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There are covers that whisper sweet nothings, and then there are covers that slap a pair of torsos in your face and say, “Close enough.” Welcome to Roommates, a design so devoid of emotion, chemistry, or context, it could be the poster for a protein shake subscription...
Prepare yourself, dear reader, for a romantic journey so intense, so alpha, so cursed — it had to be accompanied by a giant wolf head looming behind two partially dressed stock models in Photoshop purgatory. Welcome to The Alpha King’s Curse, where the only thing more...
Welcome to Unfortunate Degrees and Iced Coffees, where magic meets caffeine addiction and both are crushed beneath the weight of too many Photoshop filters and a font combo that should come with a warning label. This cover walks into the room glowing like it just left...
Sometimes a cover tries to be symbolic. Sometimes it tries to be sensual. And sometimes it just tries everything at once, fails at all of it, and leaves you staring into the void of a purple gradient asking, “What exactly am I supposed to feel right now?” Welcome to...
Welcome to Studies in Demonology, where the only thing more dangerous than the demons is the graphic design sorcery gone rogue. What was likely intended to be a dramatic, arcane cover for a dark fantasy epic instead looks like someone fed a sword and a volcano into a...
Step aside, direwolves — we’ve entered the realm of dire cover design. Welcome to Mother of Wolves, where fantasy aesthetics go to overdose on neon filters, and Photoshop layers fight to the death in a medieval rave barn. This cover is less “Dark Creatures Tale” and...
Somewhere in the dark, swirling mists of the Photoshop void, two shirtless men were quietly desaturated and left to ponder the mysteries of cover design. Welcome to Switched at Birth, a cover that says “emotional drama” but visually screams “calendar torso twins lost...
Welcome to the American Frontier — where the typography is confused, the AI-generated children are running from something unspeakable, and the horses may or may not have the correct number of legs. Buckle up, cowpoke, because Pintsized Pioneers at Play is riding...
Just when you thought a book cover couldn’t get any worse, along comes a redesign that shouts, “Hold my glowing sword!” Let’s rewind. Originally released with a cover that looked like a mid-2000s RPG fan site background, The Seekers launched with a straight-to-VHS...
They say success starts with a solid foundation, but Blueprints of Success decided to skip the drafting phase entirely and head straight for the demolition derby. Let’s start with the cover’s crowning moment of glory: the metaphorical crane lifting the letter "I" out...
Hold onto your broomsticks, design fans, because Lovers’ Leap has done a graceful swan dive straight into the abyss of Horrible Covers. And by “graceful,” I mean it belly-flopped from a haunted staircase into a vat of clip art. Let’s start with the star of the show:...
Brace yourself, because this cover skids into the Horrible Covers Hall of Fame like a Harley on black ice. Let’s begin with the title: The Girl Who Cried Love. Scrawled in not one, but two dueling fonts, it looks like a text message from a moody teenager halfway...
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.”