6 Upcoming YA Hardcover to Paperback Cover Makeovers

February 27, 2017 |

Book covers are one of the most important marketing tools for a book — it’s what makes a reader who knows nothing about what is inside pick it up and look at it. A good cover sells a story, which sells a book. A cover that isn’t as good can make an otherwise solid story be overlooked in favor of a better, more appealing cover.

One of my favorite things to do is see which books get new covers when they’re released into paperback. It used to be that the hardcover books were the covers that sold to libraries and schools, while paperbacks were the ones to appeal to bookstore shoppers (in YA, that would be your teen readers). This isn’t necessarily the same, as hardcovers have just as much shelf potential in stores to make a splash in their initial releases. But we also all know that there’s a lot of power in what covers get the okay to make it to Big Chain Bookstore shelves.

Here’s a look at six YA books getting new looks in paperback. Some of these are standalone titles. Some are part of a series. Some are reissues of titles that have become classics. It’s interesting to look and see what the changes might suggest about how the book is being angled. In some cases, the paperback does it better; in others, the original cover is the clear winner. And still in others, they’re about the same.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on these changes. Anything you like better or like less? Any other recent changes you think are worth talking about? I’ve been keeping a list, of course, and just pulled these from the top; there are so many other ones that have recently hit or will be hitting soon.

Covers on the left are the original; covers on the right are the reissue/paperback.

Lindsey Rosin’s Cherry was one of my favorite reads last year and one that’s criminally underrated. The original cover, with its cherry lipgloss image, really did kind of capture the vibe of the book. It’s girl-positive, girl-friendly, and the tag line is the perfect wink-nudge that this is a book about sex. I mean, of course the title helps with that, too.

That said, it’s not particularly memorable as a cover on the shelf. It’s white with a light pink, and it could easily blend into so many other books.

The hardcover goes a little bolder, while still keeping that wink-nudge. This time, we have a cherry ice cream pop, with one bite out of the top. It’s a bolder pink color, and the title within the pink sets it a little bit apart. The tag line being put at the outside of the bite draws eyes in; there’s a psychology in how our eyes take in an image, and it’s a reverse-6. You start at the top left, then your eyes go out and down, then back up. This design utilizes that backward 6, as your eye is drawn to that tag line, then down and around. The bright green for Rosin’s name is a nice touch, too. There’s something crisp and fresh about it. The only thing I don’t love about the cover is that I’ve seen it before (Jenny Han’s Shug, Ibi Kaslick’s Skinny, and so forth).

The paperback ekes out the hardcover just a tiny bit for me. The redesign will hit shelves on August 15.

In some ways, it’s hard to wrap my head around the idea that Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is ten years old. In other ways, though, it feels like a book that’s been around much longer than that, and neither of those statements are about the quality of the book. I picked this one up in my YA lit class in graduate school and fell in love with it, and it’s remained a go-to book rec (and best seller and regularly challenged book…) for a reason.

The original cover is iconic and memorable. It’s impossible not to connect the toy cowboy and indians to this book and the way they’re positioned on the cover expresses a lot about the cultural issues in the story itself.

But that paperback anniversary edition is hard to ignore, too. Maintaining those two plastic toys, their colors have been removed and replaced with a solid green and, like the original cover, Alexie’s name takes up the most real estate. But rather than sticking with the original font choice, it’s been flipped with the title font from the original design. It’s enough of a difference in design to be noticeable and yet, it’s also similar enough to pay homage to this book being a modern classic of YA lit.

Both covers are great and represent the book well. Both have good reader appeal, though I do wonder a bit if the paperback, with its emphasis on Alexie’s name (taking up more than half of the book) is a bigger appeal to adult readers than to teen YA readers. Perhaps it’s also worth noting that the reissue is a hardcover edition, which, while more expensive, means that it can continue to be part of the New York Times Bestsellers list *and* make for an excellent replacement copy for those well-read, well-loved library copies.

The 10th anniversary edition of Alexie’s book will be out October 7.

When books change cover in the middle of a series, it’s always a reason to pause and consider why the change was made. Was the book not selling? Did another book hit shelves around the same time with a look that might do better with intended readers? I think in the case of Alwyn Hamilton’s Rebel of the Sands, it’s a little bit of the former, laced with the fact that the original hardcover looks a lot like a retelling of 1001 Nights (which itself has been a trend in recent YA past).

