Old Books, New Titles: Cynthia Voigt’s (Tales of the) Kingdom Series

February 18, 2015 |

One of my most favorite books from when I was a child is On Fortune’s Wheel by Cynthia Voigt, the second book in a loosely-connected non-magical fantasy series called the Kingdom. The other books in the series are Jackaroo, Wings of a Falcon, and Elske. While they’re all fantastic, On Fortune’s Wheel occupies a special place in my heart – it was the first I read and it fundamentally changed my idea of what a book could be. It was set in a made-up land, but it didn’t have any magic. It dealt with slavery in a way that seemed very frank to me at the time. I learned what an amanuensis was and how to pronounce it. It made me see personal identity in new ways (I read certain sections of the book centering around this idea so often I have them committed to memory). The protagonist had sex (the fade-to-black kind, but it was there). And it ended with the girl deciding what was best for her, what she really wanted, and then doing it. And she was happy. I was in middle school when I read it, and I think these books are just right for that age group.

Voigt has always garnered much (deserved) recognition for the Tillerman cycle (Homecoming won a National Book Honor, Dicey’s Song the Newbery Medal, and A Solitary Blue a Newbery Honor), and those books tend to eclipse a lot of her other work. I always wished that her fantasy books were discussed a bit more, which is why I was so pleased to see that Atheneum is re-releasing the Kingdom books with a new look and new titles in May of this year.

With the re-release, the titles have been homogenized and simplified greatly. Jackaroo is now The Tale of Gwyn, On Fortune’s Wheel is The Tale of Birle, Wings of a Falcon is The Tale of Oriel, and Elske is The Tale of Elske. The entire series has been renamed The Tales of the Kingdom to match. I’m of two minds about the title changes. On the one hand, I like that they match each other, that it’s immediately apparent they belong in the same series. I also like the legend-like feel they give to the stories. This works especially well for Jackaroo, which is about a Robin Hood type of figure and the legends told about him. It also works well for the series as a whole: the books are loosely connected not by re-use of characters, but by stories – legends – passed down about these characters generations later.

On the other hand, the titles are a bit boring. Voigt’s fantasy character names aren’t terribly original (they’re kind of cliche, actually, but I forgive her) and so I don’t think they feature all that well in the titles. I think the original titles are more interesting and – with the exception of Elske – better reflect the meaning of the stories themselves.

I actually really loved some of the older covers for the books. At one point, they featured Vermeer paintings, which I found terribly romantic. Vermeer is one of my favorite painters and a big reason is because he is forever connected to these books in my mind. Here are three of the Vermeer covers (I don’t think Wings of a Falcon ever had one):

The 2015 releases aren’t the first time the covers have been redesigned. Simon Pulse published some paperbacks in 2003 that still look pretty modern to me, in that a lot of current fantasy novels feature an object central to the story on the cover. Again, Wings of a Falcon seems to have been left out.

I like the new designs, pictured at the top of this post, though I think they’re pretty generic (much like the titles). They skew a little more middle-grade for me, probably because they’re illustrated. On Edelweiss these books are listed as YA – grades 7 and up. When I read them, the books were located in the J section (though to be fair, YA sections weren’t really around much then), and I’d say the writing is more of a middle school YA than a high school YA. The cover for the Tale of Elske is the most interesting by far. Frustratingly, Edelweiss doesn’t have the cover for the Tale of Birle up yet. Don’t they realize that’s the one I’m most interested in?

Have you read these books? What’s your take on the new titles and new designs?

7 More 2015 YA Books with Diversity on the Cover

February 12, 2015 |

Last fall, I did a really quick round-up of YA covers for books coming out this year that featured diversity right square on the front cover. It was not only great to look at them all together that way, but it was nice to find more books to add to my own to-read list.

As more covers have been revealed or re-revealed in the last few months, I thought it would be worth revisiting that topic. Here’s a look at even more fabulously diverse YA covers for books coming out this year. Some of these are less front-facing than before, but they’re worth including because you know the character is a person of color. Like last time, I’ll include descriptions for the book, pulled from Goodreads, as well as the publication dates, so you can put them on your own reading and buying lists.

If I’ve missed some, either on this post or the previous one, let me know in the comments. Let’s see more cover work like this.

Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout (June 9): Grace Wilde is running—from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who’s topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother’s breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start.

She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can’t stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can’t deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol.

Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she’ll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, this young adult novel explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.

P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han (May 26, companion to To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before): Lara Jean didn’t expect to really fall for Peter.

She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren’t. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever.

When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?

Most Likely to Succeed by Jennifer Echols (August 4, final book in the “Superlative” series): As vice president of Student Council, Kaye knows the importance of keeping order. Not only in school, but in her personal life. Which is why she and her boyfriend, Aidan, already have their lives mapped out: attend Columbia University together, pursue banking careers, and eventually get married. Everything Kaye has accomplished in high school—student government, cheerleading, stellar grades—has been in preparation for that future.

To his entire class, Sawyer is an irreverent bad boy. His antics on the field as school mascot and his love of partying have earned him total slacker status. But while he and Kaye appear to be opposites on every level, fate—and their friends—keep conspiring to throw them together. Perhaps the seniors see the simmering attraction Kaye and Sawyer are unwilling to acknowledge to themselves…

As the year unfolds, Kaye begins to realize her ideal life is not what she thought. And Sawyer decides it’s finally time to let down the facade and show everyone who he really is. Is a relationship between them most likely to succeed—or will it be their favorite mistake?

The Wrath & The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh (May 12): Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.

Lying Out Loud by Kody Keplinger (April 28, companion to The DUFF): Sonny Ardmore is an excellent liar. She lies about her dad being in prison. She lies about her mom kicking her out. And she lies about sneaking into her best friend’s house every night because she has nowhere else to go.

Amy Rush might be the only person Sonny shares everything with — secrets, clothes, even a nemesis named Ryder Cross.

Ryder’s the new kid at Hamilton High and everything Sonny and Amy can’t stand — a prep-school snob. But Ryder has a weakness: Amy. So when Ryder emails Amy asking her out, the friends see it as a prank opportunity not to be missed.

But without meaning to, Sonny ends up talking to Ryder all night online. And to her horror, she realizes that she might actually like him. Only there’s one small catch: he thinks he’s been talking to Amy. So Sonny comes up with an elaborate scheme to help Ryder realize that she’s the girl he’s really wanted all along. Can Sonny lie her way to the truth, or will all her lies end up costing her both Ryder and Amy?

Of Dreams and Rust by Sarah Fine (August 4, sequel to Of Metal and Wishes): In the year since the collapse of the slaughterhouse where Wen worked as her father’s medical assistant, she’s held all her secrets close. She works in the clinic at the weapons factory and sneaks away to nurse Bo, once the Ghost, now a boy determined to transform himself into a living machine. Their strange, fragile friendship soothes some of the ache of missing Melik, the strong-willed Noor who walked away from Wen all those months ago—but it can’t quell her fears for him.

The Noor are waging a rebellion in the west. When she overhears plans to crush Melik’s people with the powerful war machines created at the factory, Wen makes the painful decision to leave behind all she has known—including Bo—to warn them. But the farther she journeys into the warzone, the more confusing things become. A year of brutality seems to have changed Melik, and Wen has a decision to make about him and his people: How much is she willing to sacrifice to save them from complete annihilation?

Hold Tight, Don’t Let Go by Laura Rose Wagner (available now): Hold Tight, Don’t Let Go follows the vivid story of two teenage cousins, raised as sisters, who survive the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti. After losing the woman who raised them in the tragedy, Magdalie and Nadine must fend for themselves in the aftermath of the quake. The girls are inseparable, making the best of their new circumstances in a refugee camp with an affectionate, lively camaraderie, until Nadine, whose father lives in Miami, sends for her but not Magdalie. As she leaves, Nadine makes a promise she cannot keep: to bring Magdalie to Miami, too. Resourceful Magdalie focuses her efforts on a reunion with Nadine until she realizes her life is in Haiti, and that she must embrace its possibilities for love, friendship, and a future.

Hardcover to Paperback Makeovers: 6+ Changes To Consider

January 26, 2015 |

It’s a new year, and with that comes another round of cover makeovers, many of which are books that came out in hardcover last year. I’ve pulled together just a few of the changes I’ve seen popping up and I’ve saved a pile more for future posts.

