covers already available to see for the coming year. There will be repeat covers in the various categories. 

All descriptions are via WorldCat or Goodreads. If you can think of other 2013 YA covers fitting any of these categories, leave a comment.  

Cities in the Distance


How many covers can either weave in (or in some cases, cram in) a cityscape into the background of the image? Sometimes you can figure out what the city is based on the landmarks and buildings you can recognize, and sometimes, the city is generic and unrecognizable.

This is a metaphoric cover trend, of course, when there is a person standing in the foreground of the city. Especially in YA. You know. One teen, taking on the big world. 

Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff: Sixteen-year-old Boy Nobody, an assassin controlled by a shadowy government organization, The Program, considers sabotaging his latest mission because his target reminds him of the normal life he craves.

Breaking Point by Kristen Simmons: After escaping prison, Ember Miller and Chase Jennings are taken in by the Resistance but when Ember tops the government’s most-wanted list, Chase urges her to run and Ember must decide whether to hide again or fight back.

Catherine by April Lindner: In this retelling of “Wuthering Heights,” Catherine explains how she fell in love with a brooding musician and left her family to return to him, and her daughter describes searching for her mother many years later.

A Conspiracy of Alchemists by Liesel Schwarz: It is 1903, and the world is divided between light and shadow. On the side of light is a wondrous science that has transformed everyday life by harnessing magical energies to ingenious new technologies. But each advance of science has come at the expense of shadow—the traditional realm of the supernatural. Now two ancient powers are preparing to strike back. Blood-sucking immortal Nightwalkers and their spellcasting Alchemist allies have a plan to cover the whole world in shadow. All they require is the sacrifice of a certain young woman whose past conceals a dangerous secret. But when they come after Elle, they get more than they bargained for. This enterprising young woman, the daughter of a scientific genius, has reserves of bravery and determination that even she scarcely suspects. Now she is about to meet her match in more ways than one: a handsome yet infuriating Warlock named Hugh Marsh, whose agenda is as suspect as his charms are annoyingly irresistible.

Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier: I can’t even find the description in English yet. But this is the US cover for the third book in the trilogy. 

Fragments by Dan Wells: With the Help of Samm and Heron, Kira sets out on a desperate search for clues as to who she is, while Marcus and the remaining human population gear up for war with the Paritals. 

Frozen by Melissa De La Cruz and Michael Johnston: More than a century after a catastrophic disaster wiped out most of humanity and covered much of the earth with ice, fifteen-year-old Cass yields to the voice in her head urging her to embark on a dangerous journey across a poisoned sea to the mythical land, Blue.

Gates of Paradise by Melissa De La Cruz: In the final installment of the Blue Bloods series, the young vampires of Manhattan must make terrible sacrifices in order to triumph over Lucifer and the Silver Bloods. Worth noting that all of the Blue Bloods books have taken this look to them.

Legacy of the Clockwork Key by Kristin Bailey: A orphaned sixteen-year-old servant in Victorian England finds love while unraveling the secrets of a mysterious society of inventors and their most dangerous creation. There’s a different cover in the WorldCat description, so this may not be the final. 

Orleans by Sherri L. Smith: Set in a futuristic, hostile Orleans landscape, Fen de la Guerre must deliver her tribe leader’s baby over the Wall into the Outer States before her blood becomes tainted with Delta Fever.

Phoenix by Elizabeth Richards: Weeks after his crucifixion and rebirth as Phoenix, Ash Fisher believes his troubles are far behind him. He and Natalie are engaged and life seems good. But his happiness is short-lived when he receives a threatening visit from Purian Rose, who gives Ash an ultimatum: vote in favor of Rose’s Law permanently relegating Darklings to the wrong side of the wall or Natalie will be killed. The decision seems obvious to Ash; he must save Natalie. But when Ash learns about The Tenth, a new and deadly concentration camp where the Darklings would be sent, the choice doesn’t seem so simple. Unable to ignore his conscience, Ash votes against Rose’s Law, signing Natalie’s death warrant and putting a troubled nation back into the throes of bloody battle.

Slated by Teri Terry: Kyla’s memory has been erased, her personality wiped blank, her memories lost for ever. She’s been Slated. The government claims she was a terrorist, and that they are giving her a second chance – as long as she plays by their rules. But echoes of the past whisper in Kyla’s mind. Someone is lying to her, and nothing is as it seems. Who can she trust in her search for the truth?

Solstice by PJ Hoover: Piper’s world is dying. Each day brings hotter temperatures and heat bubbles that threaten to destroy the earth. Amid this global heating crisis, Piper lives under the oppressive rule of her mother, who suffocates her even more than the weather does. Everything changes on her eighteenth birthday, when her mother is called away on a mysterious errand and Piper seizes her first opportunity for freedom. Piper discovers a universe she never knew existed—a sphere of gods and monsters—and realizes that her world is not the only one in crisis. While gods battle for control of the Underworld, Piper’s life spirals out of control as she struggles to find the answer to the secret that has been kept from her since birth. This book was originally published by Hoover, but Tor is publishing it in 2013. This cover AND the original cover have the city thing going on.

The Ward by Jordana Frankel: Sixteen-year-old Ren is a daredevil mobile racer who will risk everything to survive in the Ward, what remains of a water-logged Manhattan. To save her sister, who is suffering from a deadly illness thought to be caused by years of pollution, Ren accepts a secret mission from the government: to search for a freshwater source in the Ward, with the hope of it leading to a cure. However, she never expects that her search will lead to dangerous encounters with a passionate young scientist; a web of deceit and lies; and an earth-shattering mystery that’s lurking deep beneath the water’s rippling surface. 

