Mundie Moms

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Thoughtful Thursday- Faces on YA Book Covers
























Julie Kagawa recently shared the cover for The Iron Knight with our beloved Ash on the front, but have you seen her recent post with the reveal of the back cover!?!? That's right, that's Puck! I seriously LOVE these covers. I'll admit I can't stop staring at both the covers.

That brings me to my Thoughtful Thursday question. Normally I'm not a fan of seeing faces on book covers, because often times I picture the person differently than what they look like on the cover. With The Iron Knight, I really like what Harlequin Teen has done. I like that we get to see part of their faces while still leaving a little air of mysterious surrounding how they look, but giving us just a enough of teaser to satisfy our curiosity.

I loved how Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instrument Series covers were done. It gave me an idea of what the characters looked before reading the books, and once I got to know the characters I thought the cover matched their descriptions perfectly. I also liked it when covers show people, but shadow their faces a bit. An example of that is with City of Fallen Angels, I like that part of Simon's face is shadowed and we get to see all of Clary's. Another series I liked seeing people on the cover is Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush, Hush series. Even though we can see the "characters" on the covers, I like that their faces are some what shadowed on the cover. Holly Black's Curse Worker's series and Andrea Cremer's Nightshade series are examples of series that I actually loved seeing the faces on.

Some other examples are great covers with faces on them are:

* Sophie Jordan's Firelight & Vanish
* Kiersten White's Paranormalcy & Supernaturally
* Ally Condie's Matched & Crossed
* Gayle Forman's If I Stay & Where She Went

Is it weird that I actually love seeing people on the cover of Middle Grade books, unlike YA? For some weird reason I'm way more accepting of seeing people on the cover of Middle Grade books than YA books, and I'm not sure why. I don't know if it's because I connect more with the characters or world while reading YA than MG or what. Even with the select few adult books I've read they've had people on the covers and I wasn't bothered by it. I'm really not sure why it bothers me more with YA books.

My question is, do you like seeing people on the covers of YA books? If you so, what is your favorite book or series that has someone on the cover?

10 comments:

  1. Nightshade by Andrea Cremer... I bought that book just because I knew looking at her that it was going to be a GREAT book!

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  2. I do like when part of the face is visable but I like to imagine what the characters look like in my head. One cover I love with a face would be The Pledge by Kim Derting.

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  3. I rather have a cover without a face. It's like you said, they usually don't match the image of the characters you have in your mind(it's pretty much impossible) and there are covers that don't even match the descriptions on the character in the book, so it turns rather disappointing. I've found that there are very few covers with faces on it that I actually like and that I think that match the story. For example, I love the cover of Wintergirls, and I think the covers of the Iron Fey series match the characters very well, except for the Puck one. I don't like the model, he's not even close to how I pictured Puck at all, but I do like that at least they put him in the back cover, it was a nice surprise. I love the first 3 covers of TMI, they don't show the faces but the give you a VERY good (spot-on!) idea of how the characters look like, AND the surroundings. The CoFA cover is my least favorite because it shows Clary's face, I thought that broke the theme.

    SoI prefer "abstract" covers, the ones that have words, play with the colors or just have representative objects in them. I find those are always a better match. Or the covers who don't have models but have "drawings", like Shiver, Linger and Forever, those are a few of my favorites.

    Bottom line is, I like pretty covers, which is always subjective, the end.

    /rant

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  4. I actually love people on covers...when they're done well. Sure, most of the time the people are misleading because they look nothing like the characters, but I think they're getting better at fixing that. I love how HTeen had fans vote on their Ash and Puck, too. I think my love for people on covers comes from the fact that I like taking photographs of people. I have friends, though, that are intimidated by people on covers.

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  5. Anonymous- I love Andrea's Nightshade series. Penguin did a great job with her covers.

    Cari- The Pledge has a great cover! I had to go look at it again.

    Nadinax- I love the Shiver series covers. Those are some of my favorite covers.

    DJ- You made a great statement about the covers, "when they're done well". The "well" ones are the ones that stand out and sadly more often than not it seems like many of the covers with people on them do not fit the book at all. Another cover I love are Stephanie Perkin's. I think Penguin has done a great job with hers. They are well done and match the stories.

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  6. I also love a face on a cover *IF* it well done. Now a series that i LOVE but cannot stand the covers is Vampire Academy. Out of all 6 books I do not like any of the covers:( I love Cassie's covers and Gayle Foreman the most I bet.

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  7. Oh wow I love that cover! Both sides! Faces definitely seem to be popular on YA covers but I like it so I'm good with it. :)

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  8. I LOVE the covers of the Darkest Powers series by Kelley Armstrong. She uses the same model consistently and the girl is PEFECT for the role! The way she places the necklace and the colors of it are ammazing! You should check it out for sure! And read the book while you're at it :)

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  9. I like people on covers and I enjoy seeing the whole character. The one thing that drives me nuts is when they cut off half the face. if they don't want to show the face clearly I'd rather they have the character standing in shadows, or with their back facing us, or just not show a person at all, but I hate how artifcial/fake it looks when they just chop half the head off.

    For example I love these two covers: http://www.marissadoyle.com/images/covers/BetrayingSeasonmedium.jpg and http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n74/n374625.jpg

    but I hate this style which unfortunately seems popular. It just looks so chopped up to me: http://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/8805112-the-queen-s-lady

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  10. Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series switched to people on the covers and I really like the models on the cover on his upcoming book Goliath. Seeing the Alek and Deryn characters on the cover along with illustrations in the book would be really cool.

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