I always judge books by their cover

Whenever I'm on a search for a new book, I always judge a book by their cover. If it's not appealing to me in any way, then I probably won't pick it up. That's probably a habit I'm going to need a change, but for now, let's judge books by their cover:


This cover gives me "Sound of Music" vibes (granted I only watch 10 minutes of it before passing out). Without reading it, I'd assume that the character posted on the front is a young teen girl who lives in the praire, who has to deal with her everday problems as she grows up; a "coming-of-age" novel. At the same time, the cover makes me think of some science-fiction dystopian novel (in retrospect, probably because of the cover's yellow-green hue) like "Jurrasic Park" meets "The Matrix" meets "The Hunger Games", where the characters are on some alien planet and have to survive against the dinasours the planet's alien obstacles. I wouldn't suspect that the plot would be like Never Let Me Go. Even though I've read the book, I honestly don't get the connection between this cover and the book, which is why I chose to analyze this cover deeper. I suspect that the girl on the front is Kathy, since the book is from her POV, and the cover does match the "coming-of-age" plot that I suspected it had on first glance. From the perspective of the book, it looks like Kathy is contemplating some deep life decisions. This could be the setting of the cottages, since she's in the wilderness, and she looks a little older. While this scene does seem to replicate Kathy in the Cottages, I personally don't detect any deeper meanings this cover could have in relation to the book. Upon first glance, I would think that this type of book would appeal to readers who have read Warriors (the cat warriors book) and Matched. I don't know why, but this cover just reminds of book covers that I saw in my school's library in elementary school. I feel like it would appeal to a younger audience, one that likes fantasy books.


Unlike the first cover, which looks like a sci-fi, this book would seem to be dark and depressing, probably because the colors are darker. I would think that Never Let Me Go is a sad and gloomy book about losing a loved one (friend, family, partner). If it was about losing a friend or family member, they probably drowned while on a boat. If it was about a loved one, the boat would probably have some significance to their relationship.


Looking at this cover, I would think that the book is straight up horror, it reminds me exactly of "The Blair Witch Project" or "The Ritual", where people get lost in the woods or a forest, and they come upon strange symbols engraved in a rock or tree, and end up being trapped in a bunch of witchcraft (Edit: after reading Adrianna's blog post, apparently this is a human torso. I was wayyyy off the mark but I think this plays on/adds to the horror aspect of creating "humans" just to harvest their organs). Like the previous cover, it resembles darkness to me, because of the dark colors, and the creepy font that looks like handwriting. This cover contrasts with the first because it seems to have a greater horror aspect.


I really like this cover, which is why I chose to analyze it further. It reminds me of The Help's book cover (this one), probably because the colors are very similar. When I look at this cover, like the first one, I would think that this would be a coming-of-age novel, where the girl pictured is a teen in the 1900s who comes from a poor household and has to "find herself" as she navigates through life, possibly meeting love on the way. I think I came to this idea because it's similar to The Help, but also the girl on the cover is blurry, as if she's lost. The plot I imagine greatly resembles Never Let Me Go, and the girl on the cover is Kathy, who is trying to find herself through her complicated (in more ways than one i.e. love triangel and clone) life. This cover doesn't conjure any cultural construction for me, but it does suggest the theme of dealing with adversity within the book, since Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth have to simultaneously deal with growing up, and being shunned by the rest of the world for being clones. Based on the cover alone, I think this book would attract readers who like stories that take place in the past, specficially the early 1900s; it just gives me those "old-timey", vintage vibes.

Overall, I my favorite covers are the first and last one. All the covers gave me different vibes, so I think the old saying "Don't judge a book by it's cover" really applies in this case!