Some of these redesigns in paperback are winners and some of them don’t seem to change much about the hardcover. In some instances, maybe the hardcover is all together better. One of the more interesting trends I’ve noticed is where the hardcover was unique — either a design or completely font-driven — and the paperback makeover turns into a stock photo of a girl. It makes the paperbacks blend together, as it’s hard to sometimes differentiate one girl from another on those covers, whereas a cover that has the title written across it largely or features some other memorable image just stands out more on the shelf and stands out more in my head.

Let’s dig in. As usual, the original hardcovers are on the left and their paperback incarnations are on the right.

Tease by Amanda Maciel came out in hardcover last spring, and the design of this one was really noteworthy. It looks like a gray cover with the title in cursive across it, but in person, it’s extremely shiny. Both the silver-y background and the pink-red title text pop in the treatment of the hardcover design.

The paperback, out April 28, goes in a completely different direction. The title is still the focal point of the cover, though rather than pop like it does on the hardcover, it’s more subdued in white. It’s also in a completely different — and I think less effective — font. Where the hardcover didn’t include the blurb on the front cover (they were on the back), the paperback makes use of the Hopkins blurb at the top left corner. I’m not really inspired by the stock image used here at all. It looks like a million other side-profile girl faces on YA covers. It’s hard for me to tell whether the new look is meant to draw a different audience or not. I can’t figure out whether it’s appealing to teen readers more or less, as the girl herself looks older than a teenager.

The hardcover of Tease is the better cover here, hands down. Neither cover necessarily hints at what’s going on inside the book, though.

Elizabeth Scott’s Heartbeat cover went through a few design tweaks before the final hardcover version appeared. Though it’s a cover of a couple kissing, the way the title is treated makes this one pretty memorable. The design is eye-catching and in thinking about how this book looks face-out on a shelf, it’s really appealing. The hardcover plays into the idea there’s a romance in the book — and there is — even though the romance isn’t the driving force of the novel.

And perhaps that’s the reason for the paperback redesign, due out March 1. The makeover on this one goes to a stock image, and rather than play up the romance, this one plays up the grief aspect of the story. The girl is off-center, and she’s looking off in the distance. Her body language is one that’s sad or longing, and that fits with the story itself. Unlike the hardcover, which did everything in all capital letters, the paperback redesign went with putting everything in all lowercase letters. There’s a certain understatement to that and aesthetically, it’s really appealing. It’s quieter. That said, the paperback is almost forgettable — it’s a girl on the cover with nothing super distinguishing or remarkable about her. It doesn’t feel fresh or new.

This one is tough to call a better cover on in terms of what it tries to tell the reader about the story, but in terms of straight eye-catchiness and memorability the hardcover does it better.

Scholastic has been rolling out redesigned covers for Siobhan Vivian’s backlist, and her first YA novel, A Little Friendly Advice, will be seeing the paperback makeover treatment on shelves March 31.

The hardcover for this one is straightforward and simple. This is a book about friendship and a group of girl friends, and Ruby, the main character, receives a polaroid camera for her 16th birthday. That gift translates onto the hardcover, as each of the girls are depicted in a polaroid image. There’s a nice sense of each personality in the four photos, even though they’re all stock photos. More, all of the girls look like they’re teenagers.

The paperback maintains the feel of the hardcover, but it makes it even fresher. There are still four girls, and they all look quite similar to the original girls. But what really stands out — and what Scholastic’s done with the other redesigns of Vivian’s covers — is that these girls look like they’re 16. Where the girls on the hardcover do look like teens, there’s zero question about the ages of the girls on the paperback. They aren’t wearing styles that are dated, either, meaning that this cover has a long shelf life ahead of it, despite being a cover with people on it. I love, too, that the main character is looking right at the reader.

While I think both covers for A Little Friendly Advice are good, the paperback is a really nice, fresh update of the original. For readers who didn’t pick this one up the first time around, this will be especially appealing and exciting.

For those who haven’t seen the other redesigns, here are the updated looks for Not That Kind of Girl and Same Difference.

I always thought the hardcover of Jon Skovron’s Man Made Boy was pretty great. I love the big Frankenstein hand, and more, I love that it’s holding the title of the book itself. The font for the title is made up of circuitry, and I think the heart in place of an “O” was a clever touch. There’s no need to talk boy book or girl book, but this book cover definitely has a masculine feel to it, and I think with that feel, there’s appeal to guy readers especially. This cover, faced out, should go. Even with a heart on it. The heart is malfunctioning anyway.