Is it me or is there also something about people being inside the letters of the title, too? See the Frankel cover, as well as a number of the covers where the font takes up much of the real estate in the first post of 2013 cover trends.

The Strange and Familiar Place by Rachel Carter: Lydia Bentley will do anything to fix the mistakes she made in the past, like losing her grandfather in time–and the only way she knows how to begin is by time traveling to 1980s New York with Wes, posed as a Montauk Project recruit. 

Tiger by William Richter: Wally lives alone in her Brooklyn loft. She’d be a regular teenager, except that she’s the daughter of a Russian assassin. Crime is in Wally’s blood, but she uses her legacy for good: she solves missing persons cases for the Ursula Society, an under-the-radar organization that uses oft-illegal tactics to find people the police have given up on. The person Wally most wants to find? Tiger, her own fugitive brother. But the closer Wally gets to finding Tiger, the more dangerous her search becomes. And Klesko, Wally and Tiger’s sadistic father, is again at large. With two highly-skilled con men against them, Wally and Tiger band together to destroy a conspiracy in which they—and their hearts—are mere pawns.

What We Become by Jesse Karp: Two years after destroying a corporate empire intent on controlling human thinking through technology, teenagers Mal and Laura engage in another battle to save humanity when a “coporate bogeyman” known only as the Old Man tries to gain absolute power.

 

Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith: Hilary T. Smith’s debut novel captures the messy glory of being alive, as seventeen-year-old Kiri Byrd discovers love, loss, chaos, and murder woven into a summer of music, madness, piercing heartbreak, and intoxicating joy.

Replica by Jenna Black: Sixteen-year-old Nadia Lake comes from a high-class Executive family in the Corporate States. Her marriage has been arranged with the most powerful family in her state, which means she lives a life of privilege but also of public scrutiny, followed everywhere by photographers, every detail of her private life tabloid fodder. But her future is assured, as long as she can maintain her flawless public image — no easy feat when your betrothed is a notorious playboy. Nathan Hayes is the heir of Paxco — controller of the former state of New York, and creator of human replication technology, science that every state and every country in the world would kill to have. Though Nadia and Nate aren’t in love, they’ve grown up close, and they (and the world) are happy enough with their match. Until Nate turns up dead, and as far as everyone knows, Nadia was the last person to see him alive. When the new Nate wakes up in the replication tanks, he knows he must have died, but with a memory that only reaches to his last memory backup, he doesn’t know what killed him. Together, Nadia and Nate must discover what really happened without revealing the secrets that those who run their world would kill to protect.

Baby Blues


About eight percent of the world’s population has blue eyes. But, we note eye color pretty frequently in YA fiction (seriously — I don’t really notice people’s eye color unless it’s completely noteworthy and most of the time, that’s not because they’re blue). So it only goes that a lot of book covers feature people with blue eyes.

A Touch Menacing by Leah Clifford: I couldn’t pull a description from WorldCat nor Goodreads. 

Asunder by Jodi Meadows: After the devastation of Templedark, eighteen-year-old Ana must stand up for the additional newsouls and figure out the mystery of their–and her–existence.

Born of Illusion by Teri Brown: Set in 1920s New York City, this is the story of budding magician Anna Van Housen, who has spent her whole life playing sidekick to her faux-medium mother–and trying to hide the fact the she actually possesses the very abilities her mother fakes. 

Finn Finnegan by Darby Karchut:  Finn (not bleedin’ Finnegan) MacCullen is eager to begin his apprenticeship. He soon discovers the ups and downs of hunting monsters in a suburban neighborhood under the demanding tutelage of the Knight, Gideon Lir. Both master and apprentice are descendents of the Tuatha De Danaan, a magical race of warriors from Ireland. Scattered long ago to the four corners of the world, the De Danaan wage a two thousand year old clandestine battle with their ancient enemy, the Amandán, a breed of goblin-like creatures. Now with the beasts concentrating their attacks on Finn, he and his master must race to locate the lost Spear of the Tuatha De Danaan, the only weapon that can destroy the Amandán, all the while hiding his true identity from his new friends, Rafe and Savannah, twins whose South African roots may hold a key to Finn’s survival. Armed with a bronze dagger, some ancient Celtic magic, and a hair-trigger temper, Finn is about to show his enemies the true meaning of “fighting Irish.”

The Goddess Inheritance by Aimee Carter: During nine months of captivity, Kate Winters has survived a jealous goddess, a vengeful Titan and a pregnancy she never asked for. Now the Queen of the Gods wants her unborn child, and Kate can’t stop her–until Cronus offers a deal. In exchange for her loyalty and devotion, the King of the Titans will spare humanity and let Kate keep her child. Yet even if Kate agrees, he’ll destroy Henry, her mother and the rest of the council. And if she refuses, Cronus will tear the world apart until every last god and mortal is dead. With the fate of everyone she loves resting on her shoulders, Kate must do the impossible: find a way to defeat the most powerful being in existence, even if it costs her everything. Even if it costs her eternity.