On the one hand, the original cover is striking. It’s illustrated and gives a great sense of place. The paperback, on the other hand, screams “this is a read alike for Sarah J Maas” and any other number of recent fantasy series books with female leads. But oh, it’s boring. There isn’t anything particularly remarkable about the new cover, save for the fact we’ve dropped the tag line from the hardcover and instead included a blurb from Rae Carson — a likely good addition for readers who love her work and are looking for something similar.

Something about the paperback makes me uncomfortable, and I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. It’s such a drastic change, maybe, and/or perhaps it’s the use of coverings on a model that suggest a religious practice which the book itself doesn’t seem to take on. Maybe it’s a little of both.

Neither of these are particularly great, but on a personal level, the hardcover catches my eye far more than the overly dark paperback. But for teen readers? I suspect it’s likely the opposite.

Rebel of the Sands came out in paperback on February 14.

Another one of my favorite 2016 reads was Anna Breslaw’s hilarious and unshy-about-its-feminist-agenda Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here. And this is one of those cases where, I think, both of the covers do the book good justice and for about the same reason.

The hardcover on the left is fun. It’s a bright green color, which makes it stand out on a shelf, and further, there’s a geeky-looking Jewish girl at the center (if you’ve read the book, you know Scarlett is Jewish and while a reader who hasn’t read the book might not know, the model on the cover might be a good suggestion of that). The sketches are a fun addition, too, as they sort of highlight the idea of fandom, the fact that Scarlett lives in New Jersey, and she has a sense of humor. I’m a big fan of the font for the title, too.

The paperback goes a little further in highlighting Scarlett’s Jewish descent. It’s set up like a high school class photo, and the expression on the model’s face is precisely what I suspect Scarlett would do in many of the situations in the story. The plain striped shirt makes this cover have a timeless feel, which, while a strange thing to think about, is not — style of a model on a book cover can quickly date the cover. The wink-nudge to fandom is right there, too, with the comic bubbles for the second half of the title, as well as the drawn-on sunglasses over her face.

It’s interesting to note that the blurb for this book switched in the makeover: we went from a blurb from another author to a blurb from Buzzfeed. I have a suspicion that the Buzzfeed blurb will likely speak to teen readers in a different way than one from DC Pierson. Also of interest: Scarlett’s name continues to be in a script-like font, but the “S” in her first name flips the loop. Rather than going from the bottom curse of the “S,” it comes from the top.

Both are fun covers and both capture the feel of the book. The paperback will hit shelves on March 28.

When the publicity for The Museum of Heartbreak reached its peak last spring, I think I was getting an advanced copy every week or so. I know I ended up with a pile of them. But nothing about the cover, as cute as it was, compelled me to pick it up. There was a lot going on, and nothing told me what it was about. Was it a book about collecting things? With “Museum” in the title, I felt a weird disconnect with what was clearly a small shelf of trinkets.

Don’t get me wrong. The dinosaur is super cute. And there’s a random ferris wheel, a bizarre thing we see periodically on YA covers for some reason. Romance, maybe?

The paperback edition of this book, though, tells me a hell of a lot more about what’s inside. This is clearly a romance in some capacity. And while it’s again not showcasing the idea of a museum, the broken paper hearts suggest that there might be a collection of some sort going on. More, the title on the paperback is much more prominent and obvious than it is on the paperback.

In many ways, the hardcover original looks like a middle grade novel. Again, I think it’s the assortment of trinkets, which, in text, wouldn’t feel the same way as it does in an image. The paperback, though, screams YA novel. It might not be the most original, but it does suggest far more about the content, as well as the ideal readership.

The paperback wins for me, though I absolutely see where readers would wholly disagree and love how unique the hardcover is. The Museum of Heartbreak‘s paperback hits shelves on June 7.

I saved my favorite cover redesign for the final one in this round-up, which I suspect spoils the cover change I think was the best. Brent Hartinger’s Three Truths and a Lie is another one of those books I got a few copies of and didn’t pick up. The cover told me absolutely nothing except the title, which is a game that we’re all familiar with and become familiar with as teenagers (how many times did you have to play this as an ice breaker in a room full of people you don’t know?). I had no idea what genre the book was in, except that it was a bit of a departure from Hartinger’s other books.

And then I saw the paperback and suddenly, my interest in the book skyrocketed.

This is a thriller. Set in the woods. It’s going to have horror vibes. And that tag line is an absolute knock out — “It’s all fun and games . . . until someone gets killed.” These sorts of thrillers are my favorite, and without the change in covers, I’d have had no idea. I suspect the same will be said among other readers, both because they’ll understand the book’s genre and want it as soon as possible OR because they’ll understand that it’s squarely Not A Book For Them.