But the paperback for Man Made Boy, due out July 7, takes what the hardcover does well and amps it up even more. In a lot of ways, this cover feels powerful because it’s so understated. Where the hardcover is a bit loud, but packed with fun detail, the paperback is one cohesive image. More, though, I love how this cover undermines gender. We get that in the hardcover with the heart, but in the paperback, we get it because the image replicates doll pieces (do those push-out dolls still exist today?). Interestingly, the paperback ditches the big John Corey Whaley blurb in honor of a tag line, and it’s much more effective and useful to me as a reader — “A boy among monsters, a monster among people — a hero above all.” I know what this story is going to be about more with that than I do praise for the story.

Also interesting: the author is introduced to readers as the author of This Broken Wondrous World, which is the sequel to Man Made Boy and also features a similar cover treatment . . . but publishes nearly a month after the paperback is released. Maybe that’s a placeholder, but if it isn’t, that seems weird to be advertising an author by a book not yet published.

Both of these covers are pretty good, but because the sequel is going with a similar look to the paperback, maybe the paperback is a winner for cohesiveness.

Here’s a much-needed, very well-done, and memorable cover change for 21 Proms, an older anthology of short stories by 21 authors. The original cover on the left isn’t bad at all. It gets right to the point of the book: these are stories about prom. The authors on the cover include all contributors, rather than just the biggest, most well-known names (at the time — this book published in 2007). It’s a stock image, and the tag line fits for the collection.

The redesign, which came out December 31, does in a bit of a different direction but without sacrificing the feel of the original or getting away from the purpose of the anthology. The cover, which is an illustration, highlights the stories within the anthology. You don’t just see heterosexual couples represented here — there are multiple gay couples, as well as a lesbian couple, as well as individuals who are without a partner, as well as groups. There’s a nice range of representation on the cover, which is fitting with the content itself. One interesting and noteworthy change, though, is that because of how the illustration takes up so much of the cover, the author listing has been pared down greatly to just the biggest, most recognizable names in YA. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s an interesting change nonetheless.

The paperback for 21 Proms is a winner here. It’s fresh, it’s contemporary, and it’ll give life to this anthology for another generation of teen readers and prom story enthusiasts.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the cover for Lucy Christopher’s The Killing Woods when it came out last year. It’s not a bad cover by any means, but it’s kind of forgettable amid a ton of YA book covers featuring a shadowy person running through the woods. The tag line was kind of interesting, especially because it got to what was really going on in the story itself. This wasn’t so much a book about woods which were deadly, but rather, about the deadly games played in the woods.

The paperback redesign, which came out December 31, changes the cover quite a bit, while still maintaining a sense of foreboding to it. We’ve got the woods in the background, but rather than being blue, they’ve been made into a deep red color. And rather than feature a haunting moon, there’s a bird on a branch — keeping with the fact birds are a hot cover feature, this isn’t too surprising, even though it doesn’t play a role in the story. What the redesign does that I love, though, is the title font. If anything, the new font is what gives this cover the sense of fear to it. I’m an even bigger fan of the typerwriter font for Christopher’s name.

While neither cover knocks it out of the park, I think the paperback is a little more my taste. In terms of audience appeal, this is a tough one. The hardcover mimics a lot of adult thrillers in how it looks, which could be a draw for teen and adult readers. The paperback is quieter and more “literary,” which almost makes it feel like it’s reaching for more adult readers, rather than teen readers.

I’m less interested in talking about the paperback redesign for Miranda Kenneally’s Breathe, Annie, Breathe than I am about the fact this is the fourth incarnation of this book’s cover. The hardcover, on the left, came about after two previous designs were nixed after being revealed. Here’s what the two original-but-ditched hardcover designs:

After seeing so many designs of this one, my mind is muddled with which is the real one and which isn’t the real one. I wonder if that’s part of what drove the decision to choose yet another design for the paperback? If anything, though, the final paperback look fits with the look that the rest of the very loose “Hundred Oaks” series has going for it, with romance being what the driving image force is. If it hadn’t been redesigned, it would have been the only book that was just a girl on the cover.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire: YA Books With A Lot of Lying

January 19, 2015 |

It’s been quite a year in lies for YA, and it appears as though it’s going to continue well into 2015. Betsy Bird talked about some of the trends that will continue through this year, and one that she hits on is the idea of truth-stretching and lying, with some focus on the growth of lying in YA fiction as a means of storytelling.

