My Favorite YA book Covers

I am not going to lie; one of the biggest appeals to me of any book is the cover. And YA books have some amazing covers. A pretty cover is what draws me in originally, though of course it usually takes more than a cover to persuade me to read something. And yes, there are some really ugly book covers for some really amazing books. For instance, until the last few years, author: Tamora Pierce (one of my top five favorite authors of all time), has had some really ugly/cartoon-like covers for her amazing books. And for some reason, they never seem capable of producing a nice looking cover for Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game in all of its many publications.  And vise versa, not all pretty books have amazing stories to go along with them. Not all of the books I’m about to list (bottom-up) are my favorites; they’re just my favorites to look at.

Number 10: Beautiful Creatures by Kimi Garcia and Margaret Stohl

The cover is kind of simple, but there’s something about the way the font of the letters combine with the tree in the background that just works so well. It promises something dark and gothic. Sometimes simplicity is beautiful. For me, the book did not disappoint either. I love this book and I will probably talk about it again later this year when the third in the series comes out. 

Number 9: Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty

 

I first picked up this book the summer before I entered high school. And it’s one of those books that even after reading and purchasing, I still was drawn to at bookstores. The colors appealed to me, I guess. But looking at all of the books in this series (that only recently ended) all along my bookshelf, I know the publisher was on to something. They are all so anesthetically pleasing to look at, without any real obvious reason. None of the photos on the covers are spectacular, but they all have a bright background for the title. And they all screamed to be picked up by me (especially when I was a teen).

Number 8: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

So…all of her covers are pretty to look at. They all feature an attractive teen main character with a certain city that’s hazy in the background. I think this one is my favorite because of the obvious time period of the character’s dress, and also the city is London. I love urban fantasy. I really love any fantasy in NYC, but there’s just something magical about the history of England.

Number 7: Impossible by Nancy Werlin

This one just has a beautiful photograph. And there’s something about the wind blowing a girl’s hair all over the place that I can just relate to. 

Number 6: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

 

The cover of this book looks best when on a shelf next to all the other books in the series. Why? Because the cool thing about these covers is that they extend past the front of the book, past the spine, and go slightly on to the back. And this first book, splices up the girl’s face so half is on the cover, nose and mouth are on the spine, and most of the other half is on the back. Also, the photo is great (and kind of simple again), and it’s even greater having read the books because it’s amazing to see the main character before any of the changes she goes through throughout the series.

Number 5: Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

So, this cover looks a little Davinci Code-like, but still, I love it. The book is all about two girls, one in today’s time and one from the past. So, I guess the thing I love most about this cover is that it really does a wonderful job of representing the book because as I will talk about for number 4, not all covers and titles adequately show and explain what the book will be about. 

Number 4: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

I absolutely adore this book. When I first read it, as a teen, I felt that the author specifically wrote it just for me, because it had everything I loved about books in it. However, as I mentioned previously, this cover has very little to do with what the book is about. And years later, I still don’t fully get why it is titled what it is. A great and terrible beauty is how I would describe one of the girls in this book, but certainly not the main character and certainly not one of the most relevant/important characters. It could represent what the girls in this book are capable of doing, and ever more broadly all women at this time period, but still…it always kind of bothered me. Any way, I loved the book, and I really loved the cover. I remember the day I bough it in the store because people saw it in my hands and looked at it. Two different people at Barnes and Noble even asked me where I found it in the store, so they could go look at it themselves.

Number 3: Bloody Valentine: a Blue Bloods book by Melissa De La Cruz

This book is the latest in the Blue Bloods series. Between the giant flower, the mini drops of blood, and the lacy framework at the bottom, I can’t stop staring at this book. I also waited impatiently for this one to come out because it involved a certain wedding I was really looking forward to and whenever I look at this book now, I can almost feel that anticipation again.

Number 2: Entwined by Heather Dixon

 I actually haven’t read this one yet. It is two or three books away on my To-Read pile. I just can’t help looking at. The Beautiful gown that turns into the silver vines at the bottom is gorgeous! And there’s a blurry image of a castle toward the top, and so much green for the girl to run through. The vines and the castle also make their way around to the back of the book as well. What girl in her right mind would look at this cover and not want to at least pick it up to read the side-flap summary? It screams of fairy tale! I am really excited to read this, so excited (by how pretty it is) that I might make it budge a book or in two in line. 

Number 1: Darkest Mercy by Melissa Marr

All of the books in Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely series have beautiful covers. This is the final book in the series and the first book to show Donia (one of my favorite characters) on the cover. I am sort of seeing a pattern here of silver vines on YA books, but apparently silver vines are a good idea because they made it on to 3 titles on my list…Also, flowers are big on this list too…Why is this cover my favorite of them all? It’s got more to it than the vines and the flower. It’s about frost and magic, and finality. And it’s one of the covers that I think does a good job of representing the story (even though it’s not all about Donia).