Inspired by Pure Imagination Blog and Stacked.

Let’s be honest, nobody follows the age-old cliché that tells us not to judge a book by its covers. If you say you do, I am side-eying you. Book covers are the first thing that attracts any of us readers to a book. Before you pick up a book, the cover can essentially make or break a book. If I don’t like a cover design, I won’t pick it up. Lucky for us, publishing companies publish different cover designs, especially when a paperback book comes out. Sometimes we like it, sometimes we don’t. Let’s discuss these cover changes, shall we?

Today, we look at the cover Legend by Marie Lu!

The Legend covers aren’t vastly different from each other, but the changes in the paperback is a big step from the hardcover.

I don’t have anything I like about the hardcover design. I guess I do like that the cover uses gold? Other than that, I don’t like the cover. I particularly don’t like the silver background because the shine/glare makes me cringe. It gives me a headache; I don’t know why but I do entertain the thought that the silver background must be my Kryptonite (not really). Also, when I look at this cover, it reminds me of how I feel when I hear windbreaker material rubbing together. *shudders* (I hate that sound.) It really makes me think of an old futuristic society like what the future would be when you’re living in the 50s.

The paperback is a great redesign of the hardcover because it doesn’t have that headache-inducing silver background. I like that 1. it almost looks like an inverted version of the previous design and 2. The background is a cement floor. I think it really shows off that the world in this book is really gritty and non-yielding. I like that you can see subtle cracks in the cement almost as if it’s foreshadowing that the Republic will do the same one day. (I know that’s a hugeeeeee reach, but hey, I like that thought.)

Which cover design do you prefer? Is there anything you would change in the covers?

(Note: I have yet to change the feature title because I’m still searching for the perfect name. :P.)