One of the biggest “meets”/”for fans of” pitches I’ve seen in catalog copy for YA this year follows this trend as well. If you’re looking for your next We Were Liars, then it seems like you’ll have plenty of titles to choose from. Whether or not they’re really going to be great read alikes is yet to be seen, but here are four titles off the top of my head with that pitch in their respective catalogs (links go to Goodreads, which may not reflect catalog copy):

Twisted Fate by Norah Olson — out January 20
The Cost of All Things by Maggie Lehrman — out May 12
Modern Monsters by Kelley York — out June 2
Pretending to Be Erica by Michelle Painchaud — out July 21

What’s interesting is that none of those books feature “lies,” “liars,” or “lying” in the title, which is where I’ve noticed an emerging trend. How many books in the last year have featured some variation of that word in the title? And how fun would a book display be of books featuring those words in the title be?

Here’s a look at the last year or so in lying liars who lie in YA. Some of these titles aren’t out yet, so I’ve noted publication dates.

Lies I Told by Michelle Zink (April 7): Since Grace was adopted by the Fontaines, she has been carefully taught the art of the scam and has an uncanny ability to create a personality to help her “parents,” but their latest job has her questioning everything she has been taught and the family she has grown to love.

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley: In 1959 Virginia, Sarah, a black student who is one of the first to attend a newly integrated school, forces Linda, a white integration opponent’s daughter, to confront harsh truths when they work together on a school project.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart: A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island. A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy. A group of four friends — the Liars — whose friendship turns destructive. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. True love. The truth. Spending the summers on her family’s private island off the coast of Massachusetts with her cousins and a special boy named Gat, teenaged Cadence struggles to remember what happened during her fifteenth summer.

Little Blue Lies by Chris Lynch: Oliver, known as “O”, and his suddenly ex-girlfriend Junie are are known for telling little lies, but one of Junie’s lies about not winning the lottery could get her into trouble with a local mob boss.

Little White Lies by Katie Dale: The first time Lou meets mysterious Christian, she knows he is The One. But when Christian’s secret is unveiled in front of the whole world, it seems everything he’s ever told Lou is a lie, and Lou finds herself ensnared in a web of deceit.

There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake: Shelby Cooper, nearly eighteen, has been overprotected by her single mother all her life but after a car accident, Shelby’s mother steals her away from the hospital, revealing that Shelby’s father is not dead, but rather a violent man who promised to hunt them down.

Even When You Lie To Me by Jessica Alcott (June 9): Because she sees herself as ugly and a misfit, tolerated only because of her friendship with pretty and popular Lila, Charlie dreads her senior year but a crush on the new charismatic English teacher, Mr. Drummond, makes school bearable until her eighteenth birthday, when boundaries are crossed.

Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters: When her girlfriend dies suddenly at age seventeen, Colorado teenager Alix struggles with grief as painful secrets are revealed.

Liars, Inc. by Paula Stokes (March 24): Seventeen-year-old Max, his girlfriend Parvati, and best friend Pres form Liars, Inc., expecting that forging notes and lying for their peers will lead to easy cash, but when Pres asks Max to cover for him, it may be a fatal mistake.

Trust Me, I’m Lying by Mary Elizabeth Summer: Having learned to be a master con artist from her father, Julep Dupree pays expenses at her exclusive high school by fixing things for fellow students, but she will need their help when her father disappears.

Want more liars? Here’s a round-up of older titles where lying liars who lie have some space to themselves in their titles. I learned that lies come in so many different colors while putting this together.

Liar by Justine Larbalestier: Compulsive liar Micah promises to tell the truth after revealing that her boyfriend has been murdered.

Lies by Michael Grant (part of a series): As conditions worsen in the FAYZ, where supernatural forces have trapped children under the age of fifteen and resources are running out, it becomes tempting to heed the words of a prophet who says that only death will set them free.

