It’s the time of year for ALL THE LISTS! And I think an easy one to still do rather early is always the Prettiest/Best Looking Book Covers of 2020 and there were…
Not a lot of standouts to me this year. Maybe it was 2020 as a whole? I don’t know. But I think you can tell by my picks I was definitely into bright colors and striking faces this year.
I thought Fable was especially striking due to the little ship in the eye that I missed several times!
Black Sun is just an overall bold and striking cover with the half face, wings and bursts of strong gold.
And while I don’t think Jenn Bennet is a good match for me I always love her covers especially the soft yet somehow still bright mood kind of setting on Chasing Lucky…
I would totally like to wander down that street!
I also want to wander the plains with the UK edition of How Much of These Hills.
I know this might be a controversial choice but I also love the cover for:
Stormlight Archive is a goal for next year so I know nothing about the story (except these are some big damned books) but I liked the colors. I like her outfit and I’ll be honest it gave me some fan fiction Catelyn Stark vibes okay? I’m probably way off but it’s got me picking up the series so it did what it was supposed to!
I loved the summery team vibes on this one and after reading it I thought the cover really fit the book very well.
And lastly…
I haven’t read this one yet but the cover looks like such a perfect book cover for an old school fairy tale. There’s an edition with a black background that I think is even more striking!
If I had to pick a favorite it would probably be… Venus in the Blind Spot, All Boys Aren’t Blue and Fable…
Which I know is 3 favorites but it’s been a rough year!
Fables continue to be my favorite cover.. simple but truly gorgeous!!
I also missed the ship in the eye- never saw it before you pointed it out 😂🙊
Good to know I’m not the only one!
One should never underestimate the power of an eye-catching cover. That’s something I feel novelists should learn from manga and graphic novel artists.
2020 wasn’t really a great year full stop, but I’m guessing it wasn’t an especially good year for literature? From what I’ve seen, it was a middling year for games, a horrible year for films, and a surprisingly great year for music.
The music industry is fairly highly adaptable to the times isn’t it? And yeah reading wise it does seem like a bleh year overall. Publishing is going through quite a bit of issues right now themselves.
Good observations in your text, Gemma, but if I ignore the text and just view the covers (which is a more fun game for me 🙂 ), I’d say most of them take too much the “shiny object” approach. I like “If I Had Your Face” because it is a little more subdued, elegant, thoughtful, and yet still has a richness of color and depth that is lacking in, say, “How the King of Elfhame.” Of course, I haven’t thought about it as much as you — I just ran my eye along for fun 🙂 Gary
The King of Elfhame cover does not translate to screen well. Unfortunately I didn’t have it on hand for a pic 🙂
Thanks for pointing out the ship in Fable’s eye – read the book and never noticed it, lol.
you picked so many great cover/books!! The cover of Fable is gorgeous, but I also love All Boys Aren’t Blue (what a great book!!) and I have Black Sun still on my tbr same with Sanderson’s book. But the one that really caught my eye is How Much of These Hills is Gold – GORGEOUS!!!
~ Corina | TheBrownEyedBookworm.com
I haven’t read the All Boys Aren’t Blue Yet! That’s one I really hope to get to before the end of the year 🙂