Imposter by Susanne Winnacker: Tessa is a Variant, able to absorb the DNA of anyone she touches and mimic their appearance. Shunned by her family, she’s spent the last two years training with the Forces with Extraordinary Abilities, a secret branch of the FBI. When a serial killer rocks a small town in Oregon, Tessa is given a mission: she must impersonate Madison, a local teen, to find the killer before he strikes again. Tessa hates everything about being an impostor—the stress, the danger, the deceit—but loves playing the role of a normal girl. As Madison, she finds friends, romance, and the kind of loving family she’d do anything to keep. Amid action, suspense, and a ticking clock, this super-human comes to a very human conclusion: even a girl who can look like anyone struggles the most with being herself.

Insomnia by JR Johansson: Instead of sleeping, Parker Chipp enters the dream of the last person he’s had eye contact with. He spends his nights crushed by other people’s fear and pain, by their disturbing secrets—and Parker can never have dreams of his own. The severe exhaustion is crippling him. If nothing changes, Parker could soon be facing psychosis and even death. Then he meets Mia. Her dreams, calm and beautifully uncomplicated, allow him blissful rest that is utterly addictive. Parker starts going to bizarre lengths to catch Mia’s eye every day. Everyone at school thinks he’s gone over the edge, even his best friend. And when Mia is threatened by a true stalker, everyone thinks it’s Parker. Suffering blackouts, Parker begins to wonder if he is turning into someone dangerous. What if the monster stalking Mia is him after all?

Nobody Jennifer Lynn Barnes: Fifteen-year-old Claire Ryan has always felt invisible, always lived beyond people’s notice, which causes trouble when she instantly connects with seventeen-year-old Nix, who really can become invisible and has been sent to assassinate her.

Parallel by Lauren Miller: A collision of parallel universes leaves 18-year-old Abby Barnes living in a new version of her life every day, and she must race to control her destiny without losing the future she planned and the boy she loves. 

Seven Minutes in Heaven by Sara Shepard: After Sutton Mercer died, her long-lost twin, Emma, stepped into her life to solve her murder. Emma has unearthed many dark secrets while searching for her sister’s killer, but nothing has prepared her for the shocking truth.

Spellbinding by Maya Gold: When sixteen-year-old Abby traces her deceased mother’s family to the Salem Witch Trials, the nightmares she has been having begin to make sense, but soon she is caught up in a love triangle and an age-old quest for revenge.

Splintered by A. G. Howard: A descendant of the inspiration for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, sixteen-year-old Alyssa Gardner fears she is mentally ill like her mother until she finds that Wonderland is real and, if she passes a series of tests to fix Alice’s mistakes, she may save her family from their curse.

Starstruck by Rachel Shukert: Set in Old Hollywood, follows the lives of three teen girls as they live, love, and claw their way to the top in a world where being a star is all that matters

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi: Juliette has escaped to Omega Point, the headquarters of the rebel resistance and a safe haven for people with abilities like hers. She is finally free from The Reestablishment and their plans to use her as a weapon, but Warner, her former captor, won’t let her go without a fight. 

Mind Games by Kiersten White: Seventeen-year-old Fia and her sister, Annie, are trapped in a school that uses young female psychics and mind readers as tools for corporate espionage–and if Fia doesn’t play by the rules of their deadly game, Annie will be killed.

Premeditated by Josin McQuein: A contemporary thriller about the lengths one girl will go in order to get revenge on the boy who ruined her cousin’s life. 

Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter: When feisty teenaged thief Kat’s on-again off-again boyfriend, Hale, suddenly inherits his family’s billion dollar company, Kat gets a tip-off that the will is a fake.

Colored Hair Streaks


This is a tiny trend but maybe one of my favorites. I love that these models all have a streak of color in their hair, and I think that has mega appeal to teen readers who will see themselves in these average looking girls. I note this small trend because the only other books I can think of with people on the cover that have colorful hair are the Lisa and Laura Roecker Liar Society books. 

A Touch Menacing by Leah Clifford: See above, under blue eyes.

Over You by Amy Reed: A novel about two girls on the run from their problems, their pasts, and themselves. Max and Sadie are escaping to Nebraska, but they’ll soon learn they can’t escape the truth.

You Look Different in Real Life by Jennifer Castle: The premise was simple: five kids, just living their lives. There’d be a new movie about them every five years, starting in kindergarten. But no one could have predicted what the cameras would capture. And no one could have predicted that Justine would be the star. Now sixteen, Justine doesn’t feel like a star anymore. In fact, when she hears the crew has gotten the green light to film “Five at Sixteen,” all she feels is dread. The kids who shared the same table in kindergarten have become teenagers who hardly know one another. And Justine, who was so funny and edgy in the first two movies, just feels like a disappointment. But these teens have a bond that goes deeper than what’s on film. They’ve all shared the painful details of their lives with countless viewers. They all know how it feels to have fans as well as friends. So when this latest movie gives them the chance to reunite, Justine and her costars are going to take it. Because sometimes, the only way to see yourself is through someone else’s eyes.

Shadows and Silhouettes


They can take up the whole cover or they can be a tiny figment in the distance (often seen running), but there are a ton of shadows and silhouettes of people on covers. I feel like this trend started this year, but it’s full swing next year. I know I am probably missing a number of covers fitting this trend, so please add others you can think of to the comments. I love some of these so much — I particularly like the treatment on the Suma, the Grant, and the Block covers. 

Where I think there’s a chance this treatment could go too sexy (and I think it goes a little bit down the sexy road on Escape Theory), I’m pleased there aren’t weak shadows or silhouettes or girls with no agency in them. 

17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma: Seventeen-year-old Lauren has visions of girls her own age who are gone without a trace, but while she tries to understand why they are speaking to her and whether she is next, Lauren has a brush with death and a shocking truth emerges, changing everything.