Perfect Lies by Kiersten White (part of a series): Sisters Anie and Fia have had their abilites manipulated by the Keane Foundation for too long–and now they’re ready to fight back against the twisted organization that has been using them as pawns.

Beautiful Lies by Jessica Warman: Eighteen-year-old identical twins Alice and Rachel have always shared a very special bond, so when one is abducted the other uses their connection to try to locate her.

Kisses and Lies by Lauren Henderson: Orphaned British teenager Scarlett Wakefield postpones her romance with the handsome son of the school groundskeeper in order to travel to Scotland with her American sidekick, Taylor, in search of clues to the murder of a boy who dropped dead after kissing Scarlett.

Sweet Little Lies by Lauren Conrad (part of a series): Now a reality show celebrity, nineteen-year-old Jane Roberts learns that not all of her new friends are trustworthy.

Deadly Little Lies by Laurie Faria Stolarz (part of a series): Camelia, who has recently discovered she shares her crush Ben’s power of psychometry, finds herself in a tortured love triangle when a figure from Ben’s past arrives and Camelia learns that both boys are hiding dangerous secrets.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch: Vowing to bring down the crime boss running the city, a group of Gentlemen Bastards, led by Locke Lamora, sets out to beat the Capa at his own game, taking on other thieves, murderers, beggars, prostitutes, and thugs in the process.

Little Black Lies by Tish Cohen: Starting her junior year at an ultra-elite Boston school, sixteen-year-old Sara, hoping to join the popular crowd, hides that her father not only is the school janitor, but also has obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Father of Lies by Ann Turner: In 1692 when a plague of accusations descends on Salem Village in Massachusetts and “witch fever” erupts, fourteen-year-old Lidda, who has begun to experience visions and hear voices, tries to expose the lies of the witch trials without being hanged as a witch herself. Includes author’s notes about the Salem Witch Trials and bipolar disease.

Little Red Lies by Julie Johnston: The war is over, but for thirteen-year-old Rachel, the battle has just begun. Putting childhood behind her, she knows what she wants – to prove she has acting talent worthy of the school drama club, and what she doesn’t want – to romantically fall for someone completely inappropriate. Worries about her veteran brother’s failing health and repugnance at her mother’s unexpected and unwanted pregnancy drive her to seek solace from a seemingly sympathetic, but self-serving teacher. The lies she tells herself hoping to reach solutions to the problems complicating her life merely function to make matters worse. Ultimately, she finds a way to come to terms with life as it reaches an end and life as it begins.

Love & Lies by Ellen Wittlinger: When Marisol, a self-confident eighteen-year-old lesbian, moves to Cambridge, Massachusetts to work and try to write a novel, she falls under the spell of her beautiful but deceitful writing teacher, while also befriending a shy, vulnerable girl from Indiana.

Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses by Ron Koertge: Free-verse reveals true stories behind well-known fairy tales, some reset in modern times, as a strung-out match girl sells CDs to drug users, Little Red Riding Hood admits that she wanted to know what it is like to be swallowed whole, and Cinderella’s stepsisters are duped.

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard (series): When one of their tightly-knit group mysteriously disappears, four high school girls find their friendship difficult to maintain when they begin receiving taunting messages from someone who seems to know everything about their past and present secrets.

The Liar Society by Lisa and Laura Roecker (series): When Kate receives a mysterious e-mail from her dead friend Grace, she must prove that Grace’s death was not an accident, but finds that her elite private school holds secrets so big people are willing to kill to protect them.

The Secret to Lying by Todd Mitchell: Fifteen-year-old James lies about himself to be considered “cool” when he gets into an exclusive boarding school, but soon unnaturally vivid dreams of being a demon-hunting warrior lead to self-destructive acts while he is awake.

The Lying Game by Sara Shepard (series): Seventeen-year-old Emma Paxton steps into the life of her long-lost twin Sutton to solve her murder, while Sutton looks on from her afterlife.

2015 YA Book Cover Trends: Part II

December 18, 2014 |

On Monday, I highlighted some of the trends showing up in the 2015 YA book covers that have popped up so far. Because there are so many, I had to break them up across two posts. Thus today, welcome to part two.

