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Ah, Thanksgiving — a time for family, food, and apparently, graphic design breakdowns served with a side of Clip Art Casserole. The Turkey Who Came to Dinner by EmKay Connor promises festive fun, but what it delivers is a surreal, vector-based fever dream where...
Some covers go big. Some go bold. Ugly Sweater Weather chose to quietly shuffle in wearing beige leggings and a confused expression, holding a dollar-store pine branch and whispering, “Is this festive?” Spoiler: it is not. Let’s unwrap this holiday design...
In the long, proud tradition of genre mashups that absolutely nobody requested, Snowed In with the Alien Dragon arrives like a shirtless man crash-landing into a medieval fantasy film during a blizzard. This cover isn’t just bad — it’s a cosmic collision of abs, ice,...
At first glance, Lost & Found looks like a cozy cup of cocoa for the soul — a purring cat, a roaring fireplace, and twinkling holiday lights. But don’t be fooled by the wrapping paper and gingerbread glow. This cover is not a warm hug. It’s a Yuletide design...
Somewhere deep in the valley of confused metaphors and haunted produce lies Sour Apples, a book cover that tries to be meaningful and ends up looking like a PSA against fruit consumption. Billed as “A Novel for Those Who Hate to Read”, this cover might actually...
Some covers scream their genre. Some whisper it. Death of a Cigarette mostly sighs into the void, drops its metaphor in the sand, and quietly evaporates into grayscale irrelevance. If book covers were weather, this one would be a drizzle on a Tuesday — directionless,...
Ah, the holiday season: a time for cocoa, carols, and design decisions that should’ve been left in the return bin with the broken string lights. Tales for Advent and Christmas by J. Traveler Pelton aims to bring warmth and tradition to your bookshelf, but the only...
Somewhere deep in a snow-covered mountain range, two skiers are locked in a high-speed race—not down the slopes, but straight into the uncanny valley of bad book design. Mara J. Ova’s The Crash Course promises thrills, romance, and maybe a few broken bones, but all...
If Edinburgh ever needed a tourism campaign to actively dissuade visitors, this cover just volunteered as tribute. T. R. Dray’s Wasted is a gritty thriller about trash and corruption, but the real crime here is against graphic design. First, let’s address the scene—or...
There are design crimes. There are aesthetic misdemeanors. And then there’s this — a celestial catastrophe so earnestly chaotic it feels like a PowerPoint slide got baptized and raptured mid-sermon. Let’s start with the obvious. The title, A Further Focus on the...
If you’ve ever wanted to squint your way through a cloud of bird fluff while desperately searching for meaning, congratulations — Swish has arrived to deliver your visual migraine. This cover is what happens when an art school dropout discovers the feather brush in...
Nothing says “bold personal transformation” quite like… a stock photo of trees. Behold, Dare to Evolve, a cover that dares absolutely nothing and evolves even less. If graphic design were a personality test, this would be the blank space where you forgot to write your...
A Note to Authors Featured Here
The purpose of Horrible Covers is not only to critique but also to highlight how much cover design matters to a book’s success. Many authors set out with the best intentions but end up with covers that don’t reflect the quality of their writing — sometimes because they tried to do it themselves, sometimes because they relied on someone who wasn’t a professional cover designer.
We understand how frustrating that can be.
Our aim is simple: to help writers put their best work forward with cover art that does justice to the story inside. If you’ve been featured here and are ready to level up your presentation, reach out through our contact form and mention “Horrible Covers Author.”