Bird by Crystal Chan: A girl, who was born on the day her brother Bird died, has grown up in a house of silence and secrets; when she meets John, a mysterious new boy in her rural Iowan town, and those secrets start to come out. 

Dualed by Elise Chapman: West Grayer lives in a world where every person has a twin, or Alt. Only one can survive to adulthood, and West has just received her notice to kill her Alt. 

Escape Theory by Margaux Froley: Bound by her oath of confidentiality and tortured by unrequited love, sixteen-year-old Devon, a peer counselor at a prestigious California boarding school, finds herself on a solitary mission to get to the bottom of a popular student’s apparent suicide.

Exile by Rebecca Lim: Mercy is an angel in exile and is doomed to return repeatedly to Earth, taking on a new human form each time she does. Now she “wakes” as unhappy teen Lela, a girl caring for her dying mother but never herself. As Mercy’s shattered memory begins to return, she remembers Ryan, the boy she fell in love with in another life, and Luc, the angel haunting her dreams. Will Mercy risk Lela’s life to be reunited with her heart’s true desire? This is the sequel to Mercy.

False Sight by Dan Krokos: All Miranda wants is a normal life. She’s determined to move past the horrible truth of her origin as a clone so she can enjoy time with her boyfriend, Peter, and the rest of her friends at school. But Miranda quickly learns that there’s no such thing as normal – not for a girl who was raised to be a weapon. When one of her teammates turns rogue, it begins a war that puts the world in jeopardy. Now Miranda must follow her instincts – not her heart – in order to save everything she’s fought so hard to keep. with the image of a terrible future seared into her mind, what will she have to sacrifice to protect the people she loves? The sequel to False Memory.

Frozen by Melissa De La Cruz and Michael Johnston: See description under “Cities in the Distance.”

Half Lives by Sara Grant: Follows the lives of two unlikely teenaged heroes, mysteriously linked and living hundreds of years apart, as both struggle to survive and protect future generations from the terrible fate that awaits any who dare to climb the mountain.

The Last Academy by Anne Applegate: Fourteen-year-old Camden Fisher arrives at a boarding school after a falling-out with her best friend, but Lethe Academy is a strange place, where students disappear suddenly, and as she searches for answers Camden begins to fear what she will find.

Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block: Seventeen-year-old Penelope (Pen) has lost everything—her home, her parents, and her ten-year-old brother. Like a female Odysseus in search of home, she navigates a dark world full of strange creatures, gathers companions and loses them, finds love and loses it, and faces her mortal enemy. In her signature style, Francesca Lia Block has created a world that is beautiful in its destruction and as frightening as it is lovely. At the helm is Pen, a strong heroine who holds hope and love in her hands and refuses to be defeated.

Mojo by Tim Tharp: A boy who feels powerless in his own life sets out to investigate the mystery of a missing high school girl in his town, who attends an elite private high school very unlike his own.

The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett: Sixteen-year-old Dusty Everhart breaks into houses late at night, but not because she’s a criminal. No, she’s a Nightmare. Literally. Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for magickind, and living in the shadow of her mother’s infamy, is hard enough. But when Dusty sneaks into Eli Booker’s house, things get a whole lot more complicated. He’s hot, which means sitting on his chest and invading his dreams couldn’t get much more embarrassing. But it does. Eli is dreaming of a murder. Then Eli’s dream comes true. Now Dusty has to follow the clues—both within Eli’s dreams and out of them—to stop the killer before more people turn up dead. And before the killer learns what she’s up to and marks her as the next target.

Nine Days by Fred Hiatt: Tenth-graders Ethan and Ti-Anna go to Hong Kong seeking her father, an exiled Chinese democracy activist who has disappeared, and follow his trail to Vietnam and back, also uncovering illegal activity along the way. Includes author’s note and the history behind the novel written by the girl who inspired it.

Out of This Place by Emma Cameron: Luke spends his days hanging out at the beach, working shifts at the local supermarket, and trying to stay out of trouble at school. His mate Bongo gets wasted, blocking out memories of the little brother social services took away and avoiding the stepdad who hits him. And Casey, the girl they both love, dreams of getting away and starting a new life in a place where she can be free. 

Ravage by Jeff Sampson: Sick of being at the mercy of adult conspiracies, Emily Webb forms a plan with the Deviants: They will destroy BioZenith.  

September Girls by Bennett Madison: When Sam’s dad whisks him and his brother off to a remote beach town for the summer, he’s all for it– at first. Sam soon realizes, though, that this place is anything but ordinary. Time seems to slow down around here, and everywhere he looks, there are beautiful blond girls. Girls who seem inexplicably drawn to him. Then Sam meets DeeDee, one of the Girls, and she’s different from the others. Just as he starts to fall for her, she pulls away, leaving him more confused than ever. He knows that if he’s going to get her back, he’ll have to uncover the secret of this beach and the girls who live here. 

Severed Heads, Broken Hearts by Robyn Schneider: Star athelete and prom king Ezra Faulkner’s life is irreparably transformed by a tragic accident and the arrival of eccentric new girl Cassidy Thorpe.

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey: After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one. Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother–or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

The End Games by T. Michael Martin: In the rural mountains of West Virginia, seventeen-year-old Michael Faris tries to protect his fragile younger brother from the horrors of the zombie apocalypse.

