Who Wore it Better is an original meme I brought with me from Drugs Called Books. In it, instead of discussing fashion or cloths, we discuss book covers from different countries, and who has the best cover. The meme is co-hosted with the lovely Amanda from The Book Badger and will be featured on her blog every other week, so check her out as well!
So after last week Amanda reviewed the different covers in Magic Study, we'll be starting a new series this week. So without father ado... Vampire Academy!
This series is probably one of the most well loved out there. It also has an unfortunate knack for shitty covers. See for yourselves - and I chose the best there were!
English One – well, this is probably the most well known
cover of the series. It’s also the one I own. And I kind of think it’s butt
ugly (it’s why I took ages to pick up these books). But I like it, just
cause of the sentimental value, you know?... I mean, I hate faces on covers.
And why did Angelina Jolie get cast as Rose, anyway? But whatever. It’s the
content that matters. Though, I wouldn’t say I’m head over heels in love with the
content, either… oh well.
English Two – this is the most recent cover redesign and… What. The. Fuck? Seriously? You redesigned the covers for this?! It has the exact same Angelina Jolie photo, only less opacity, the series name is WAY BIGGER than the title – which makes it hard to realize what is the title, and it’s mostly just this pink-red color. Worst redesign (almost) ever!
English Three – Well, hi there Mean Girls! Fancy seeing you here! Honestly, this one is bad too. It doesn’t bring any of the correct feelings for this book. There should be a vibe of danger, darkness, a bit of sexiness, action, friendship, etc… Yes, there is some vibe of Mean Girls in the book, but it’s hardly the main thing, is it? I would not pick up a book with this cover without a rec.
English Four – I love these covers. They’re so simple, yet perfect and beautiful. A Rose. Just a single Rose. And what’s our MC’s name? ROSE! And the background being blood red is also perfect. If I could’ve gotten these covers, I so would’ve.
Dutch cover – okay. Well, objectively, I suppose this cover is pretty. But what does it have to do with the book? Is her hair turning into butterflies? Or are those crows? What…
Turkish Cover – *coughcoughbuttshituglycoughcough*
Spanish cover – ohhh, me likey! It’s simple, yet perfect in
a poetic sense – a rose covered in blood. And our main character is a Rose in a
society of vampires. It fits! Plus, it gives the feeling of danger, hints at
vampires, and appears quite dark. All in all, not bad at all!
Estonian Cover – again, objectively the cover is not bad.
But it also feels like a poor representation of the story. Also, the model
doesn’t feel like Rose (that’s not how a kickass Guardian would look like).
Maybe it’s Lissa, but it feels strange that they’d put someone other than the
MC on the cover of the first book…
Turkish 2 - Hello Photoshop! How have you been doing? Working
your magic for Halloween, I see. That is indeed one creepy Barbie doll! I see
someone broke her head and had trouble putting it back correctly. Oh well.
Clearly, I find this cover completely disturbing with the bad photoshop and
hella ugly.
Vietnamese cover - Okay I kinda… like this one?! I
like the fact the background is all dark, with a girl in the night. Gives the
right vibe – creatures of the night and all that, a bit dark and dangerous.
Then there is Rose. She may not be how I imagine Rose, but I love the
contrast – Rose is alive, Rose is firey, Rose is volatile. I get that feel through
the cover.
All in all, I really only like the forth English cover, and maybe the Spanish one...
Nitzan★
= I didn't like it.
= It was okay.
= I liked it.
= I really liked it.
= LOVE!
I cannot agree more with the two rose covers, they are the most beautiful and oh man, they are wonderful, but personally, I choose the red edition, the English one, it's damn gorgeous, yet they don't exist anymore for sale, such a shame.. good choices though considering they aren't that great :)
ReplyDeleteI also chose the red cover! LOL But yeah, they're out of sale and instead we have the butt ugly first two. Gah!
ReplyDeleteLOL I chose the lesser evil for these and it's *still* pretty bad, isn't it? the series doesn't have much luck in that department...
They really did an odd job of designing covers for this series. I'll always like the first one because it's the classic cover and the one I own, but yeah. You know, Richelle Mead doesn't even know who the models on the covers are supposed to be? She has guesses of who she thinks they are on her site, but a few of the covers she just put questions marks next to! The Spanish one is pretty, but reminds me too much of Twilight. The redesign English covers are awful. I mean, they aren't awful in the sense that they look really bad (though they don't look great), they're awful in the sense that why did they even bother changing the covers of all they were going to do to them was tint them a color and put a big VA over the original picture? Why bother? I don't get it. It's like they were purposefully just trying to make it difficult for me to have a matching collection. Ugh. These books are difficult enough to get in a matching set.
ReplyDeleteThey really, really did. And for such a popular series, too! You'd think they'd TRY to do a better job.
ReplyDeleteOMG, seriously? I had no idea! I thought someone would've at least told her! Though I'm not as surprised, because I've heard of a few other authors who also have no say/no idea who's on the cover...
Twilight has excellent covers though, in my opinion. Like, I can't recall how they all fit the story, but in terms of beauty I find them stunning.
I agree. I don't get the "redesign" at all. Can it even be called redesign if they didn't really redesign anything?...
Oh, this book are awful to match up. I've the first three books in PB, and the last two in HC. All with the first English versions.
Oh I know! I've been trying so hard to find them all in HC because my little sister wants a matching set and it's impossible. I've managed to get all but two so far. I'm still missing Frostbite and Shadowkiss, though Frostbite is pretty much impossible to get in HC anymore. Drives me crazy, because even if I was just getting them for myself and not as a gift, I hate not having matching sets.
ReplyDeleteI own English One too, but I'm not fond of it. And she so looks like Angelina Jolie! I agree, English Four is probably the best. It's a shame that this series (which is so great) has had to deal with so many terrible covers.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
I'm not fond of it either - hence the "butt ugly" comment lol but I can live with it, and in a sentimental way I'm kind of okay with it?...
ReplyDeleteI think it's a proof of this series's strength, though, that it rose to the top of everyone's favorite list even though it has such awful covers. Because normally, we don't really pick up ugly books as much as beautiful ones...
Thank you! <3
It's impossible. I tried the same thing, and just gave up.
ReplyDeleteI hate not having matching sets, though accidentally I have quite a few. Like The Morganville Vampires series which are just all over the place because of bargains and a signed copy I just HAD to get, or Twilight which somehow I ended having the forth book in completely different height, or The Assassin's Blade which even thought I ordered the version of the same publisher, in PB so it'd match the first, the height is totally different! Like, WHY would you do that to me?!
Mismatched covers are one thing, because sometimes there's just no choice. But mismatched height?! Why would a publisher do THAT?! That doesn't even make any sense.
ReplyDelete