Welcome back to Cover Awe! There’s something slightly new in how we do Cover Awe – the title will be bolded with a link to its SBTB info page where you can find buy links to several retailers.
Sarah: I think this is really alluring. The silhouettes are evocative and intimate, and the solitary animal inside his image says so much – this is lush and gorgeous.
Amanda: I’m a sucker for an image within an image and and the forest green goes well with the setting on the cover.
Swift and Saddled by Lyla Sage
Maya: So fun! And such a nice break from what has become standard romance cover art
Amanda: I know! It reminds me of like Bettie Page tattoos in that American traditional style.
Maya: Yes!! And some comic strips that I absolutely don’t know the names of
Sarah: I’ve started collecting these in a file. The vintage printed comics style with updated elements – her sleeve, for example – is brilliant and innovative.
From PamG: I can’t believe I’m sending you awesome instead of awful for the second time in a row. I love the simple color scheme, the delicate design, and the clever way that the cover relates to the actual story. Also, this has the distinction of being the only cover I’ve ever seen with a blank faced figure that actually fits the book description and doesn’t squick me out.
Sarah: That. Is. Gorgeous. Whoever designed that hit it out of the park. Look at the words on the hem of the skirt!
Lara: It’s exhilarating seeing an original cover!
Sarah: YES! My eyes got all wide and I actually grinned as I noticed all the little pieces – her dress, the shadow, the key, the cat – this is marvelous.
Lucy Undying by Kiersten White
Cover art by Audrey Benjaminsen
Amanda: Now this is the kind of creepy illustrated cover I’ve been waiting for.
Sarah: Whoaa that’s … A lot going on in a wow kind of way.
Amanda: I like how the hairpin blends in with the wolf eyes.
Carrie: Ummm Lucy, I read Dracula many times and you ain’t gonna like what you get transformed into at all.
Sarah: It looks like Dracula’s transformation of her included a really great conditioning regimen for her hair – or maybe it now naturally grows like that, which is a pretty strong argument for vampirism. Gorgeous, silky hair WITH WOLVES in it? I’m in.
Thank you so much for the links! THE BLANK PAGE cover is utterly brilliant. I think it is my all time favorite awe-invoking cover for its understated beauty and deeply layered semiotic nuances that scream to be read and explored.
THE BLANK PAGE book cover was done by Na Kim.
@Qualisign: Good sleuthing! I’ll update the post now.
Thanks for providing the links to buy. The Blank Page cover was so clever. I immediately clicked on the link for the book. The Lucy Undying cover is also clever. It really drew me in. I noticed all the eyes, then the wolves, and then the bats. It’s like the more you look, the more you uncover. I really like the Cover Awe posts.
I’m sure I’m an outlier but I really dislike the “Swift and Saddled” cover. Can’t help it but I think it’s ugly. I don’t like cartoon covers in general but this is worse to my eye. While I wouldn’t buy it, I would never stop anybody else from seeing it, unlike some politicians who are censoring anything they don’t like.
The cover art for “Lucy Undying” really reminds me of some of the amazing covers on fantasy books from like the 80s and 90s that I cut my tween/teen reading teeth on at the library, like Mercedes Lackey (The Black Swan) and Anne McCaffrey. The covers always had so many intricate details and really started to tell you the story at first glance.
The LUCY UNDYING cover is loosely based on a Dante Gabriel Rosetti (I think?) painting but I love all the subtleties the artist has worked into it. It’s just brilliant.
Ditto all the subtleties in the Blank Paige cover; there’s a vague sense of Alice in Wonderland with the cat, the rabbit, the key, the flower… What world is she escaping from – or to?
The vintage 60’s comic style in SWIFT AND SADDLED is one of those things you either love or hate. It reminds me of the comic LAST KISS which uses vintage comics with modern captions, or Roy Lichtenstein paintings.
love the Pre-Raphaelite vibe of the Dracula book
I’m also a hater on the Swift and Saddled cover, probably because I grew up in the heyday of this style. Didn’t like it then. Don’t like it now. It looks trashy and sexually exploitive to me.
Is the Lucy Undying cover by Kinuko Craft? It reminds me of the beautiful covers she did for Patricia McKillip in the 90s.
@Kristi: It’s by Audrey Benjaminsen! We try to credit the artists in the post when we can find the info.