Readers who keep tabs on these things would likely know that this was a 2017 Edgar Nominee, meaning it’s up for consideration as one of the best YA mystery books of the year. But again: without much cover indication, even with the gloomy rain background, it would be a hard sell to readers.

On more shallow notes, I love the richness of the color, the way that it’s a reflection on the water (one of my favorite photography techniques). I love how small the title is, which gives that looming sense of doom and fear with that image. Everything about this paperback redesign works.

The paperback hits shelves on August 1. And honestly, I might pick it up before then, if for no other reason than the paperback told me what it was about, and I’m sold.

Hardcover to Paperback YA Book Cover Makeovers, Wow There Are A Ton Coming! Edition

July 18, 2016 |

As I’ve gently suggested in the title of this post, there are a lot of hardcover YA titles getting new looks — and new titles — in their paperback editions. A handful of these are available now, but most will be hitting shelves in the near future. This isn’t even a comprehensive look at the ones I’ve noticed lately; I picked the ones that seemed like they had a lot to talk about or think about in regards to design and the changes made on the covers.

Some are winning looks and some are far less so. As always, I’d love your takes on these redesigns. Which ones are working for you? Which do you think appeals more to a teen readership? Which nails the content better? Tell me your thoughts and if you’ve seen any recent cover makeovers that are worth looking at, leave me those titles, too.

A Step From Heaven won the Printz award in 2002 — one of the first books to receive the honor. It’s been in publication since then, but it’s had the same cover. It’s not at all a bad cover; it’s pretty straightforward and clearly a girl of East Asian descent. There is a real timelessness about the whole package, in that it doesn’t use a fancy font-driven style nor use illustration or a full stock image of a girl in clothes that could date it. It seems pretty clear there’s a reason this book’s cover has been around as long as it has.

This month, a reprint of the book is coming and it’s getting a makeover. Much as I think the original is a real solid cover, the redesign is beautiful. There’s a celebratory feel to it, and in many ways, the teen rendered in this image looks much older than the girl in the original image. The font selected for the title is really pretty and dreamy, which, along with the floral design surrounding the model, does give the book a contemporary, moody feel. I have a feeling this new package will absolutely introduce the book to a new generation of teen readers, and I think it’s the kind of repackage that might make librarians and teachers look at the conditions of their current copies and consider replacing.

I’m also a big fan of the lack of blurbs or praise on the new cover, aside from the obvious medal honors. That makes it feel timeless, too.

I remember reading the description of Sundberg’s debut All We Left Behind last year. It was compared to Courtney Summers and Ellen Hopkins, suggesting it’s a gritty and raw contemporary YA. I never got around to picking it up, since it was a big read — if I’m remembering, it was 400 or so pages, which is a big investment for a contemporary YA novel (I’m really picky about that, as anyone who has been around here a while will know). So imagine the surprise with that image of the book in my mind when I saw the redesigned cover.

The paperback is so light and airy. It reminds me of a summer-y, light read, even with the title — or maybe even because of that title. It’s an entirely different feel than the original cover which, while pretty generic, has some of those gritty elements going for it. Look, for example, at the fact we actually see an exposed bra strap on the hardcover. It skirts the line of sensual and sad in a way that doesn’t feel gross but instead really gives a sense of the content inside.

That paperback, though, might be the most generic thing I’ve seen in a while. It’s not bad, but it certainly tells me nothing of the book, and in a lot of ways, it looks like a cover that could be swapped onto any number of other books with the same forgettable effect. If this book really is raw and gritty, imagine the surprise readers, especially teenagers, will find picking up this cover and expecting a lighter book. I’ll take the hard pass on this one.

All We Left Behind will be available in paperback December 6. The original, if you’re interested, published in December of last year, which may be why it sort of fell off the radars of many readers.

Now for the first book in this list that’s not just getting a cover makeover, but a title makeover as well: Alexandra Adornetto’s Ghost House, aka Lament in paperback.

First, the hardcover: it’s not bad, but it’s also not especially remarkable. There is a nice eerie feeling to it, conveying the fact this is a horror novel. The guy in the center of the image is dressed a little bit like he’s a member of an elite class, perhaps maybe even of a slightly different time period than the present (though the long hair may be what keeps that from reading 100% that way for me). The font for the title and author’s name are pretty standard, though the purple hues of the cover are nice. There’s definitely a spooky tone set by this cover. And of course, the title Ghost House helps that along.

