Today, however, I'm going to post some covers that are really effective and brilliant because they're bleak. Plain, melancholy, and beautiful in my opinion.
Click the links to check them out on Goodreads!
Who'd have thought three words and a girl lying in a road could be so effective? I'd love a cover like this, especially seeing as the MMC of The Brightest Fell does start the book lying unconscious in the middle of a road...
I have fond memories of this one, because it was the first modern (aka not from a jumble sale) YA I ever read. I borrowed it from my school library, and I always remembered the cover had a little rabbit on it, even though I forgot the name. And then I found it again in a second-hand book shop (yays!). Not as bleak as OUT OF REACH, but the blue and the abandoned toy are kind of haunting.
Yes, another lying-in-road one (obviously these teens didn't watch the road-safety hedgehog videos in primary school - anyone remember those?) but aren't the mountains in the mist bleak and totally cool?
Is that ice? Porcelain? Glass? Whatever it is, it's so effective. And I love it when a title ties in with the cover, unlike some books.
Finally, a book that sounds so good I might even read it despite there being zombies in it, and me having a massive issue with anything remotely gory or horror-like.
Check out those blood-stains on the blue background!
Which of these books float your boat? Do you like minimalistic covers, or are you more into pretty fonts and detailed images?
And are there any books anyone can recommend with cool bleak covers?
[Ooh, and as a side note, does anyone know of any good contemporary YA with unreliable/lying protags? Just a bit of next-WIP prep...]
Awesome simple but great covers. And I just added nearly all of these books to my to-read list. Thanks! And it's nice to 'meet' you. I'm a teen writer too, and I love meeting other young writers!
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm a follower now. ;)
DeleteHi Jadzia! Nice to meet you too - us young writers should stick together ;)
DeleteGo and have a look at Teens Writing For Teens, which is a brilliant website founded by a bunch of great teen writers :)
I love the cover for Freefall. Minimalistic covers are my faves. I just think they're so much more effective than ones with giant faces on the front. I don't know why, but I dislike all those super-complex painting-like fantasy covers.
ReplyDeleteI probably shouldn't be so picky. If I ever got published, waiting for my cover would probably give me a heart attack. :P
Mara
Hi Mara! If only authors got more of a say in their covers - if my book THE BRIGHTEST FELL ever got published, I'm terrified that they'd give it a boys' book jacket (it's a thriller with boy/girl dual POV) and therefore eliminate the actual target audience. All I know is I have to have the woodland somewhere on it. Do you have anything that you would love on your cover?
ReplyDeleteGreat covers! They make you wonder about the book and that's the whole point, right? The right cover really does make a difference.
ReplyDelete