As I did in 2019, 2020, and 2021, I’ve picked out some favourite book covers from the year’s new releases. Fewer have stood out to me this year for some reason, so it’s just a baker’s dozen here, and all of them are from books I’ve actually read.
Usually it’s the flora and fauna covers that get me. Not so many of those this year, though!
Instead, it was mostly about colour blocks and textures.
And a few of my favourites feature partial images of female bodies:
I also appreciate the use of a blocky 1980s-reminiscent font on these two. It’s appropriate to the contents in each case. Powell’s poems are loosely inspired by/structured like an old-school hip-hop album, and Zevin’s novel is about the love of vintage video games.
What cover trends have you noticed this year? Which ones tend to grab your attention?
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
I am shallow enough to be seduced by a good cover: and often it works very well. The last two books I chose purely on the basis of the cover were Silver Shoals by Charles Rangely-Wilson, and Taking Stock by Roger Morgan-Grenville. Both non fiction, both about creatures in the service of man. That’s what volunteering in the library does for you!
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That’s the job of a cover, to attract people in!
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Job done then! Hope you’re feeling a bit better?
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Doing better today, thanks.
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SUCH a perfect cover for Our Wives. I love the Olga cover, as well.
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The U.S. cover of Our Wives is so generic by comparison, and there’s already been another just like it.
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I tend to go for understated covers rather than garish covers, but I must say I rather like well-designed ‘arty’ cover art as with many of your choices – the Morris, Gonzales and Arnfield as examples. I haven’t bought many new books this year but two recent covers I appreciated were Pullman’s The Collectors (with an early painting by the controversial artist Balthus on the front) and R F Kuang’s Babel with a new classical-style engraving on the dust jacket.
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I know a lot of people who have enthused about Babel. Its cover would have drawn me, but I am not a big fantasy reader.
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I got it with a book voucher recently but have yet to read it so I reserve judgement 😁
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Love this cover for Lessons in Chemistry. What a shame all we see is the US version!
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I think the U.S. version is so boring — it makes it look like a straightforward romance novel.
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Olga Dies Dreaming is stunning.
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Agreed! Kudos to the art department.
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A few blobs of paint or huge text isn’t going to do it for me. A book should create the mood and setting of the story to tempt readers to want to enter in.
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A cover has a big responsibility!
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My cover of Foster is different from yours, and frankly I like mine even better! Also, Tides – that’s a wonderful cover. So simple, but says so much.
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The original cover of Foster shows a little girl from behind, looking out at a carousel. I ended up reading the new Grove Press Kindle edition for my BookBrowse review. Its cover matches that on Small Things Like These the year before.
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Ah, I have the reprint version with what looks like a painting of a house on canvas, with the canvas texture showing through.
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Hope your house is feeling better after being under the weather over the holiday–that is no fair. I miss all the flora/fauna covers that abounded last year. My favorite book of the year was Joe Meno’s Book of Extraordinary Tragedies, and while it’s covers (both the U.S. and U.K. versions) weren’t exactly stunning, they do a great job of encapsulating a lot of the plot in one image (a falling piano).
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We’re doing a fair bit better and hoping to be out of quarantine and able to mingle by New Year’s Eve.
Book of Extraordinary Tragedies is a new one on me. A simple but effective cover. (The synopsis reminds me of Defenestrate by Renée Branum.)
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Ooo, a new one to me. Love the idea of a novel in vignettes.
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I think my favorite cover of 2022 was from a middle grade book called The Clackity – it fits perfectly with the creepy story!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59365597-the-clackity
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I think Tides is my favourite of this lot.
I love the cover of Fearnoch: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61394433-fearnoch?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=rDF8dPTEHC&rank=1
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Ooh, yes, I do love the vintage approach on that cover. I remember noting that when you reviewed it.
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