The paperback goes for ye-old paranormal romance standards. In fact, I initially thought this was a new Lauren Kate book, since it takes the same white girl in a dress with a one word title with some swirly styling motif. No longer does this book read horror; it reads as straight-up paranormal romance. Good on the designer to note clearly that the book has been retitled, but the thing I cannot get over is the girl’s face. It’s a weird “come hither” look to it, which doesn’t showcase any fear or trepidation, despite the fact she’s alone in the woods in a fancy ballgown. Not to mention the fact she certainly doesn’t look like she’s lamenting anything. I don’t get it — there’s a big disconnect going on.

But if the goal is to get it into the hands of Lauren Kate fans, well, then that paperback is a big winner. Otherwise, it’s absolutely forgettable.

Lament will be available in paperback on August 30.

The most interesting thing to me about the paperback redesign of Patrice Kindl’s A School for Brides is the tagline modification. The hardcover on the left originally notes that these are girls looking for husbands in a town without any men. The paperback? No longer are they looking for husbands, but rather, they’re looking for eligible bachelors in a town with no men.

I have no idea which of those I think is “better,” per se, especially to a YA audience, but I think the change is noteworthy nonetheless.

And I think the reason I’m uncertain is because this book is the right book for the right reader, meaning that the readers picking this up know exactly what they want in a historical fantasy novel, and whether it notes these are girls looking for husbands or eligible bachelors (which sure makes it more contemporary than historical) doesn’t matter a bit.

From a design standpoint, both books deliver what you’d expect tone and topic wise. I love the use of white space and the various different blue and purple-y hues. There’s a nice moodiness with that sort of minimalism. The paperback might fall more on the fun side, though — I love the various images of the girls at this particular institution wearing different dresses, enjoying tea, writing letters, and so forth. If I had to pick one as more along my taste preferences, it might be the paperback, but because this is a book with a clear sense of readership and audience in design, I don’t think one is better than the other.

You can pick up the paperback edition of A School for Brides right now.

Wildlife

This is a two-for-one makeover, and if I could say that both of these redesigned covers are among some of my favorite YA covers currently on the market, I will. Wildlife and Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood were originally published in Australia and they were brought to the US in the last two years. Overseas, they were published in this order: Six Impossible Things, followed by Wildlife. In the US, they flipped the publications, since these are companion novels that can be read either way without losing anything. Rather, it’s one of those situations where you read one and when you see the recurring characters, you get excited, rather than feel you need more backstory.

The hardcover editions of both books feature couples. They’re stock images, and in both sets, the models look like actual teenagers (which is surprisingly refreshing). It was a little disappointing to see the stock image choice for Six Impossible Things focus on the girl, since this book is 100% from a male point of view, something that could be easily missed with a cursory glance of the image. The font stylization for both the hardcovers, though, are fabulous — there’s a nice ombre effect with natural settings being the background to them.

But those paperbacks!

I love the use of real images on them, as well, and I love how they give such a unique feel to each of the books. Wildlife has a lushness and a crispness to it, and it really captures the nature setting of the book (it’s set in a school outdoors trip). Using the same leaf shape to include the title and author’s name was a smart way to break up the repetition and make them stand out. The use of different colored keys for Six Impossible Things also makes it stand out, in addition to being a way that doesn’t put a girl at the center of the book’s cover. The use of one key as a drawing to mimic the same idea from the title/author styling of Wildlife is smart. But perhaps the smartest part of these two redesigns is how neatly they’re connected without screaming “series” to readers, since this isn’t, in fact, a hard series — both books make use of that textured white background. The top one being a piece of notebook paper (think trees, school) and the second being a piece of wood (which does have a tie in to the attic scenes in that book).

Both of these books are great contemporary YA, and without doubt, I’ll be adding both of the paperback editions to the hardcovers on my shelf — and I don’t feel like it’s being repetitive, since my hardcovers are the Australian originals. Wildlife is available now in paperback, while Six Impossible Things will be available September 6.

Here is the second book on this round-up that features not just a cover redesign, but a title makeover as well. Amy Alward’s Madly was a debut last fall, and it featured a cover that, while eye-catching, really didn’t offer anything about the book at all. Is it magic? Is it contemporary? The look of the title and author, with the drawing, paired with the blurb declaring this a fun read and the tagline noting that it contains spells gives no real great indication of the genre. It’s confused, even if it’s a nice looking image.

