the cover games is a feature here at the twirling pages! i’ll be discussing: miraculous cover changes, battles between the US cover/UK cover, heart-eye-emoji covers, and well all things book cover related! <3
(shameless fact: i will judge a book based on it’s cover.)
sometime last week, tor publishing announced that THE INFERNAL DEVICES covers got a makeover! this trilogy has always been one of my all-time favorites, so when they announced the new covers, i was super super excited. the covers originally looked like this:
i really liked how each had one of the main characters and how it incorporated with the title. the alignment and color schemes are beautiful, as well as the background. the glowing texture is a nice touch, adding a magical ambience that matches the novel’s premise. personally, i liked them much better than the mortal instruments covers. i generally don’t like it when there are people on covers because they usually look awkward and posed, but the infernal devices covers were a bit of an exception. my favorite of the three would be the clockwork princess. tessa’s dress is beautiful and the pink is really feminine, but still powerful. my least favorite would be the clockwork prince because you could see jem’s face so clearly. (yeah, i don’t like faces or people on covers..) however, it bothers me how the models look so mature. the characters are only 17? 18? but these people look 30. not a huge issue, but i just wanted to point it out.
the new covers look like:
i don’t know what to think of the new covers. i like the bottom half of the covers more than the top half. the figures are beautifully drawn, created, posed(???), but i’m not a fan of the text color schemes and the angel. i feel like it’s too big and hulking over everything, making it look messy. the title color is murky and occasionally blends into the color of the angel, which doesn’t match throughout the three covers. i mean, if you’re going to put matching angels onto the cover, at least match their color or something. the clockwork princess cover is still my favorite of the three. i LOVE the way tessa looks on the cover. i certainly prefer the sitting-down-tessa over the hands-on-a-book-tessa. all the characters are more true to the book and emotional. i just really don’t like the way the text was put together. :////
the original covers are more flat and equal; nothing is horribly wrong, but nothing is extraordinary either. the new covers are more up and down. i really like the improved people/figures and their poses/everything, but i really don’t like the title or top half. the original cover had a really nice layout, and if we could just merge the two, i think that would be great. (hehe possible photoshopping ideas??) overall, i still prefer the original covers. it matches with the rest of cassandra clare books, and i really love the colors.
what are your thoughts on the cover remake?
– alexandra
I really don’t like the type on the new covers either. It’s so large and a rather ugly yellow. 😛
I felt a little mad about this cover change because I own Princess in the old hardcover and well… I agree about the models, that part looks stunning but the FONT. Jeez. Looks awful. I’m a little 50-50 here, if it were not for the font, the covers would be more beautiful than the old ones.
SAME. The yellow is just….. eurgh.
I feel like I’m the only one who HATES the new covers. I just think that font is so… Eurgh. The colour isn’t great either – I find the whole effect is pretty amateur-ish, which is sad. I like the refined-ness of the original covers. They’re so beautiful!
i HATE these covers. so glad i have the originals in hardback. thank God.
i totally agree with you on everything. the top half is a complete mess but the bottom is pretty decent. however, the top is too much for me and actually RUINS the bottom in a way. i wish they had kept the original font and just changed up the images but kept the layout. that would’ve been really pretty.
I definitely agree with you, Alexandra. I really am not the biggest fan of these new Infernal Devices covers, and if I had to choose, I would stick with the old designs. The yellow lettering is not my taste (at all)!
*sigh* i question why they make cover remakes of already great covers :///
I had no idea these books were being turned in to a movie…Is it weird that I’m kind of interested to see how that turns out even though I didn’t care for the first book?
As for the book covers, the originals are lovely, but the redesign is too… clunky? As much as I love the characters at the bottom, the layout is too disjointed, and the yellow book titles stick out like a sore thumb.
wait… the infernal devices is becoming a movie?! i had no idea. i knew about the shadowhunters tv show, but i didn’t know about this. and i completely agree with your thoughts on the covers! thanks for commenting! 🙂
I HATE the title part – it looks minimal – when the rest of it is beautifully elaborate! Don’t get me wrong, I love a good minimal cover, but such a flat title font just didn’t match. It throws it off! But the redesign’s models are pretty!