A somewhat lighter snark this week. Here we look at covers that make you frown. Not because they’re bad or rife with isms (though they might be) but because they seem to bare no relation at all to the book’s content. You wonder if, perhaps, there had been a mistake at the publishing house ans the wrong cover had been glued on? Maybe the cover artist had a powerful artistic vision and wasn’t going to let a little thing like content get in the way?
We do a lot of cover snark, but I think this, more than anything else, makes it clear that the authors have, at best, limited control over the cover - after all, I can believe an author would chose an unnecessarily sexualised image, or an image that is rife with an ism - but an image that doesn’t even resemble the contents?
Next up we have Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong, another favourite of ours - I even bought this on paper long before I had my kindle and the book on the right is what I got. The book on the left? Wellll, I’m going to hold off on the disembodied women thing because we’re coming back to that - so instead I’m going to look at the (skinny) legs and wonder how this is supposed to be Paige and her struggles against Leah’s machinations? Paige, who has a taste for “girly” clothes but is also a practical woman. Paige, a voluptuous, rubenesque woman. Paige, a woman who spends her time struggling and battling through the books - not posing and showing off her legs. It seems like a rebranding to try and sell an Urban Fantasy as a paranormal romance? Which would also explain why Industrial Magic’s cover suggests Paige does her magic naked.
But, most deceptive of all, has to go to this one. Narcissus in Chains. Why? because it shows a woman alone, apparently fully clothed and not actually having sex. This, clearly, has no relation to the plot at all!