This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith: Perfect strangers Graham Larkin and Ellie O’Neill meet online when Graham accidentally sends Ellie an e-mail about his pet pig, Wilbur. The two 17-year-olds strike up an e-mail relationship from opposite sides of the country and don’t even know each other’s first names. What’s more, Ellie doesn’t know Graham is a famous actor, and Graham doesn’t know about the big secret in Ellie’s family tree. When the relationship goes from online to in-person, they find out whether their relationship can be the real thing.

Weather Witch by Shannon Delany: In a vastly different and darker Philadelphia of 1844, steam power has been repressed, war threatens from deep, dark waters, and one young lady of high social standing is expecting a surprise at her seventeenth birthday party–but certainly not the one she gets! Jordan Astraea, who has lived out all of her life in Philadelphia’s most exclusive neighborhood, is preparing to celebrate her birthday with friends, family and all the extravagance they might muster. The young man who is most often her dashing companion, Rowen Burchette, has told her a surprise awaits her and her best friend, Catrina Hollindale, wouldn’t miss this night for all the world! But storm clouds are gathering and threatening to do far more than dampen her party plans because someone in the Astraea household has committed the greatest of social sins by Harboring a Weather Witch.

What We Saw at Night by Jacquelyn Mitchard: After glimpsing an older man in a room with a dead girl, sixteen-year-old Allie, who has a life-threatening allergy to sunlight, discovers she is the lone key to stopping a serial killer.

Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith: See description under “Cities in the Distance.”

Masked and Shushed


Here are two smaller trends — neither are big ones, so I’m putting them together. The first is the eye mask, and the second is the shushing on the cover. Sometimes they are one in the same, too. This is the last set of trends for this post, since this is starting to get a little lengthy. 

Asunder by Jodi Meadows: See description under “Blue eyes.”

Pantomime by Laura Lam: R. H. Ragona’s Circus of Magic is the greatest circus of Ellada. Nestled among the glowing blue Penglass—remnants of a mysterious civilisation long gone—are wonders beyond the wildest imagination. It’s a place where anything seems possible, where if you close your eyes you can believe that the magic and knowledge of the vanished Chimaera is still there. It’s a place where anyone can hide. Iphigenia Laurus, or Gene, the daughter of a noble family, is uncomfortable in corsets and crinoline, and prefers climbing trees to debutante balls. Micah Grey, a runaway living on the streets, joins the circus as an aerialist’s apprentice and soon becomes the circus’s rising star. But Gene and Micah have balancing acts of their own to perform, and a secret in their blood that could unlock the mysteries of Ellada.

The Stone Demon by Karen Mahoney : In order to produce the Philosopher’s Stone, as the demon hordes demand, alchemist apprentice Donna Underwood pits her unpredictable powers against a vengeful demon king, two maleficent faery queens, and an immortal magus with his own shadowy agenda.

Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter: See description under “Blue eyes.”

Keep your eyes here for part three, which will be here next week!

I’ve been watching the cover reveals and digging through the publisher catalogs over the last couple of months, looking at what’s in store for 2013. I’ve taken notes on some of the trends I’ve noticed and thought I’d do a series of posts over the next couple of weeks showcasing some of them. 

It’s hard to write about cover trends when there are still plenty of covers not yet revealed, but with what’s already available, I’ve found a bunch of similarities. Since I’m imperfect and will likely miss many titles fitting any of these trends, I’d love to hear of other books fitting any of the categories I’m going to talk about, so please, feel free to drop a title or link to an image in the comments. This is the first post of what will be either two or three posts, and I’m going to divvy them up into broad categories. I’ll include descriptions — all via WorldCat and/or Goodreads — for those interested in bulking up 2013 book lists. 

Over the course of these posts there will be a number of repeats, since some covers will hit a number of the trends I’ve picked up on. Likewise, some of these trends will be much bigger and more noticeable than other ones, which may only include a handful of titles. 

Titles As Art / Titles Across the Cover


It looks like 2013 is the year of the title becoming the cover’s art. So many book covers are using the title — usually a lengthier title — as the “image” of the book. I’ve also noticed the number of book covers that have either long titles or are using the titles to take up more than half of the book’s cover. It sort of seems like for a long time that titles were given a design and worked around an image; next year, it seems like the title is getting a bigger billing. But I have to say that some of these are going to be easy to confuse next year since they look quite similar to one another. 

I kind of dig this trend where the title is the art (it’s simple and yet in many cases, it’s still pretty memorable). In the later covers below, where the title is more about taking up real estate than being the art, there are some that do it better than others. I think a lot of it has to do with how well the image works with the title and, maybe more importantly, the font and color choices for the title. 

Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg: Everybody loves Lexi. She’s popular, smart, funny…but she’s never been one of those girls, the pretty ones who get all the attention from guys. And on top of that, her seven-year-old sister, Mackenzie, is a terror in a tiara, and part of a pageant scene where she gets praised for her beauty (with the help of fake hair and tons of makeup). Lexi’s sick of it. She’s sick of being the girl who hears about kisses instead of getting them. She’s sick of being ignored by her longtime crush, Logan. She’s sick of being taken for granted by her pageant-obsessed mom. And she’s sick of having all her family’s money wasted on a phony pursuit of perfection. The time has come for Lexi to step out from the sidelines. Girls without great personalities aren’t going to know what hit them. Because Lexi’s going to play the beauty game – and she’s in it to win it.

The S Word by Chelsea Pitcher: Angie’s quest for the truth behind her best friend’s suicide drives her deeper into the dark, twisted side of Verity High.