This round-up of trends features some that are obvious and some which are simply interesting or fun coincidences that emerged when looking at tons and tons of covers. All links will take you to the Goodreads page for the book, so you can read the description and add it to your to-be-read list. When you click through, see if you’re as keen on the most popular comparison title of the year as I am (spoiler, it’s We Were Liars — so many YA books are being compared to it this coming year).

If you know of other 2015 covers that fit any of these trends, feel free to let me know in the comments. If there’s another trend popping up I’ve missed or not talked about here or in Monday’s piece, I’d love to hear about those, too.

Turn Your Back On The Reader

This isn’t a new trend, but it caught my attention this year after looking at so many covers. It’s mostly females, but not without a male or two or three, and it’s when the model on the cover has their back to the reader. It’s a way to avoid putting a face on a book cover. Note how much long hair there is on the girls, too.

After the Red Rain by Barry Lyga, Peter Facinelli, and Robert DeFranco

All Fall Down by Ally Carter

The Bargaining by Carly Anne West

Better Than Perfect by Melissa Kantor

The Boys of Fire and Ash by Meaghan McIsaac

A Cold Legacy by Megan Shepherd

Deceptive by Emily Lloyd-Jones

The Distance Between Lost and Found by Kathryn Holmes

The Eternity Key by Bree Despain

Etherworld by Claudia Gabel and Cheryl Klam

The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson

I Am Her Revenge by Meredith Moore

I Was Here by Gayle Forman

Infected by Sophie Littlefield

Inherit Midnight by Kate Kae Myers

The Leveller by Julia Durango

A Matter of Heart by Amy Fellner Dominy

The Nightmare Charade by Mindee Arnett

Polaris by Mindee Arnett

Positively Beautiful by Wendy Mills

The Remedy by Suzanne Young

Rogue Wave by Jennifer Donnelly

Scripted by Maya Rock

The Shadow Cabinet by Maureen Johnson

Skyscraping by Cordelia Jensen

Sophomore Year is Greek to Me by Meredith Zeitlin

A Book of Spirits and Thieves by Morgan Rhodes

The Heir by Kiera Cass

Unmade by Amy Rose Capetta

Until the Beginning by Amy Plum

Between Us and the Moon by Rebecca Maizel

When Reason Breaks by Cindy L. Rodriguez

Carnivals

Who doesn’t enjoy a good carnival scene, complete with a ferris wheel, on their book cover?

Our Brothers at the Bottom of the Sea by Jonathan Kranz

Undertow by Michael Buckley

Butterflies

We’ve seen birds and planes, so it almost makes sense there’s also quite a few butterflies showing up on covers in 2015. I prefer to this to the insects that were showing up in past years.

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

Dream A Little Dream by Kerstin Gier

Note that both of these feature the Blue Morphos. Are they coming back?

Hold Me Like A Breath by Tiffany Schmidt

The Stars Never Rise by Rachel Vincent

Illustrated Covers

This trend won’t be going away any time soon. I’m still not sure it’s one I love, though many of these are pretty great. The challenge is that after a while, they sort of blend into each other, even when they’re all original designs.

7 Days by Eve Ainsworth

The Improbable Theory of Ana & Zak by Brian Katcher

The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson

Between the Notes by Sharon Huss Roat

Breakout by Kevin Emerson

Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert

Eden West by Pete Hautman

The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough

Hold Tight, Don’t Let Go by Laura Rose Wagner

If You Were Me by Sam Hepburn

Invincible by Amy Reed

The Kidney Hypothetical by Lisa Yee

Everybody Knows Your Name by Andrea Seigel and Brent Bradshaw

Little Bit by Alex Wheatle

Lois Lane: Fallout by Gwenda Bond

Love, Fortunes, and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius

Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

Mosquitoland by David Arnold

My Best Everything by Sarah Tomp

The Nightmare Charade by Mindee Arnett

Pretending to be Erica by Michelle Painchaud

The Prom Goer’s Guide to Interstellar Excursion by Chris McCoy

Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George — Not sure why I can only find a draft cover, but it’s gorgeous and I hope that’s what they go with for a final look.

The Rise and Fall of a Theater Geek by Seth Rudetsky

The Truth Commission by Susan Juby

Valiant by Sarah McGuire

Vanished by E. E. Cooper

Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Eyes

We’ll get to see some more big eyes this year. Oh, and I’m putting in one that’s a little harder to pull out but they’re there. Watching you.

