Fantastic Covers Friday (15): Dead Connection by Charlie Price

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, from both old books and new, from young adult books. This Week:

Dead Connection by Charlie Price

Jacket Design by Patti Ratchford

Jacket Photo Alan Thornton/Getty Images

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Isn't this creepy cover great? I'm not entirely sure how it came to be, whether that perfect sky is a really lucky shot or that there's some computer magic in there somewhere. I love the tagline too, "He talks to the dead. The dead talk to him." I'm surprised that they left it hidden at the top of the page above a review; I feel like the review would normally be on the back, leaving more room for the tagline and whatnot on the front.

Fantastic Covers Friday (14): Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, from both old books and new, from young adult books.

This Week:

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Jacket design by Rex Bonomelli

Jacket photography by Skye Chalmers

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The front cover to this book is very eye-catching, an icy, reflective blue. The spine isn't as shiny, but is a stunning color none-the-less. I love how the branches at the edges of the front cover creep in to form the title, and right away I know that this book is going to have some eerie content.

Fantastic Covers Friday (13): Ash by Malinda Lo

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, from both old books and new, from young adult books.

This Week:

Ash by Malinda Lo

Jacket photography by Amina Bech*

Jacket design by Alison Impey

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Certainly not as flashy as other YA covers, the sullen color palette for Ash both haunting and beautiful. A novel about recovering after the death of a loved one, I feel that this cover, as opposed to the updated version, more accurately reflects the pain and withdrawal one goes through when experiencing such a tragedy. 

Fantastic Covers Friday (12): How They Met and Other Stories by David Levithan

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, from both old books and new, from young adult books.

This Week:

How They Met and Other Stories by David Levithan

Jacket photograph copyright © 2008 by Comstock Images/Jupiter Images

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Simple, but it gets the point across. I like the use of the magnets to represent the attraction and budding relationships of the characters rather than a more conventionally romantic symbol like a heart or a pair of birds. 

Fantastic Covers Friday (11): Witch Born by Amber Argyle

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, both old and new, from young adult books.

This Week:

Cover Reveal Here

Witch Born (Book II of the Witch Song series) By Amber Argyle

Art by Eve Ventrue

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Revealed on her blog just this week, Argyle brings us the cover to her second book and it is stunning! I LOVE the colors, the soft amber, golden, and brown tones mesh well together, and come off as very natural.

I took a peek at Ventrue's blog, linked to in her name above, and she has plenty of beautiful artwork to look at; go see! You can also see more cover pics, including the textless one, back on Amber Argyle's blog. Be sure to leave her a comment with your thoughts, I for one think that she should be proud to have such a gorgeous cover for her novel!

Fantastic Covers Friday (10): The House of Power by Patrick Carman

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, both old and new, from young adult books.

This Week:

The House of Power (Atherton #1) by Patrick Carman

Design by Kirk Benshoff

Illustrations copyright © 2007 by Squire Broel

Cover artwork copyright © 2007 by Phillip Straub

Jacket artwork by Bernard Garcia, © 2007 by Little, Brown and Company

Logo Design by Blacksheep, © 2007 by Little, Brown and Company

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You really have to see this cover in real life to get the full effect. The tan part with the sketch is a partial dust jacket, with the cliff setting (which is flat-out gorgeous) being the cover of the book itself. The pencil drawings are exquisite, and contrast nicely with the full color scenery picture above it. This is totally a book that I would pick up just from seeing its cover.

Fantastic Covers Friday (9): Banished by Sofie Littlefield

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, both old and new, from young adult books.

This Week:

Banished by Sophie Littlefield

Jacket photograph © 2010 by Lara Jade

Jacket illustration © 2010 by Shutterstock

Jacket design by Stephanie Moss

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The combinations of blues and blacks on this cover is very powerful. I love that the girl is not only hiding behind her hair, but the print of the cover of the book as well. All-caps in the title fits in well with the chilling blue theme, and I knew the moment that I looked at this book that it had some serious themes in it. 

It also looks to me as though the model on the cover was intended to be a bit racially ambiguous. I thought when I had first seen the cover that she was Asian, but now I'm not so certain. Seeing as there's certainly a shortage of non-white models on book covers, I think it's refreshing.

Fantastic Covers Friday (8): Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, from both old books and new, from young adult books.

This Week:

The Japanese covers for the three books of Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. (NOT graphic novels!)

[Cover information unknown. Please leave a comment if you know the artist/ designer!]

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I've been having a lot of mixed feelings brought on by the Twilight books recently, so expect some themed posts coming up. The one thing that I like about Meyer's website is that she's collected some of the covers of her books from around the world, and ever since I read the first book in seventh grade I've been in love with the illustrations from the Japanese editions. Each book is divided into three, and they're on a very, very short list of mine of covers I like with drawn humans.

I like that they're frank: the books are about Edward and Bella. Bella and Edward. You don't need any unnecessary images, those would just clog up the cover. I also think that they're a nice change from the red, black, and white theme of the American covers, though those are lovely too. The second one is my favorite, I love Bella's sweet smile and calm pose.

