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The title alone dares you to look away—and the cover punishes you for trying. What NOT to Do When a Dominant Lesbian Realtor Attacks doesn’t just break the rules of cover design—it blindfolds them, ties them to a chair, and sells them a two-bedroom condo in a...
Somewhere in a whimsical alleyway between street art and severe design neglect lives Alice by Gary Gautier—a book cover that seems to ask the timeless question: “What if we used my vacation photo and just… went with it?” Let’s start with the image, which clearly began...
If you’ve ever wanted to unlock the secrets of the universe using clip art and confusion, Rethinking Happiness is your golden ticket to enlightenment—via design catastrophe. This cover isn’t just rethinking happiness—it’s actively dismantling it, one glowing particle...
If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if a TED Talk PowerPoint had a baby with an AI-generated motivational poster, Unbreakable Unapologetic is your answer—unfortunately. This isn’t a book cover; it’s a buzzword avalanche wrapped in lava-lamp lighting and...
In an alternate universe, “Fallout of War” is a gripping, hard-hitting exploration of conflict’s aftermath. But here in our visual reality, it’s the result of someone discovering the “Insert Text” tool in Microsoft Publisher and declaring themselves a graphic designer...
Welcome to the neon-lit back alley of design despair, where “Alpha Agent” by Kevin Do emerges from the shadows like a half-rendered video game cutscene gasping for processor power. If this cover is supposed to scream high-tech cyberpunk thriller, it instead yells I...
This cover doesn’t invite you to befriend Christ so much as it invites you to download a free trial of a children’s meditation app that hasn’t been updated since 2014. “Befriending Christ” arrives wrapped in an aesthetic best described as Sunday School fridge art...
If ancient Egypt truly was the cradle of civilization, this cover is the daycare finger painting pinned up with a magnet shaped like Anubis. “Legends of the Pharaohs” boldly promises the story of Egypt’s Golden Age—but visually delivers a history book fever dream...
Nothing says “pleasure” like an aggressively awkward layout and a font scheme that looks like it was pulled from a discontinued printer manual. This cover for Epicureanism: Integrating Pleasure in Everyday Life isn’t so much about enjoying life’s finer things as it is...
There’s a special category of bad book covers reserved for designs that mistake confusion for depth. The Last Philosopher proudly plants its flag in that territory, presenting a visual identity so muddled it feels less like a cover and more like a design thesis that...
There’s motivational, and then there’s motivational fever dream—and Life’s Purpose and Success rockets past the second category like it’s late for a spiritual awakening that was scheduled in Comic Sans. This cover promises a Journey to the Path of Light for Humanity,...
You know a cover’s in trouble when the scariest thing on it is the graphic design. Terror Beneath the Ashes dares to ask the question: “What if zombies, a volcano, and a hoodie-wearing teen girl all existed in completely different lighting environments and we just…...
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.”