Wise Young Fool by Sean Beaudoin: A teenaged guitarist in a rock band deals with loss and anger as he relates the events that landed him in a juvenile detention center.

A Matter of Days by Amber Kizer: In the not-too-distant future when a global pandemic kills most of humanity, a teenaged girl and her younger brother struggle to survive.

All Our Pretty Songs by Sarah McCarry: A sort-of retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice set in 1990s Seattle, with teenagers. * I found no description on WorldCat, GoodReads, nor the author’s website, except for this little tidbit. 

Being Henry David by Cal Armistead: Seventeen-year-old ‘Hank,’ who can’t remember his identity, finds himself in Penn Station with a copy of Thoreau’s Walden as his only possession and must figure out where he’s from and why he ran away.

 Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke: Violet is in love with River, a mysterious seventeen-year-old stranger renting the guest house behind the rotting seaside mansion where Violet lives, but when eerie, grim events begin to happen, Violet recalls her grandmother’s frequent warnings about the devil and wonders if River is evil.

Coda by Emma Trevayne: Ever since he was a young boy, music has coursed through the veins of eighteen-year-old Anthem—the Corp has certainly seen to that. By encoding music with addictive and mind-altering elements, the Corp holds control over all citizens, particularly conduits like Anthem, whose life energy feeds the main power in the Grid. Anthem finds hope and comfort in the twin siblings he cares for, even as he watches the life drain slowly and painfully from his father. Escape is found in his underground rock band, where music sounds free, clear, and unencoded deep in an abandoned basement. But when a band member dies suspiciously from a tracking overdose, Anthem knows that his time has suddenly become limited. Revolution all but sings in the air, and Anthem cannot help but answer the call with the chords of choice and free will. But will the girl he loves help or hinder him?

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick: A day in the life of a suicidal teen boy saying good-bye to the four people who matter most to him.

Formerly Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham: It’s been a year since the shark attack that took Jane’s arm, and with it, everything she used to take for granted. Her dream of becoming an artist is on the line, and everything now seems out of reach, including her gorgeous, kind tutor, Max Shannon. While a perfectly nice guy from her science class is clearly interested in Jane — removing her fear that no one ever would want a one-armed girl — Jane can’t stop thinking about Max. But is his interest romantic? Or does he just feel sorry for her?

How My Summer Went Up in Flames by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski: Placed under a temporary retstraining order for torching her former boyfriend’s car, seventeen-year-old Rosie embarks on a cross-country car trip from New Jersey to Arizona while waiting for her court appearance.

Icons by Margaret Stohl: After an alien force known as the Icon colonizes Earth, decimating humanity, four surviving teenagers must piece together the mysteries of their pasts–in order to save the future. 

Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan: To break his curse of invisibility, a boy is helped by a girl, who is the only one who can see him.

Nine Days by Fred Hiatt: Tenth-graders Ethan and Ti-Anna go to Hong Kong seeking her father, an exiled Chinese democracy activist who has disappeared, and follow his trail to Vietnam and back, also uncovering illegal activity along the way. Includes author’s note and the history behind the novel written by the girl who inspired it.

OCD, The Dude, & Me by Lauren Roedy Vaughn: Danielle Levine stands out even at her alternative high school–in appearance and attitude–but when her scathing and sometimes raunchy English essays land her in a social skills class, she meets Daniel, another social misfit who may break her resolve to keep everyone at arm’s length.

 Out of This Place by Emma Cameron: Luke spends his days hanging out at the beach, working shifts at the local supermarket, and trying to stay out of trouble at school. His mate Bongo gets wasted, blocking out memories of the little brother social services took away and avoiding the stepdad who hits him. And Casey, the girl they both love, dreams of getting away and starting a new life in a place where she can be free. 

Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff: It’s a heartrending future classic, soon to be a major motion picture, not to mention a thoughtful, insanely sophisticated exploration of the relationship between adults and children. It contains a gigantic easter egg, lots of French toast and a weed whacker. *This is via the GoodReads description, which is via the author’s website. 

Return to Me by Justina Chen: Always following her parents’ wishes and ignoring her psychic inner voice takes eighteen-year-old Rebecca Muir from her beloved cottage and boyfriend on Puget Sound to New York City, where revelations about herself and her family help her find a path to becoming the architect she wants to be.

 

Shadow Lands by Kate Brian: Rory Miller had one chance to fight back and she took it. Rory survived… and the serial killer who attacked her escaped. Now that the infamous Steven Nell is on the loose, Rory must enter the witness protection with her father and sister, Darcy, leaving their friends and family without so much as a goodbye. Starting over in a new town with only each other is unimaginable for Rory and Darcy. They were inseparable as children, but now they can barely stand each other. As the sisters settle in to Juniper Landing, a picturesque vacation island, it seems like their new home may be just the fresh start they need. They fall in with a group of beautiful, carefree teens and spend their days surfing, partying on the beach, and hiking into endless sunsets. But just as they’re starting to feel safe again, one of their new friends goes missing. Is it a coincidence? Or is the nightmare beginning all over again?

The Loop by Shandy Lawson: In New Orleans, Louisiana, star-crossed teens Ben and Maggie try to find a way to escape the time loop that always ends in their murder.

 The Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Robin Palmer: Sixteen-year-old Annabelle Jacobs never asked to be famous, but as the daughter of Janie Jacobs, one of the biggest TV stars in the world, she is. Growing up is hard enough. Having to do it in public because your mother is a famous actress? Even harder. When your mom crashes and burns after her DUI mug shot is splashed across the internet? Definitely not fun. Then your mom falls for a guy so much younger than she that it would be more appropriate for you to be dating him? That’s just a train wreck waiting to happen.