The paperback of Madly will be retitled as The Potion Diaries and has an entirely different look. Aside from the unflattering pink circle blurb from Zoella (and the obnoxious proclamation inside it that the book is “so cool!”), the redesign is a winner. This cover knows what it’s doing — this is a bit of magic and fantasy. The reason, I think, that the quote feels so out of place and obnoxious is that the cover itself says the book is fun and cool. The fonts are winning here, as is the use of a crown to cap off that potion bottle.

This redesign will follow into the second book of this series, too:

The other thing that’s interesting about this redesign is what it suggests about the book’s audience. The original hardcover looks really mature, like it’s aimed at an older teen readership. Perhaps it’s the bottle and the illustration and sort of the symbolism behind how they’re presented. It might also be the use of rich colors.

The redesigns, both of the first book and of the sequel, certainly aim at a much younger YA readers, and perhaps they’re even aiming for those middle grade readers who are ready for YA. Not having read the book, I can’t suggest which one might be more fitting in terms of readership.

Paperback, hands down. You can pick up The Potion Diaries in paperback October 18 — the same day as the sequel will hit in hardcover.

Last but not least, Tim Floreen’s technology-themed YA title Willful Machines is also getting a makeover. This one is interesting to me for a number of reasons, but in particular, the original hardcover of the book reminds me a lot of so many other YA titles. It has hints of Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, as well as hints of Leah Bobet’s An Inheritance of Ashes, even though all three of the books came out around the same time. So it was likely unintentional and perhaps made it challenging to make this book stand out since it’s not like either of those.

The redesign in paperback, though also not stunningly original, does stand out a lot more, in part because of the nice interplay between the white cover and dark, mysterious face, as well as because of the use of circuitry on the face. More, it appears to be a male face on the cover, and with the mystery behind it, has a real appealing quality. Who is this guy? What’s his story? Why’s he being compared to a machine?

I’d go with the paperback here, if for no other reason than it stands out a little bit more and the mystery surrounding the image on it would offer up mega reader appeal. It’ll also help the book not be unfairly compared to others which feature a similar hardcover design.

You can pick up the paperback edition of Willful Machines on October 18.

Hardcover to Paperback Makeovers: 6 To Consider

May 23, 2016 |

It’s been a while since I’ve flexed ye old cover change talk muscles, but after writing a lengthy newsletter for Book Riot about cover trends in YA, I wanted to keep going. Let’s take a look at a few recent and upcoming YA books getting repackaged in their paperback editions. Some of these are winning makeovers and some of them might be less-so.

The original hardcover looks are all on the left, and their paperback redesigns are on the right. As always, feel free to weigh in with which you like best, which you think may serve the books or their readers best, and I’d love to know of other redesigns you’ve seen lately (I am currently obsessed with the paperback redesign of Fiona Wood’s Wildlife, which you can’t seem to find anywhere except in images from NOVL, so click to see it here).

Bonus for this round of makeovers: two of them are getting title changes in their paperback incarnations, too. Good luck any and all collection development and readers advisory librarians because I’m sure that won’t be slightly frustrating.

Jenn Marie Thorne’s debut novel The Wrong Side of Right is going from a technicolor look with the simplistic image of a city skyline — DC, of course — and a collection of different handwritten fonts for the title to a cover which features a really uninteresting — and definitely not teenage looking — couple blowing bubbles in front of a painted American flag. The font on the paperback is really a downgrade from the original, as is the entire package. The tagline, “Their love is politically incorrect” makes me wonder what could possibly be politically charged about two white kids holding hands?

I think I’ve gone on the record a few times talking about how people on book covers don’t do it much for me unless it’s a person of color or someone who has something remarkable about them. In this instance, I think the paperback is a huge downgrade. It looks really generic and feels like it has an expiration date to it with the couple’s style.

The Wrong Side of Right will hit shelves in paperback on August 2.

When I first looked at the cover for the paperback of Renée Ahdieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn, I was underwhelmed (see: people on covers of books). It was nice to see a brown girl, of course, so I gave it bonus points for that.

But then I realized that it’s actually a genius cover: it’s the same as the hardback, but with the red designed layer removed. There’s been a tagline added and the title has been made bigger, but it’s the same girl, holding the same pose, and without being hidden.

