Cover Awe: Dark & Moody

by Amanda · May 1, 2023 at 3:00 am · View all 2 comments

This edition of Cover Awe is for us goth kids.

A trio of classic book covers on a counter. All are part of the Signature Classics line. All are illustrated with color blocking. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas shows a yellow background and half of a Black man's face. He has on a white shirt, green jacket, and red tie. The knot of his tie looks like fist. Next is Jane Eyre with a teal background. The side profile of a woman in a burgundy dress carries a lit candle. Lastly is Sense and Sensibility. The background is a soft green. A woman in a navy dress with her brown hair tied up in a bun holds a black umbrella. She is facing away from the cover. In the background, a woman with messy black hair, red libs, and burgundy dress looks over her shoulder at the woman in the foreground.

Cover illustrations by Malika Favre

Amanda: Loving these classic goth covers.

Sarah: The one on the right doesn’t do it for me, but the middle and left are terrific design. Especially the use of shadow on the Jane Eyre cover.

Elyse: I love the Sense and Sensibility cover.

Shana: I love the eye contact on the S&S cover. The left and middle immediately remind me of their respective stories, though.

Sneezy: Ooooo the Black power fist in the tie is really clever. The red for revolution and the design makes it look like the fist is grasping onto a red banner flying high. The middle and right one makes me wish they were covers for sapphic romance. I wonder if the yellow background in the left one has any symbolic meaning? Assuming they’re all done by the same artist, it’s odd that they chose a colour that flattens the cover so much when they were so clever about creating space with the other two.

A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland. Two men stand in front of a white, stone ornate archway. The bottom corners have dark green leave and white roses. The taller man has close cropped dark hair. He has a neatly trimmed beard and mustache and is wearing a purple closed jacket with gold brocade. He is looking down at the man next to him. The shorter man has long, dark hair held back by a simple silver and pearl crown. His jacket is darker with gold brocade. He is lifting his arm toward the other man. His wrist has gold bangles and in his fingers he has a gold coin.

Cover art by Martina Fačková

Design by Christine Foltzer

Amanda: I love some dark florals.

Sarah: Moody and intricate and lush, I agree.

Elyse: It also conveys a sense of intimacy, which I love.

Kiki: I love how the person in the foreground almost looks like a living painting.

Sneezy: This just makes me smile. Lush, opulent, and romantic!

White Horse by Erika T. Wurth. A woman in three-quarter profile. She has dark hair, though the only shape of it we can see is the bangs that cut arounds her forehead. She is wearing dark sunglasses, with a amber glow to them and you can see the outline of a figure between some buildings. Smoke curls around her profile, up to her jaw to her nose and cutting across one lens of the glasses.

Amanda: I love catching the reflection of a person in her glasses.

Sarah: That is a REALLY good composition right there.

Kiki: This cover desperately makes me want to read this book, and in the same instance tells me it is much, much too spooky for me—which is a job well done!

Sneezy: This cover also looks like it would make a great record cover. For an 80’s punk record or something.

Lore & Lust by Karla Nikole. An illustration of a person from the shoulders up. The have reddish brown hair that curls around their cheeks and neck, stopping there. Their lips are glossy and the have red eyes. From the bottom left corner grow red roses, but as they grow higher, eventually covering the figure's right eye, they begin to turn black and ashen. Red rose petals swirl in the background and foreground.

Cover illustration by Thander Lin

From Sarah M: For Cover Awe, I’d like to put forth Lore & Lust by Karla Nikole. I can’t look away from it!

Sarah: I can see why!

Kiki: The title looks like it says Lore and Slusts, which makes me chuckle.

Sarah: Omg at a quick glance I saw Lore & Sluts.

Amanda: More moody florals, but I would also read a book titled Lore & Sluts. Lore is full of ‘em.

Sneezy: This looks like this has influence from manga, and I’m just gaga over it!

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  1. rgonnam says:
    May 1, 2023 at 2:03 pm

    Pulled from wikipedia – Green, yellow and red, the colours of the flag of Ethiopia, have come to represent the pan-Africanist ideology due to the country’s history of having avoided being taken over by a colonial power.

    I think this is where the yellow comes into play with the Frederick Douglass autobiography.

  2. denise says:
    May 1, 2023 at 9:30 pm

    Love the Jane Eyre cover!

    https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/06/14/532667081/on-flag-day-remembering-the-red-black-and-green

    “Robert Hill says that the Pan-African flag went on to become the template for flags all over Africa as they gained independence. Ghana, Libya, Malawi, Kenya and many other African countries adopted the red, black and green — often with the addition of gold, which sometimes symbolizes mineral wealth.”

    https://medium.com/illumination-curated/why-most-african-flags-use-the-red-yellow-and-green-colors-61e90d6164c

    “yellow representing the wealth of Africa”

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