I just finished reading Dark Desires After Dusk by Krelsey Cole. Good book, ridiculous cover. Honestly, the cover was laughably bad. Not that it was ugly. Nooooo. That is one studly piece of manflesh and the colors are pretty and the font is easy to read...The problem is this: the model on the cover is the wrong species to be the hero. Seriously. The hero is a demon. He has horns. Big-ass horns. Kind of a major plot point here, boys and girls. It's bad enough that he's supposed to be blond rather than the swarthy, dark-haired stud on the cover. Now we can't even get the basic physiological features of his species right, like horns for cripes sake.
The previous book in the same series was almost as bad. Studly open-shirted man revealing all his rippling adbominal glory. The rippling abdominal glory that is supposed to be covered in an enormous scar from where he was gutted and died. Thus to be brought back to life again as a vampire. No gutting. No vamping. So where is my fricking scar?!? (He's also supposed to have bright red eyes, but who am I to quibble over Stud Muffin's browned-eyed beauty?)Am I wrong that the dude on the cover is supposed to be the hero? Is that an unreasonable assumption? So why can't he look like the fricking hero?
If the character has a distinguishing characteristic (scars, tattoos, horns) then I am of the opinion that either that portion of the character should not be shown on the cover (you can still show his studly manflesh, just cut him off at the neck) OR the cover should actually get those major distinguishing characteristics right.
Maybe I'm too literal-minded. I'm not a cover artist, nor am I a marketing guru, so maybe I just have no comprehension of what makes a good cover. But seriously, y'all, horns. WTF.
What are your book cover likes/dislikes/pet peeves?
6 comments:
I'd rather they not put people on the cover. I can make the characters look any way I want in my head, until the cover ruins it for me. I agree, keep the chest or the butt. I like your cover...sweet...sassy...left to the imagination.
kelly
I love my cover too! I am a lucky, lucky girl. Lucy never actually wears a bathrobe and fuzzy slippers in the story, but at least they are items that would believably be in her wardrobe.
I hate Fabio type covers. And yes, I agree.....I hate it when the cover doesn't match any of the characters. What do you mean she has red hair? The cover shows blond!!!
That kind of thing.
I agree when the cover does not match the descriptions in the book
I like seeing couples. I don't like seeing cover with no head and neck and below there. lol.
I also hate when the cover doesn't match the description. I don't like gold lettering either. I have a copy of a Diana Gabaldon book where the gold lettering is offset from the raised letters that were supposed to be gold. A missprint. It's really odd looking.
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