What gives it an even bigger thumbs up is that the book’s sequel follows the same design as the original hardcover:

Those who like keeping their designs the same in a series don’t have to worry about the redesign of the paperback of the first book impacting the hardcover of the second. It’s the same style; I will bet anything that the paperback of The Rose & The Dagger will remove the blue overlay and we’ll see the fierce brown girl as the starring image on the paperback next year. This entire package is smart, savvy, and unique from what so many other redesigns of series have done.

The Wrath and the Dawn is available in paperback now.

Hotel Ruby, the second book Suzanne Young released last year from Simon & Schuster, sort of fell under the radar, despite the fact Young is a well-loved author (and we like her work here at STACKED since it’s so teen friendly). But this year, it’s getting a redesign in paperback, along with a new title. Rather than staying Hotel Ruby — which I’ll say is a little confusing because what does “Ruby” refer to here, the hotel or the girl in the image? — it will become Hotel for the Lost. Rather than sport an image of a girl behind golden doors of an elevator, it’s getting a spooky, chilling, eerie, and super atmospheric redesign. I love the gothic feel, the new title, and feel like it has such a bigger appeal to its package than the original.

The new tagline is really great: “Stay tonight. Stay forever.” I don’t need to guess what this book is about in the same way I do with the original cover and title. I really want to know why there is just one light on in that hotel, too.

My only criticism for the new look is that it’s not especially memorable; I’ve seen it before and will see it again. However, that sort of familiarity might work in favor for a novel like this, since readers will immediately know whether it is or isn’t a book for them.

Hotel for the Lost will be available October 4.

Carrie Ryan’s Daughter of Deep Silence had a big reveal, and I remember people being really excited by the cover. It’s not bad, despite being a pretty unremarkable white girl on the cover. The image of the ocean art behind her is memorable, and the deep ruby hue in the bottom half of the cover really makes the title and font choice stand out. At the same time, it sort of resembles an Ally Carter “Heist” series novel; they aren’t even in the same realm of books, but without thinking hard, I connect the two and wouldn’t be surprised if that was a challenge for readers hoping for one thing and getting another.

But that paperback redesign does the book even fewer favors. The weirdly hued blue against the weirdly hued yellow font that seems like a relic of the 1970s is completely forgettable, even off putting. I don’t think I even understand the tagline, either, nor what it has to do with the book’s title. Taglines should compel the reader to pick up the book, but this one, in conjunction with the title, lends itself to confusion, rather than curiosity.

It also looks like an adult novel, rather than a YA novel. If that’s the market that it’s geared toward, it might do better than in the teen section.

Daughter of Deep Silence will be available in paperback July 12.

For better or for worse, there’s this redesign worth thinking and talking about. Galgorithm suffers from a pretty forgettable cover on the left, but a title that’s really obnoxious. I’m familiar enough to know this is a book about a boy who wants to get with a girl and is going to figure out a way to do it. But that title is just bad. I can’t see teens, especially teen boys, picking this one up based on the title alone. I try to avoid gender essentialism, but because it will never go away in the library world, it’s a thing that does merit being brought up in cases like this. Beyond the title, though, the cover is unremarkable. It’s the back of a guy who looks like any white guy, any high school, USA. Which isn’t a criticism but what it is.

The paperback redesign also comes with a title change. So now instead of Galgorithm, it’s either Me You Use or Me + You = Us. I actually have no idea.* How would this be looked up in a catalog or on a website to buy? It’s even more obnoxious needing to guess those combinations than it is to have to type in Galgorithm. At least the former is one word.

But the killer for me on the paperback is that John Green’s name is almost as big as the author’s, and it has a much more prominent and obvious placement. My eye drifts up to the pink “John Green” much more quickly than it does down to the lighter blue of “a novel by Aaron Karo,” despite the all-caps use.

Maybe a solution to this would be calling the book Me + You = Us, with the tagline from the original Galgorithm title. I’d be okay with generic high school white boy as the model, too.

(I’m not over that pull quote from Booklist on the paperback, honestly.)

Me You Us and/or Me + You = Us will be available June 21.

*When I went into Edelweiss, I was informed it’s Me You Us. So that formula on the cover image only makes me more irritated now. Good thing I knew the author’s name and could search that way, but I feel for anyone who doesn’t and will be fighting this battle in the future.

Jennifer Mathieu’s Devoted is getting a makeover, going from a cover that’s wonderful and nicely explanative of the book itself — about a girl in a Duggar-like family who is eager to break free from it — to a painfully generic, way-too-bright, and overly-designed look. The girl on the left looks like the kind of girl Rachel in the story is; the girl on the right looks like the kind of girl Rachel in the story is influenced by.

