This is the first of many pet peeves, and it's various cover designs that make me want to smash my head on a desk. I thought I could do all of my cover pet peeves in one post, but I have many so it's becoming a series! Yay lol.
My first pet peeve is faces that are cut off somewhere in between the eyes and the nose. I just don't understand why books do this, are eyes that scary? If anything I think the eyes are the most important part of the face and if any feature is going to be on a cover, eyes would be my first choice. This cover style can afflict entire series, such as The Mortal Instrument series by Cassandra Clare.
UGH. My favorite of the covers is City of Fallen Angels because FINALLY we get to see a face! Ohai there Clary, nice to see you. Now if only we could see your man friend's face too it'd be perfect.
Authors can be plagued by the no face books too. One in particular is Maureen Johnson.
13 Little Blue Envelopes gets it the worst with not one, but TWO no face covers.
The no face covers don't discriminate to just series however. They also are on stand alone novels or just a few books in a series, like the books below.
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Wicked Lovely #1, Fragile Eternity #3, and Darkest Mercy #5 in the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr
The Darkest Powers trilogy by Kelley Armstrong
And ok, let's discuss White Cat by Holly Black for a minute. I know you can technically see the top of this guys head, but seriously? Why is the series title across his eyes? This could have been such a cool cover if it weren't for the fact that his eyes are covered! It makes this cover look very silly.
To end this post here's a little reverse no face for you all. John Green's An Abundance of Katherines. I actually like this cover, maybe because we can SEE EYES. Holy crap, what a novel idea.
LoL nice point. I really don't mind. You know how people wear masks that cover up the eyes and the ridge of the nose and you can't tell who the person is? It's like that for me, there is still a bit of mystery/room for imagination by hiding the eyes.
ReplyDeleteGood point, but when there's a mask you can still see the mask, it's just not completely gone. I think it's weird to be just missing half a head and especially the eyes, they look like they were decapitated. It's disconcerting for me.
ReplyDeleteHahaha! It is a VERY popular trend. There are times that I hate it, but for the most part I really like it, probably more than having the full face (except in the case of otherwise-plain books, like Johnson's. Poor Maureen...)
ReplyDeleteI like the cropping and the visual interest that it provides, and I think psychologically, it can be a good thing because you WANT to be able to see the eyes and you keep looking at it, which as far as marketing is concerned, is a good thing.
That's interesting that you like them, because to me they are full of suck lol. I would rather have face covers, so we're opposites lol.
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