We continue our weekly review of the covers from the books we read last week - the big tattoos, gaping void where content should be and a whole lot of floating purple cloth.
Purple dress, flowing cloth. This series doesn’t change a pattern that works, does she? Though in this case I think the cloth is billowing because they need the full fan on her to keep her conscious despite a waist line that must be restricting her breath. I also really want to see this vampire hunter fight with all that acreage of floaty cloth all round her. Especially in the permanent wind storm that seems to fill the world.
Night Broken (Mercy Thompson #8) by Patricia Brigg
Well… she’s wearing more than she usually is. Which isn’t saying much but still. But we still have these expansive tattoos that I’m fairly sure aren’t in the book (she has a little coyote paw I remember mentioned - but the rest?), exposed cleavage and exposed belly none of which are in the book either. It’s not as bad as the mechanic in a bra cover - but that’s damned with faint praise: Mercy is, again, unnecessarily sexualised - and it really just isn’t her. And why does she have a backpack? Is she going somewhere?
Helmut Saves the World by Matt Sheehan
My first impression is “oooh someone doesn’t have a cover art budget” and also “clipart will do, it’s an e-book!” because it’s so dull and generic and featureless. But, on reflection we do have to say that it is an excellent indicator of it’s genre as an old style pulp detective novel. You look at the cover and it tells you exactly what it is - which is excellent
But it could be more interesting.
Blood Prophecy (Blood Hunters, #4) by Marie Treanor
Purple dress, flowing cloth. This series doesn’t change a pattern that works, does she? Though in this case I think the cloth is billowing because they need the full fan on her to keep her conscious despite a waist line that must be restricting her breath. I also really want to see this vampire hunter fight with all that acreage of floaty cloth all round her. Especially in the permanent wind storm that seems to fill the world.
On the plus side, the background is really beautiful - but if that landmark is supposed to be the Elizabeth Tower, the numbers are wrong
This Strange Way of Dying by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
I love this cover. It’s beautiful, evocative, not unnecessarily sexualised and faintly reminiscent of the setting. It’s ritualised and does carry a sense of the nature of the book- that these are short stories primarily based in Mexico - without having to really hammer home the point with some very unsubtle imagery. Like Many anthologies of short stories it can be hard to pick an image to give a true sense of what is inside - and I think this one achieves that by drawing on the linking themes: Mexico, death, the supernatural are all hinted at in this cover. An ideal choice.
Blood Chills (Blood Hunters #5) by Marie Treanor
Oh look, a purple dress and floaty cloth. I am shocked, shocked! This time she actually has a weapon! YAY! I still want to see her fight with all that floaty cloth. Needless to say, this isn’t Cyn - who ties her hair back for safety and never wears a dress and has pockets full of weapons (and has pockets!) - in the book. At least the cover isn’t whitewashed, so that’s something I guess (behold the faint praise!) and the background is still beautiful.