The paperback has added a tagline and overlaid it on top of the girl’s hair, making it nearly impossible to read, in part because of the color choice and more because of the font choice. Sure, the book is about how Rachel can save herself, but, I kind of get that from the original cover, too. With a much better font. And no need for her hair to take on more work than necessary.

I keep thinking that that tagline is also the title, in part because of where it’s situated on the design and in part because the font for it is almost as big as the title. The title being shoved in a corner doesn’t help.

I’m a big fan of the color yellow, but it doesn’t fit the tone or feel of this book at all. It looks like it might be a nice, light, summer-y read, but it’s not. The color and structure of the hardcover are much more true to the book and will lead readers to a better expectation of what’s inside than the new cover.

Devoted will be available in paperback on September 20.

Triple Take

February 3, 2016 |

Cover designers love this image. Kelly wrote about it back in 2011, and it’s popped up again this year on Kathleen Tessaro’s Rare Objects, this time with the cigarette left in. The woman is placed within a mirror or picture frame in Tessaro’s book, which looks a little odd to me – but that may be just because I’m so used to seeing her in a more 3-dimensional setting. Regardless, it does make the cover a little too busy for my taste, taking away from the woman’s face, which is the natural focal point and needs no framing. The lighting on the woman’s face also seems brighter; perhaps that’s a lens flare on the right-hand side of the cover.

I do wonder why this image seems so popular. The expression on the woman’s face is neutral, but still arresting, and it does evoke an instant historical feel. All three books are set around World War II: Cooper’s in the late 1930s, Cunningham’s in 1944, and Tessaro’s in 1933. The man just behind the woman and the couple dancing in the background set a scene that makes the reader want to know more – is the woman at a party? Is the man her brother, her fiance, a stranger? Why is she looking at the camera in such a way?

Even with a photo of this caliber (and I do think it’s a pretty great one for a cover image), overuse can cause weariness or unhelpful comparisons. I don’t think I’d be able to read Tessaro’s book without thinking of Cooper’s, even subconsciously. The two audiences are different – Cooper’s book is for teens and Tessaro’s for adults – so for most readers this won’t be a problem, but for the crossover ones like me, it can get distracting. What do you think of different cover designers using the same image over and over like this?

Falling: An Emerging Cover Trend

December 7, 2015 |

The last few years, I’ve done a huge look at cover trends that will be hitting shelves in the new year. I’m going to mix it up a little this go around, though. Rather than a couple of huge posts with all of the trends, I’m going to highlight them in individual posts throughout the next few months. Consider it more pow, as well as an opportunity for me to see more of the fall covers as they’re released and fit the various trends. All book descriptions provided will be from Goodreads.

Up first is a really curious one to me — it’s the trend of people falling on covers. I’ve talked before about the covers where a shadowy figure is running away from the reader on the cover, and we’ve all seen the deluge of covers featuring girls who are drowning or lying dead in a body of water.

But falling from the sky? This is a new one for me. And it’s not hitting shelves lightly come 2016. First, here’s a 2015 cover that might have inspired this trend:

The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle

It’s the accident season, the same time every year. Bones break, skin tears, bruises bloom.

The accident season has been part of seventeen-year-old Cara’s life for as long as she can remember. Towards the end of October, foreshadowed by the deaths of many relatives before them, Cara’s family becomes inexplicably accident-prone. They banish knives to locked drawers, cover sharp table edges with padding, switch off electrical items – but injuries follow wherever they go, and the accident season becomes an ever-growing obsession and fear.

But why are they so cursed? And how can they break free?

It’s an eye-catching cover, for sure. I think the color scheme behind the falling girl is what does it, though, not her. And both that color infused backdrop and a falling teen pepper the trend as it grows in 2016.

Ascending the Boneyard by C. G. Watson (Simon Pulse, February 16)

Everything’s a battle.

Sometimes life gets too real, and Caleb Tosh has taken one hit too many. First, there was the accident that changed everything for Tosh’s younger brother. Now his mom has left. All the pain, the grief and loss, have finally pushed Tosh over the edge.

If only he could have a do-over. Wipe his reality. Start fresh. Maybe he could fix all of his mistakes and everything would be different. Tosh immerses himself in the complex missions from the game he obsessively plays, The Boneyard. The game bleeds into the dark nature of his everyday life, folding reality into surreality until it’s impossible to separate one from the other. Tosh is desperate to Ascend, to reach the next level, to become Worthy.

