Mara Dyer Cover Art

So the other day, I was browsing weheartit when I stumbled upon the above image and was instantly struck with a sense of recognition. Something about the clothing, the subjects of the photo, the atmosphere of the photo itself, seemed a little familiar.

Oh, I don't know, kind of like The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer sort of familiar. So of course, I went and pulled up the book cover, and 'lo and behold, it was the same clothing! Having a personal interest in photography, and photographers whose work end up on covers, I set out to investigate further.

As it turns out, this was shot by Heather Landis, who shot a whole series of photos in this theme. (A few of them are displayed below.) Definitely pop by her website if you have time, there's tons of really awesome artwork over there.

And just some basic info about the book - The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin will be released on September 27th, 2011 by Simon & Schuster. Having heard a ton of great early buzz about it thus far, I'm definitely very excited for this one!

Have you found any other awesome photographers who've shot recent YA book covers?!

The Many Faces of The Hunger Games

It's always fascinating to compare international covers for books, see what persona they're taking on around the globe. Sure, there's that old saying, "don't judge a book by its cover" - but oftentimes, a book's cover can say a lot about its contents. This isn't a complete collection of all the international covers, but they're ones that I find of particular note.

These are the German covers for The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, respectively. There's no denying that both covers are very striking, very gorgeous. Beautiful colour schemes, and the covers themselves just sort of pop. I also like how only half the face is shown, and the eye just sort of stares at you. It's also kind of cool how "Panem" is the word of main focus on both covers.

These are the Taiwanese covers for The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, respectively. They both have the signature mockingjay on the cover, one in gold, one in bronze. Personally I think the cover for THG kind of looks like a movie poster. The atmosphere created is definitely chilling. Really like the colour scheme of CF, and how some of the main tribulations of the arena are depicted here.

Both of these are from the UK, and both are of The Hunger Games - but one is a girl version, and one is a boy version. I don't tihnk I've seen anything like this before, one book marketed simultaneously to different gender groups by having different covers. It's kind of a cool idea, really. The guy one has a Stephen King blurb, the gal one Stephenie Meyer. Hmm...

These are both of The Hunger Games as well, the Swedish on the left and the Danish on the right. The image on the Swedish cover is definitely very chilling, but I'm not particularly fond of the way the text was integrated. Love the title font on the Danish cover. The image itself seems to be marketed almost towards a younger audience though...

Again, both are of The Hunger Games, the Russian one is one left, and on the right is the cover from the Netherlands. For the Russian one, the characters aren't really how I would picture them. For one thing, they look older than they should. For another - and wait for the explanation before getting indignant - I would expect Katniss to be portrayed as thinner. If that's Gale in the background, likewise. If that's Peeta... well. Anyway - why? Despite being able to hunt, Katniss is from the Seam, and it's referenced throughout numerous times that food is not plentiful. Sure, she's able to get game. But it's still only enough to fill her stomach, not enough to eat in excess. That, plus the fact that she's always expending a large amount of energy, one would expect her to be a little more malnourished-looking. Walking around looking like she's getting a full three meals a day and then some would probably arouse a fair amount more suspicion than safe, considering the physical state of the other people around her. Really like the blue gradient on the Danish version of the cover.

How about you guys, any particular covers you like more than the others? What do you think of these ones?

Waiting on Wednesday (10)

Paranormalcy - Kiersten White
*October 1st, 2010 HarperTeen

Sixteen-year-old Evie's job is bagging and tagging paranormals. Possessing the strange ability to see through their glamours, she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency. But when someone--or something--starts taking out the vamps, werewolves, and other odd beasties she's worked hard to help become productive members of society, she's got to figure it out before they all disappear and the world becomes utterly normal.

Normal is so overrated.

I think I first saw this one on Goodreads awhile ago and added it to my GR to-read/want lists [bookshelves(?)]. At that time, it had simply been a blank image - and now it's got a cover! Woohoo.

There's something a little off about her (on the cover) upper half/torso, but it's an interesting cover nonetheless. And the premise sounds intriguing, doesn't it?

And with the combination of those factors, couldn't resist featuring it for Waiting on Wednesday this week. So how about you - what're you waiting on this Wednesday?

*WoW is hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine

Recreate a Cover: The Mark

Princess Bookie's Recreate a Cover contest is on now. The basic concept is to take a YA 2010 release, and re-create a new cover for it. For my entry, I've re-done Jen Nadol's The Mark, which was published by Bloomsbury on January 19th, 2010. Pop by the Goodreads page or Jen's website to find out more about it!

All photography used is (c) Deltay/Lucid Conspiracy. (Original versions of Veil of Lashes and shh - silence.) Feedback is of course welcomed and appreciated.

The official/actual book cover is included below on the left. On the right hand side was the original book cover. I've included the little snippet-text from both on my version, one of which reads, "If you had the power to see death, would you wish it away?" while the other poses the question, "If you knew today was someone's last, would you tell?"

So, what do you think?

Mockingjay Cover

The cover for Mockingjay, the final installment of Suzanne Collins' highly acclaimed trilogy that began with The Hunger Games and continued with Catching Fire, has been released today. And what a cover it is!

For one thing, it's a beautiful shade of blue. For another - doesn't the cover seem to be just teeming with symbolism? I mean, the first two covers demonstrated obvious correlations and parallel structure - and so does this one. But the centre circle - it's bursting apart! Do they represent the districts, and the freedom gained? In fact, the bird on this cover - posture-wise, orientation, etc. does seem to seem more self-confident, more free somehow. The others seem to be almost held captive by their respective circles - this one's got its wings spread out to full wingspan, ready to take flight.

What a beautiful title too; Mockingjay. Even the ring of it sounds beautiful. Also interesting to note that THG had three words, in the title, CF two, and now M one. Almost like we're counting down, y'know?

And for comparison's sake, here are the two earlier counterparts of the trilogy's covers:

Certainly Collins has lucked out with a series of great covers over the course of this series. Do you guys have a favourite? Any predictions on the final outcome and/or events of this third installment?

My review of The Hunger Games; alas, haven't gotten around to reviewing Catching Fire yet, despite delving into day of its release. Here's the Scholastic blog, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly's takes on the cover.

Same Stock Photo?

Is it just me, or is it the same stock photo on both of these covers? By golly, I've must've seen both of these covers individually so many times, but I just noticed a few minutes ago that they're the same. Pretty exciting, to discover a "lookalike", especially ones that were released so close together. Either way, both covers look original and super intriguing.

Justina Chen Headley's North of Beautiful seems to have received pretty good feedback, so I'm definitely looking forward to checking it out sometime.

On the other hand, I'm currently in the process of reading Alyson Noel's Evermore. I just got a copy in the mail a Thursday night from Steph Su (contest), which was really exciting. Unfortunately I was in the midst of huge unit tests/camping (i.o.w. no internet) but things have slowed down a bit so hopefully I'll be able to get through it this weekend. I'll keep you updated ;)

And as it's not a Leap Year, today's the last day of February already - wow! Two months into 2009 already; what have you accomplished so far?