Attractive and pretty cover convos, ahoy!
Painting: Helen of Troy by Anthony Frederick
AJ: That is PRECISELY how my face goes when I think about compulsory gender roles.
Carrie: YES that title OMG I have SO MUCH to say on that topic!
Lara: I make that face several times a day when I am faced with the patriarchy!
Amanda: There is nothing “resting” about this bitch face.
Cover design by Michelle Crowe
Sneezy: There’s an ORCAMANCER, and she has an ORCA and PET POLAR BEAR
Tara: That cover is amazing.
Sneezy: Right??? I can’t remember the last time neon looked so good!
Carrie: It’s an excellent book
Sneezy: That seals the deal for me!!!!
Thanks Carrie!
Amanda: I would like her lip color and soft lighting.
Sarah: Her eyeliner is unspeakably good.
Lara: That eyeliner deserves a book of its own.
Amanda: It looks like the start of a new historical mystery series. I’m very curious.
Cover design by Erin Seaward-Hiatt and Melanie Sun
Amanda: Lately, I’ve been obsessed with “moody florals.”
And I love how the words and flowers fluctuate between fields of perspective.
Sarah: Foliage On Letters is definitely a cover trend.
Lara: I really appreciate the fly in the top right corner.
Gorgeous covers, all of them but the Too Much and War Widow covers really stand out for me.
It took me a moment to realize that this is a different, much nicer, cover for Blackfish City than the edition I’ve read.
As if there’s not enough (and surely more important) stuff in the world to get annoyed about already, it really bugs me when different editions of the same book are published with entirely different covers. (Especially when a cover turns out so much nicer than the one I bought.)
The War Widow was previously released under the title DEAD MAN SWITCH. I think maybe the title change was when it was published in the US.
I’m wary of Blackfish City’s cover. Indigenous art is regularly reproduced and sold by those with no current or ancestral connection to pacific northwest peoples where I live. Unless Sam Miller is Tlingit, Haida, or one of the Coastal Salish nations this is appropriation.
The book Carry On by Celia Lake, shown among the advertised books, has a lovely cover.
All of these are much better than the Cover Snark Photoshop atrocities.
However, the neon one is absolutely stunning and a beautiful piece of composition.
Agree, Penny — I was excited to see that cover because I’ve been trying to read more indigenous authors — but I’ve gone looking and nothing in Sam J. Miller’s bio suggests that he is indigenous, never mind specifically from one of the coastal traditions that creates art in that style. The description of the book suggests it might be broadly appropriative of indigenous spiritual tropes, as well, which is concerning.
Oh, damn. I thought Blackfish City was going to be by an indigenous PNW author with that cover. But I can’t find anything in Miller’s history to support a PNW tribal association, and that makes it 100% ugly cultural appropriation.