Readers are brought on a one-of-a-kind, absorbing journey where no one can say what is real and what isn’t—right up until the shocking, yet deeply powerful conclusion.

The Blood Between Us by Zac Brewer (HarperTeen, May 3)

Growing up, Adrien and his sister, Grace, competed viciously for everything. It wasn’t easy being the adopted sibling, but Adrien tried to get along; it was Grace who didn’t want anything to do with him. When their scientist parents died in a terrible lab fire, there was nothing left to hold them together.

Now, after years apart, Adrien and Grace are forced to reunite at the elite boarding school where their parents were teachers. Being back around everyone he used to know makes Adrien question the person he’s become, while being back around Grace makes him feel like someone he doesn’t want to be.

For as much as Adrien wants to move on, someone seems determined to reopen old wounds. And when Adrien starts to suspect that Grace knows more about their parents’ deaths than she let on, he realizes there are some wounds no amount of time can heal. If Adrien isn’t careful, they may even kill him.

Heir to the Sky by Amanda Sun (Harlequin Teen, April 26)

As heir to a kingdom of floating continents, Kali has spent her life bound by limits—by her duties as a member of the royal family; by a forced betrothal to the son of a nobleman; and by the edge of the only world she’s ever known—a small island hovering above a monster-ridden earth, long since uninhabited by humans. She is the Eternal Flame of Hope for what’s left of mankind, the wick and the wax burning in service for her people, and for their revered Phoenix, whose magic keeps them aloft.

When Kali falls off the edge of her kingdom and miraculously survives, she is shocked to discover there are still humans on the earth. Determined to get home, Kali entrusts a rugged monster-hunter named Griffin to guide her across a world overrun by chimera, storm dragons, basilisks, and other terrifying beasts. But the more time she spends on earth, the more dark truths she begins to uncover about her home in the sky, and the more resolute she is to start burning for herself.

The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry (Razorbill, January 26)

Natalie Cleary must risk her future and leap blindly into a vast unknown for the chance to build a new world with the boy she loves.

Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start… until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right.

That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.

Emily Henry’s stunning debut novel is Friday Night Lights meets The Time Traveler’s Wife, and perfectly captures those bittersweet months after high school, when we dream not only of the future, but of all the roads and paths we’ve left untaken.

Places No One Knows by Brenna Yovanoff (Delacorte, May 17)

Waverly Camdenmar doesn’t have friends, she has social assets. She doesn’t get sucked into drama, she makes tactical decisions. Her life is dominated by achievement, competition, and functioning as the power behind the throne in her school’s little kingdom of popularity. But even the most resilient mercenary has weaknesses. Perfection is exhausting, and her longstanding alliance with queen-bee Maribeth rests on a foundation of resentment, anxiety, and a nagging feeling that there must be something beyond student council. Waverly’s name might be at the top of every leader board, but she hasn’t slept in days.

In a last-ditch attempt at relaxation, she finds herself at the center of an inexplicable phenomenon when a harmless counting exercise ends with Waverly materializing in front of one of the school’s most dedicated burn-outs. Marshall is not someone Waverly would ever consider … well, she would just never consider him. His nights are spent indulging in the kind of self-destructive pastimes she can only roll her eyes at. But despite herself, her curiosity is piqued. He sees her—really sees her —and his earnestness and his empathy are strangely affecting.

In these ghostly dreams, Waverly can do what she wants and say what she thinks, without risk or repercussion. Without it meaning anything. As nights pass, however, she begins to understand the nature of relationships, and to question her own daytime machinations. Her encounters with Marshall are growing steadily more intimate. Every new interaction forces her to ask herself how close is too close, and her days are becoming restless, complicated by her silent anger at Maribeth, and her budding friendship with a raucous, enigmatic girl who was never supposed to be anything but Waverly’s latest pygmalion project.

The truth is, it’s hard to be cavalier about hurting people when you know them. When you love them. As her edges begin to fray, Waverly must confront the very real danger of losing Marshall to the rigid image she’s spent so long cultivating, and accept that the only way to keep the people who matter to her is to embrace what it means to be vulnerable.

Have you seen other YA novels hitting shelves in 2016 featuring falling bodies? I’d love to know about ’em and more, I’d love to know what you make of this particular trend. I guess the only thing I have to really say about it is that I appreciate it’s not all girls who are falling (and thus falling apart or breaking), as clearly there are also boys who are in the same positions.

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