Top Ten of 2012: Best Book Covers of 2012

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate! For Christmas, I have some serious eye candy for you. Read on!

Today’s Top 10 list is on the best book covers of 2012. To me, book covers have to do three things: they have to convey the sense, theme or story of the novel really well, they have to be instantly eye-catching, and they have to be targeted to the intended audience.

Here are my top 10 book covers of 2012. Keep in mind that I may not have read all of these novels, but  these are books that fulfill my criteria of best-ness:

10. Unbreak My Heart by Melissa Walker – The heart, the pink, the boat, the girl…everything tells me that this is a summer romance on the seas. What it didn’t tell me (but the title did) was that this book would be emotionally raw and full of beautiful family moments. Still, the cover is eye-catching, and definitely targeted to someone looking for a summer romance.

9. For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund – I didn’t like this cover at first. The girl is way too skinny, and she doesn’t really look like my idea of Elliot at all. But I realized afterwards that it is definitely gorgeous, though, and it’s so beautiful and otherworldly that it definitely conveys the sense of the novel. It’s also so eye-catching that it can easily stand up to all the “dark” covers I see in the bookstore, so it’s on my list.

8. Every Day by David Levithan – I think this is striking in it’s spareness and the black-and-whiteness. I haven’t read Every Day yet, but from the synopsis (person wakes up in different body every day), this shows the daily change, and how different the bodies can be. I really love how different this is from a lot of YA covers out there.

7. The Friday Society by Adrienne Kress – So, this might be the most literal cover ever, but I think with a book this high-concept, you need it. Kress’ steampunk Charlie’s Angels novel is perfectly conveyed with these badass girls showing what they do, in the old-tyme border and font. Love this cover, and love how eye-catching it is.

6. Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill – the colours of this cover show how playful this book will be, and we immediately know that it will be a romance. I love the London skyline in the background, telling us where it’s set. There aren’t a lot of illustrated covers that I love, but this one works SO WELL.

5. Gravity by Melissa West – the tagline and the planet tell me that there’s something crazy going on with outer space. I love the curlicues around the title. And man, it’s just so beautiful in its simplicity.

4. Insurgent by Veronica Roth – the genius of this cover is that it perfectly matches the first, while giving hints to which factions we’ll see more of in the second. The colour gives it a “dystopian” feel. We know this is not our world. And it also kind of mimics The Hunger Games covers a bit, which is a great way to indicate that this book might appeal to fans of that series. Great choices.

3. The Waiting Sky by Lara Zielin – this cover is just gorgeous. I love that in a book about tornadoes in the summer and a girl trying to deal with the tornado of her own life, we get her holding a tornado in a jar. I can’t wait to read this novel.

2. The Fine Art of Truth or Dare by Melissa Jensen – this, for me, was one of the most eye-catching covers of the year. And it perfectly conveys to me that this book is about a romance between a regular girl and possibly a more sophisticated boy, that there’s something to do with art and daring to live a little differently. Here, the title and the cover work together so perfectly that I couldn’t have stopped myself from picking up this book.

1. The Selection by Kiera Cass – I can’t think of a more perfect cover than this. First of all, we all know that a lot of teenage (or older) girls long to put on gorgeous frocks. It’s just a thing. Second of all, the font treatment gives this a bit of a royal spin. And third of all, the mirrors show that there is more than one America and she’s trying to figure out who she is. It’s so gorgeous and amazing and eye-catching that it would be hard to ignore in a sea of books with frocks on it. I love it.

What do you think of my choices? What’s your favourite cover of this year?