This meme was started by Books by Proxy, whose fabulous idea was to compare UK and US book covers and decide which is we prefer. This meme is being nurtured by Lynn’s Book Blog and this week we are featuring covers with GLASSES. I’ve selected My Sister, the Serial Killer – by Oyinkan Braithwaite.
This edition was produced by Doubleday Books in November 2018. I think it is a fabulous cover. The woman on the front is sublimely beautiful and yet we cannot fully connect with her, because of those sunglasses – which reflect a raised hand clutching a knife. So clever! While that catchy title pings off the cover in a luminous green that makes me wonder why more cover designers don’t use it. This is the default cover and my favourite.
Published in November 2019 by Alpha Decay, this Spanish edition isn’t nearly so successful. The manner in which we are prevented from fully connecting with the strong young woman on the cover is far clumsier. While those tiny textboxes are making a poor job of highlighting the title and author, while at the same time further disrupting the cover design.
This Arabic edition, published by العربي للنشر والتوزيع in January 2020, demonstrates why I hate textboxes so much. The woman featured on the cover is even more mysteriously alluring than the one adorning the Doubleday edition. I love the colours of her headscarf and the bold, blue lipstick – and they have the good sense to hold onto those marvellous sunglasses. Then they go and ruin it by covering up a quarter of that marvellous image with a mustard-coloured textbox! Worse, they plaster another charmless effort right across her forehead… Otherwise, this design would have been a real contender.
This Portuguese edition, produced by Kapulana in April 2019, has done away with beautiful girls wearing sunglasses – and instead gives us the CSI version. We have a cover featuring some of the utensils necessary for getting rid of a body. The bright yellow font nicely pops from the reddish brown background – the colour of drying blood? But I personally still prefer the first offering.
This Macedonian edition, published by Антолог in 2020 is back to poised beauty hiding behind those sunglasses reflecting the stabbing knife. This time, the image has been given the graphic novel treatment, which I think works really well. I love the shading and the fact we see more of her neck and shoulders. I also love the grimy yellow background and bold, tilted treatment of the title font, with the author’s name featured along the top. This is a classy, sophisticated cover that so very nearly got my vote… but which is your favourite?
Brainfluff 
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My favourite is definitely the Doubleday cover with the Macedonian edition coming in a very close second! Both gorgeous! 😀
And while I love the image of the blue lipsticked woman on the Arabic cover, the glasses appear to have been drawn on her face!
Oh you’re right! I hadn’t noticed that detail:)). That’s probably because I was fixating on the horrible textboxes – not that I obssess about such details. Much. At all…:)).
Well you’re quite right – the text boxes are horrible!
The default one is also my favorite, but I like the Arabic one too! Nice pick! I also went with the sunglasses. I chose Where’d you go Bernadette. Loved that book.
Hope you will have a great weekend. Here’s my Weekend Book Friends
Thank you, Mareli. I’ll nip across and check out your choice – this week has been so much fun because everyone has chosen such a different range of books:)).
Thank you! I hope you, too, have a wonderful weekend.
The Doubleday edition is the clear winner, but I also love the Macedonia edition. I guess we agree! Great choice😁
Thank you, Tammy. This week’s choice was great fun:))
I love covers, so these posts are always a blast. I like the Macedonian version the best. The image in the Arabic version is great, but I agree that the text boxes are awful. How fun!
I love taking part in this meme, Diana. It always behoves indie authors to pay attention to what makes covers successful, I think:). And you’re right – it’s also great fun!
My favourite is the Doubleday cover – it’s just so striking and memorable. I love the reflection in her sunglasses of the hand holding knife, plus the whole colour scheme of the cover makes it really stand out.
It is a wonderful cover, isn’t it? It stopped me in my tracks:)).
I totally agree with both your first and second choices Sarah. The Arabic cover would turn me off this book completely. There is so much I dislike about that one.
I like the last one the best. More mysterious than the first.
I really like it, too. And it’s very interesting to note just what a difference the shift in artwork makes to the feel and tone of the cover:)
The first one is my favorite – and that was even before you pointed out the detail of the reflection in the glasses! Now it’s DEFINITELY my winner 😀
It was that reflection that promted me to make this book my choice for this week’s theme, Mogsy.
I never would have picked up the reflection in the sunglasses – excellent touch. I love your choice and the Macedonian cover. Probably on edge he Macedonian just wins the day for me with it’s graphic novel type feel.
Lynn 😀
It is a cool touch, isn’t it? I hadn’t noticed the reflection until I magnified the covers – and then this book was the obvious choice for this week’s theme:)). And I agree that the Macedonian cover is a really cool one:).
Don’t like any of them. Wouldn’t take any one of them off the shelf. LOL
Thank you for your honest opinion, Rae:))
I’m with your choice. That reflection!
I know! Really clever, isn’t it?
I like the first cover, Doubleday Books 2018. It’s powerful and leaves much to the imagination.
That’s the thing – I think it leaves you asking questions as to what is going on. Which is always powerful in a cover:)
Yes!!
WOAH! I totally missed the knife in the sunglasses until you mentioned it! That’s a killer detail (ba dum CH) that really takes the first offering over the top. The non-girl cover is…hmmm. IT just feels like another cozy mystery, you know? There’s nothing to make that stand out. Meh.
Yes – you have nailed it, Jean. There is nothing wrong with the non-girl cover – but it simply cannot compete when put against the girl in those sunglasses…