Then You Were Gone by Lauren Strasnick: Adrienne and Dakota’s long-term best friendship has been over for two years, but when Dakota goes missing, a presumed suicide, Adrienne is overwhelmed, leading to problems at school and with her boyfriend.

Truth or Dare by Jacqueline Green: In the affluent seaside town of Echo Bay, Massachusetts, mysterious dares sent to three very different girls–loner Sydney Morgan, Caitlin “Angel” Thomas, and beautiful Tenley Reed–threaten both their reputations and their lives.

When We Wake by Karen Healey: In 2027, sixteen-year-old Tegan is just like every other girl–playing the guitar, falling in love, and protesting the wrongs of the world with her friends. But then Tegan dies, waking up 100 years in the future as the unknowing first government guinea pig to be cryogenically frozen and successfully revived. Appalling secrets about her new world come to light, and Tegan must choose to either keep her head down or fight for a better future

You Look Different in Real Life by Jennifer Castle: The premise was simple: five kids, just living their lives. There’d be a new movie about them every five years, starting in kindergarten. But no one could have predicted what the cameras would capture. And no one could have predicted that Justine would be the star. Now sixteen, Justine doesn’t feel like a star anymore. In fact, when she hears the crew has gotten the green light to film “Five at Sixteen,” all she feels is dread. The kids who shared the same table in kindergarten have become teenagers who hardly know one another. And Justine, who was so funny and edgy in the first two movies, just feels like a disappointment. But these teens have a bond that goes deeper than what’s on film. They’ve all shared the painful details of their lives with countless viewers. They all know how it feels to have fans as well as friends. So when this latest movie gives them the chance to reunite, Justine and her costars are going to take it. Because sometimes, the only way to see yourself is through someone else’s eyes.

Purple Titles


I’m not sure this is the biggest trend in cover font color choices in 2013, but it’s one I picked up on because it’s different. I would almost argue red is a bigger color next year, but there’s something about purple font that’s standing out to me. I tend to like purple so maybe that’s why it keeps catching my eye. There’s quite a few of them! Note that these all look purple on my screen and resolution, but I could see good argument that a couple might be more in the dark pink arena. 

All I Need by Susane Colasanti: When Skye, a hopeless romantic, meets Seth, hurt by a recent break-up, at an end-of-summer party they connect instantly, but their love is tested when she returns high school and he begins to work his way through an Ivy-League college.

Also Known As by Robin Benway: As the active-duty daughter of international spies, sixteen-year-old safecracker Maggie Silver never attended high school so when she and her parents are sent to New York for her first solo assignment, Maggie is introduced to cliques, school lunches, and maybe even a boyfriend.

Catherine by April Lindner: In this retelling of “Wuthering Heights,” Catherine explains how she fell in love with a brooding musician and left her family to return to him, and her daughter describes searching for her mother many years later.

Empty by KM Walton: See above under “titles as art.”

Furious by Jill Wolfson: After becoming the Furies of Greek mythology, three angry high school girls take revenge on everyone who deserves it.

The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson: After her near-fatal run-in with the Jack the Ripper copycat, Rory Devereaux is back in London to help solve a new string of inexplicable deaths plaguing the city. 

OCD, The Dude, & Me by Lauren Roedy Vaughn: See above under “titles as art.”

The Language Inside by Holly Thompson: Raised in Japan, American-born tenth-grader Emma is disconcerted by a move to Massachusetts for her mother’s breast cancer treatment, because half of Emma’s heart remains with her friends recovering from the tsunami.

The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr: Sixteen-year-old San Franciscan Lucy Beck-Moreau once had a promising future as a concert pianist. Her chance at a career has passed, and she decides to help her ten-year-old piano prodigy brother, Gus, map out his own future, even as she explores why she enjoyed piano in the first place.

Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown: Talked into sending a nude picture of herself to her boyfriend while she was drunk, Ashleigh became the center of a sexting scandal and is now in court-ordered community service, where she finds an unlikely ally, Mack.

Undone by Cat Clarke: Jem Halliday is in love with her gay best friend. Not exactly ideal, but she’s learning to live with it. Then the unspeakable happens. Kai is outed online … and he kills himself. Jem knows nothing she can say or do will bring him back. But she wants to know who was responsible. And she wants to take them down. 

What the Spell by Brittany Geragotelis: When Brooklyn, a witch, turns sixteen, her conservative parents finally unbind her powers, bringing her newfound popularity and the attention of her long-time crush, Asher, but using spells may endanger her and, unless she uses her special ability to magically match couples, she may lose Asher.

When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney: When his mother dies three weeks before his high school graduation, Danny goes to Tokyo, where his mother had been going for cancer treatments, to learn about the city his mother loved and, with the help of his friends, come to terms with her death.

White Lines by Jennifer Banash: In 1980s New York City, seventeen-year-old Caitlin tries to overcome her mother’s abuse and father’s abandonment by losing herself in nights of clubbing and drugs, followed by days of stumbling aimlessly through school.

Faces in Pieces


These girls are broken up either in pieces or behind glass or they’re being put back together after being torn into pieces. This is an interesting trend. I kind of think a couple of them would be really easy to confuse with one another. I noted all of them are girls with their faces in pieces, though the cover of Chris Lynch’s Pieces features the body of a boy in pieces (his face is missing entirely from the cover). 

