Inspired by What She Reads, Pure Imagination Blog, and Stacked.
I admit I’m a book cover snob. Who isn’t though?
Book covers are the first thing that attracts readers to a book. A good cover can draw someone is, just as a bad cover can easily draw someone away. It can essentially make or break a book. Holy, Mother Cover! is where I showcase the book covers that stand out (or make me cringe), and discuss cover changes.
(A big special thanks to Georgie at What She Reads for bestowing me this fabulous name and to Charlotte at The Simple Tales for creating the beautiful feature banner you see before you.)
COVER CHANGE: Dissonance by Erica O’Rourke
Three things I love about this cover: 1. the colors! The shades or blue and purple work really well here, and I think a large part of that has to do with the grainy quality of the photo. It gives it an extra something—an umpf; 2. the overlay effect. I really love how it looks, especially with the model in motion; and 3. the double dissonance. Do you see how there’s a faded, yet bigger “dissonance” over the title? I really like that!
However, the one thing that really bugs me is the weird “S O N” in big lettering on the top. Does it say “Dissonance” or something else? It’s just so weird that you can’t see it in its entirety.
Would I buy this book based on the cover? Sure.
It’s such a bland cover. Origami star-flower? I’m not sure what significance it is, but it just seems really odd. And it’s against a white background? Like what? I really don’t understand why the hardcover needed a redesign. The paperback hardly catches my attention; it’s a big fat yawn.
Though, I do like that the color scheme stays pretty much the same for this cover and the way that the colors of the title turns from white to the blue-purple shade.
Would I buy this book based on the cover? Hahaha, nope.
Final Verdict: I guess the hardcover.
While I like the colours on the covers, I actually like the paperback cover. It’s so simple and combined with the pretty colours and origami stars it makes me interested in the book. The hardcover isn’t bad either, but those 3 people and the SON letters are a bit weird. I would often prefer a cover without people over a cover with people, so maybe it’s that.
This book was a DNF for me, but I’m definitely agreeing with you about the cover thing. I actually really don’t like the paperback. It just looks so weird and after having read some of the book, I fail to see how it fits, anyway. At least the hardback makes sense.
I love this feature! It’s really awesome that you compare covers.
I too like the colors on both the covers, but I’m not sure I would buy either one just based on the cover. Maybe the hardcover. Maybe. What a big change from hardcover to paperback!
I like the idea of the paperback but it’s hard to read. The colors on both are completely beautiful though.
I think I actually prefer the paperback to the hardback. :P I mean, yeah, the hardback is gorgeous, and definitely eye-catching, but it also seems kind of generic in some ways. Beautiful model on the cover, check. Model in a pretty dress, check. Only they did a twist and included the duplicated model in different poses, haha. I think the paperback could be eye-catching because of the simplicity and the stark white-ness of the cover, but like you said, I don’t know if those origami stars have any significance to the story at all. (If they don’t, I’d buy the hb over the pb, no questions asked!)
The paperback actually makes sense for the story, but it actually took me a while to figure out what those things were.
And the SON actually spells out Dissonance when you hold open the entire dust jacket :)
I like both of them, but I think the original one is more catching.
Woah I didn’t know this one already had a cover change! I actually prefer the first cover. The 2nd cover makes it look like it’s a contemporary book. It’s so misleading! If I didn’t know anything about this book and I just saw the 2nd cover, I’d think it’s about the MC who has an illness and the MC and another character will tackle the world etc.
I don’t think I would pick up either one of these based on the cover alone, but I do like the paperback cover a little better.
Am I allowed to say neither? Both are just kind of ‘meh’ to me and I can’t think off the top of my head but they both look similar to covers I’ve seen before.
I love this post though. Such a cool idea. But it makes me wonder how my cover stands up to the critics!