If you do an Internet search you can find some of the other images from the book series, I highly recommend it!

Fantastic Covers Friday (7): The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, from both old books and new, from young adult books.

This Week:

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

By: E. Lockhart

Cover design by Elizabeth H. Clark

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The neatness and organization of this cover is what drew me in: the clean lettering, the clear layout, and the crisp blue envelope photo make this cover very appealing in an era where a lot of Photoshop collages are slapped to the front of books and sent to press. With that mouthful of a title, a crazy cover is the last thing  this book needs. I only wish that Ms. Clark wasn't so bashful about sharing her work online (I can't find a website), I'd love to see more of it!

Fantastic Covers Friday (6): XVI by Julia Karr

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, from both old books and new, from young adult books.

This week:

XVI 

by: Julia Karr

Cover Design: Emilian Gregory

Cover photos copyright Christina Page

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I normally hate faces on the covers of books. I'd much rather have a symbol from the story or some sort of minimalist design going on. But here, broken up with the title and that scared/ depressed/ broken look on the model's face is just too perfect for this book as a whole. Incorporating the title into the design on the cover of the book itself rather than just slapping it on was also brilliant. 

Fantastic Covers Friday (5): Prodigy by Marie Lu

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, from both old books and new, from young adult books.

This week:

Prodigy

by Marie Lu

(Note: I'm going to assume that the same person who designed the last cover also designed this one. I will update this post when more information becomes available.)

Cover Art and Design: Lori Thorn

Creative Direction: Linda McCarthy

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I love simple, straight-forward covers so much, and I'm pleased as punch that this cover isn't a far cry from from the last one. I do like this color scheme more though, the cold black and blue to reflect the situation that June and Day find themselves in at the end of the first book. Prodigy will be released next January, but I don't think that I can wait that long! (Also, if you haven't already, the summary is already up at Goodreads--the link is in the title under the picture. Be sure to go over and take a look!)

Fantastic Covers Friday: The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, from both old books and new, from young adult books.

Wow, LOADS of awesome news coming out of the writing world this week! First Free Four was a success, and now the cover for the sequel to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (my review here) by Michelle Hodkin, titled The Evolution of Mara Dyer, has been revealed:

Whoever is doing her covers seriously needs some recognition, they're absolutely gorgeous! I'm assuming that, like the first book, the cover design was done by Lucy Ruth Cummings and the cover photograph is copyright Heather Landis. (both links go to the respective websites of the artists)

I love how the hands are coming together (or moving apart?) in the middle, especially after the embrace on the cover of the first book. The word "of" has even moved from it's position on the first book to make room for them, a great set-up in my opinion. The coloring is spot on too, that eerie blue tone that is both sad and scary at the same time. 

Well, I'm excited now. Are you?

P.S. Don't worry that Goodreads says the book is only 272 pages. Michelle Hodkin has stated on her blog:

THE EVOLUTION is almost exactly the same length as THE UNBECOMING. Like, within a few hundred words. I have no idea how that happened, but I think it's kind of cool.

No worries! There's plenty more Mara coming October 23rd.

Fantastic Covers Friday (2): The Disenchantments

Fantastic Covers Friday is a weekly meme over here at Brave New Shelf where I highlight beautiful covers that I find, from both old books and new, from young adult books.

This week:

The Disenchantments by Nine LaCour

Jacket Photography by M. Jamali

Type Design by Mia Nolting

Cover Design by Theresa Evangelista

I honestly think that this one looks better in real life than the picture online makes it out to be. The physical copy looks a bit more sun-touched, and the highlight is higher up on her hand than it is in this photo. I'm not normally a fan of faces on covers, but this one balances out so well I can't picture it any other way. I love that hint of a smile that she has, and the color of the sunglasses matching with the color in the title really pulls the whole thing together. The fact that you can see the photographer reflected in her sunglasses (which I only just noticed now) is a great addition that plays well to the book itself (the theme of friendship, and travelling with a band. It makes it look like she's not just smiling randomly, but rather at someone.)

Fantastic Covers Friday (1): The Wager

Every time I go into work (at my public library as a page, fyi) I always walk out with at least a few photos of book covers on my iPod Touch. Some of these are books I want to read, and all of them have covers so eye-catching that I just need to take a snapshot of them.

I'm no graphic designer, but my love for well-designed book covers runs deep, and now it's finally all coming together over here at Brave New Shelf with my new weekly meme, Fantastic Covers Friday! It's exactly how it sounds; I find covers, I post covers, I rave about covers. Easy as pie!

This Week:

The Wager, by Donna Jo Napoli

Jacket Design by Rich Deas

For a book about a deal with the devil, the red-and-black woodcut style really works for this book. It's quite stark in person too, pulling it off of the YA shelf, surrounded by other books with all kinds of colors and patterns. You know just by looking at this book that whatever is going on inside isn't a walk in the park for the main characters. I don't know if Deas did the original illustrations or simply found them, but the original artist is crazy with their attention to detail; it's worth taking a minute to soak it all in. What better way to celebrate Friday the 13th?