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: Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs

If you had the pleasure of looking at Tales of the Peculiar in person, it is quite a beauty. I love the simplicity of the image, but yet it’s complex because of the detailing in the vines and the leaves. I love how birds, anchors, snakes, fish, etc are intertwined with the branches and vines. If you don’t look closely, you’ll miss the dragon-like claws and creepy eyes hiding in the image. It’s slightly unsettling because you find these creepy things in the cover. The gold looks beautiful against the forest green background. The cover already tells you a story.

The paperback cover is actually a great redesign. The art is very much in the same style of the art you find in the book, so yay for consistency. I love that you can see the lines and the strokes the artist made for this image. Like the hardcover design, this tells you everything you need to know about this book—there are creepy or off-putting stories that will be told. There’s a woman reading to these kids about invisible man and whatnot. There are animals. There are unexpected things that will surely happen in the book in the dead of night.

Final Verdict: What cover do I like better? Hardcover.

Which cover design do you prefer? Would you buy the the hardcover or paperback cover?