5 to 1 by Holly Bodger

City 1 by Gregg Rosenblum

Reawakened by Colleen Houck

Salt & Stone by Victoria Scott

Skandal by Lindsay Smith

Purple, with Spools of Thread

This is just a two cover coincidence, but strange that they’re purple covers with spools of thread on them. I think Fig‘s cover might be my favorite so far of 2015, though I don’t think it’s a YA book cover at all. It feels more like it’s either middle grade or adult (and to be fair, I think Valiant may be a middle grade book, not YA).

Valiant by Sarah McGuire

Fig by Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

Fractured Pieces

Or maybe in some cases, it’s more like a collage than fractured pieces. These all kind of have an Instagram-y feel to them, too.

99 Days by Kate Contugno

The Conspiracy of Us by Maggie Hall

Duplicity by N. K. Traver

Making Pretty by Corey Ann Haydu

Tracers by J. J. Howard

I

Hearts. Are. Everywhere. Not only are there a ton of hearts on the covers as part of the image, but there is more than one book where the heart image is used in place of the word “heart” in the title.

Alive by Chandler Baker

The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak by Brian Katcher

Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan

Bright Lights, Dark Nights by Stephen Emond

Emmy and Oliver by Robin Benway

Encore to an Empty Room by Kevin Emerson

Flirty Dancing by Jenny McLachlan

From Where I Watch You by Shannon Grogan

Killer Within by S. E. Green

Love, Fortunes, and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius

My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga

Not After Everything by Michelle Levy

Play On by Michelle Smith

Revenge, Ice Cream, and Other Things Best Served Cold by Katie Finn

Sophomore Year is Greek to Me by Meredith Zeitlin

Things We Know By Heart by Jessi Kirby

We Can Work It Out by Elizabeth Eulberg

What Remains by Helene Dunbar

The Wrong Side of Right by Jenn Marie Thorne

Bows & Arrows

While there are still a lot of daggers on YA covers — a trend I noted last year — I thought the look of the bow and arrow being on covers was more eye-catching this year.

Arrows by Melissa Gorzelanczyk

The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons

Ignite by Sara B. Larson

The Storyspinner by Becky Wallace

Gold Objects

The reason that the bow and arrow covers caught my eye was because I’d initially seen a lot of golden objects appearing on cover images. So why don’t we look at the gold objects? There’s nothing connecting the objects but their color and how they stand out on the cover because of it.

Ignite by Sara B. Larson

Mark of the Thief by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Miss Mayhem by Rachel Hawkins — Another cover that’s on my short list of favorites for 2015.

Woven by Michael Jensen and David Powers King

Into the Woods

Since I’ve looked at plenty of objects on covers, how about settings on covers? I haven’t read these to know, but I have a feeling that the woods here aren’t going to be a great place to be heading.

Andreo’s Race by Pam Withers

The Bargaining by Carly Anne West

The Distance Between Lost and Found by Kathryn Holmes

The Eternity Key by Bree Despain

The Revelation of Louisa May by Michaela MacColl

Renegade by Kerry Wilkinson

Strange Skies by Kristi Helvig

Unspeakable by Abbie Rushton –Add this to my favorite covers short list, too, and it reminds me quite a bit of Amy Reed’s gorgeous cover for Invincible.

What Waits in the Woods by Kieran Scott

Girls Behind Words

Another way to obscure the face of a cover model is to put her behind the text for the book’s title.

Damage Done by Amanda Panitch

Dead to Me by Mary McCoy

The Notorious Pagan Jones by Nina Berry — I hope this is a mistake about being YA because, while it’s fitting with the time frame of the story, that cover model is older than me, which is older than a teenger.

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

Four Teens, Just Hanging Around

I’m not sure what’s special about the number four, but I have noticed more covers with multiple people on them seem to have groups of four. Even better if they’re in groups of four and in the distance and shadow-y.

The Cost of All Things by Maggie Lehrman

Get Dirty by Gretchen McNeil

The Night We Said Yes by Lauren Gibaldi

Promposal by Rhonda Helms

A Bright, Fully-Saturated Color Palate

To wrap up this post, let’s look at the color trend for 2015: bright, bold, saturated colors. These are covers that are standing out because they’re using so many colors on them.