Fox Forever by Mary Pearson: Before he can start a life with Jenna, seventeen-year-old Locke, who was brought back to life in a newly bioengineered body after an accident destroyed his body 260 years ago, must do a favor for the resistance movement opposing the nightmarish medical technology.

Imposer by Susanne Winnacker: Tessa is a Variant, able to absorb the DNA of anyone she touches and mimic their appearance. Shunned by her family, she’s spent the last two years training with the Forces with Extraordinary Abilities, a secret branch of the FBI. When a serial killer rocks a small town in Oregon, Tessa is given a mission: she must impersonate Madison, a local teen, to find the killer before he strikes again. Tessa hates everything about being an impostor—the stress, the danger, the deceit—but loves playing the role of a normal girl. As Madison, she finds friends, romance, and the kind of loving family she’d do anything to keep. Amid action, suspense, and a ticking clock, this super-human comes to a very human conclusion: even a girl who can look like anyone struggles the most with being herself.

Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza: Sixteen-year-old Mila discovers she is not who–or what–she thought she was, which causes her to run from both the CIA and a rogue intelligence group.

The Originals by Cat Patrick: Seventeen-year-olds Lizzie, Ella, and Betsy Best are clones, raised as identical triplets by their surrogate mother but living as her one daughter, Elizabeth, until their separate abilities and a romantic relationship force a change.

Things Change by Patrick Jones: Sixteen-year-old Johanna, one of the best students in her class, develops a passionate attachment for troubled seventeen-year-old Paul and finds her plans for the future changing in unexpected ways. *This is actually a recover of a book originally published in 2006. This redesign is much more appealing than the original. 

Red Heads


This is the last trend I’ll talk about in this post, since I think I might have two more posts’ worth of material and I don’t want to make this too long. 

Now, if you buy Wikipedia as a reliable source, you’ll note that only 1-2% of the world consists of red heads. But man, do they get quite a bit of play in YA books. And they’ll be getting plenty of cover time in 2013. 

A Conspiracy of Alchemists by Liesel Schwarz: It is 1903, and the world is divided between light and shadow. On the side of light is a wondrous science that has transformed everyday life by harnessing magical energies to ingenious new technologies. But each advance of science has come at the expense of shadow—the traditional realm of the supernatural. Now two ancient powers are preparing to strike back. Blood-sucking immortal Nightwalkers and their spellcasting Alchemist allies have a plan to cover the whole world in shadow. All they require is the sacrifice of a certain young woman whose past conceals a dangerous secret. But when they come after Elle, they get more than they bargained for. This enterprising young woman, the daughter of a scientific genius, has reserves of bravery and determination that even she scarcely suspects. Now she is about to meet her match in more ways than one: a handsome yet infuriating Warlock named Hugh Marsh, whose agenda is as suspect as his charms are annoyingly irresistible.

 Death, Doom, and Detention by Darynda Jones: The normal part of Lorelei MacAlister’s life didn’t just slip away quietly the day Jared Kovach came to town. Nope. The normal part of her life shattered. It exploded. It burst into a gazillion shards of fleeting light. It went out with a bang. Goodbye normal. Hello dark and eerie. While her best friend, Brooklyn, is focusing all of her energy on helping Lorelei hone her abilities, Lorelei is dealing with the reality that Satan’s second in command has taken up residence inside her body. Oh, and the fact that she has a crush on the Angel of Death. But what a beautiful death it is. If those weren’t bad enough, something sinister has come to town and it wants nothing more than to hear Lorelei’s dying breath as it strangles it out of her. Thank goodness the gang has a supernatural champion. But what happens when the only being who can save them switches sides midstream? How can a group of misfits capture one of the most powerful beings ever created? And will they find out how to bring Jared back to them before it’s too late?

Delusion by Laura L Sullivan: Two beautiful teenage sisters, Phil and Fee Albion, descendents of a long line of stage illusionists, are sent from London to the countryside during World War II, only to discover a hidden college of real magicians who just might help them save England from the Nazis. 

The Gathering Dark by Christine Johnson: A gifted pianist discovers that she and the mysterious boy she’s falling for are part of an alternate world made from dark matter, and in a race of love against fear, she must somehow save her life without losing herself. 

Me, Him, Them, and It by Caela Carter: Playing the “bad girl” at school to get back at her feuding parents, sixteen-year-old Evelyn becomes pregnant and faces a difficult decision.

Naturals by Tiffany Truitt: Tess is finally safe from the reach of the Council, now that she is living in the Middlelands with the rebel Isolationists. With James having returned to Templeton, she easily falls back into her friendship with Henry, though her newfound knowledge of Robert’s chosen one status still stings. Even surrounded by people, Tess has never felt more alone. So she’s thrilled when James returns to the settlement, demanding to see Tess — until she finds out that it’s because her sister, Louisa, has been recruited into Tess’s old position at Templeton, and that the dangerously sadistic chosen one George has taken an interest in her. 

The Grass is Always Greener by Jen Calonita: Amid preparations for their preppy Southern town’s Founders Day celebration and their own shared sweet sixteen, sisters Isabelle Scott and Mirabelle Monroe long to break free from the tight constraints that come with being the daughters of a prominent public figure.

This Strange and Familiar Place by Rachel Carter: Lydia Bentley will do anything to fix the mistakes she made in the past, like losing her grandfather in time–and the only way she knows how to begin is by time traveling to 1980s New York with Wes, posed as a Montauk Project recruit. 

Look for part two of this series next week (and there are some good ones).