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Double-Take

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Written by: Kimberly Francisco on August 18, 2011.
Here’s an interesting double-take: the same almost-kissing couple on the cover of two pretty different books.

The choice of background image is what differentiates one book from the other. The one at the left is (obviously) much darker, giving it a moody edge, whereas the one at the right screams “girly book.” I haven’t read either, but the synopsis for Simone Elkeles’ Return to Paradise indicates that it is indeed pretty moody. I wouldn’t necessarily say that putting a kissing couple on the cover of a book makes it appeal to boys, but the darker background of Elkeles’ book speaks to both genders better than the pastel swirls of the other.
When I came across Reaching Through Time in a catalog, I was a little flabbergasted to discover that Lurlene McDaniel is still writing – and even more flabbergasted that the book is a collection of three romances involving time travel and NOT ONE of them seems to include a tragically terminal teenager. It was just released on the 9th – has anyone read it?

Comments

  4. I've read Return to Paradise and that cover fits the story. The kids are travelling to camps some of the time and there is a bit of a push/pull. I couldn't say anything about the other as I've not heard of it. It is interesting that publishers use the same imagery for book covers though. I suppose it's impossible to be sure it's not been used already but man if book bloggers can find these things so quickly how can they not?

Double take

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Written by: Kelly on April 28, 2009.

With inspirational credit to the Alea Pop Culture blog, I thought it would be interesting to look at cover art that appears on multiple books, making them eerily similar. In a sea of fiction, how does one navigate when there are so many similar looking books (admit it, you DO judge a book by its cover, at least initially!).

While perusing some of the new titles for 2009, both those that have been released already and those to be published soon, I ran across this cover double. Published first:

Andrew O’Keeffe’s The Boss to be published by Greenleaf April 30 uses a tie to stand in place of the “o.” The Boss is a humorous and all-too-realistic story about working beneath a number of bosses making absurd demands, stealing ideas, and squelching main character Lauren’s creativity. This book’s geared for an adult audience.

Coming out literally days after The Boss is this book geared for the young adult audience:

Initiation by Susan Fine is set for release in May by Flux publishers. Rather than use the image of the tie with the same stripped design (though in different colors) as part of the title, it’s meant to stand alone as the background image. Initiation is a story a middle class Latino boy trying to survive — forget fitting in at! — an elite private school in Manhattan.

So, which cover did it better? Personally, I think the design is pretty interesting, period, which is the only reason I even noticed it. I had put Initiation on my to-be-read list last night and found The Boss this evening. I’m curious if this will cause any confusion given their similar publishing time frames, albeit different topics and target audiences.

Do you know of any other covers that look similar? Share with us in the comments!