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They say less is more—but The Whiskey Band by Jason Kelly took that advice, tossed in a dripping font, a flashlight, and called it graphic design. Somewhere in these dark woods, there’s a good idea hiding. Unfortunately, it never made it out of the forest alive. At...
If international diplomacy could be summed up in one wildly unhinged collage, it would be China and the Birth of a Multipolar World by Walter Rebel. This is Book Two, apparently—though it looks less like a sequel and more like the fever dream of someone who fell...
There’s dramatic. There’s intense. And then there’s “Did Michael Bay design this book cover?” Ajit Doval: The Architecture of Modern India’s Security by Pradip Kumar Ray takes a serious nonfiction subject—India’s national security advisor—and dresses it up like the...
Minimalism is a delicate art. When done right, it whispers elegance and emotional clarity. When done wrong, it just whispers, “I made this in Microsoft Word and forgot to centre it.” Seasons of Love by Sefakor Bobobee sets out to be poetic and understated—but lands...
If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if you fed every self-help buzzword into an AI and asked it to generate a book cover… well, Mind Hacking is your answer. This cover doesn’t just tiptoe into cliché—it bungee-jumps into the void of corporate design with all the...
Every now and then, a book cover emerges from the design bunker clutching every Cold War visual it could find, screaming “Red alert! Subtlety has defected!” Welcome to Voices in the Static: A Brief History of Number Stations—a nonfiction title that fires every...
Sometimes, a book cover doesn’t need sparkles or glowing swords to earn its place in the Hall of Shame. Sometimes, all it takes is one soldier holding a rifle like it’s his emotional support broomstick to derail an entire military operation. Ghost on the Wire by Jake...
There are covers that whisper subtle design missteps… and then there are covers that kick down the crypt door, throw on a glowing ribcage, and say, “Let’s duet.” The Skeleton’s Song by Kit Marlowe doesn’t just flirt with failure—it goes full Broadway in the Theatre of...
There are book covers that whisper mystery, intrigue, and allure—and then there’s Whispering Caldera Chronicles, which whispers, growls, howls, and ultimately whimpers under the weight of its own design sins. This cover isn’t just a design fail. It’s a shifter-themed...
Every once in a while, a book cover comes along that doesn’t just whisper “design fail” but screams it across a windswept beach at sunset. Enter: Maya – The Breaking Bonds of Emotions by Ajim N. Shaikh, a cover that boldly asks the question: “What if we used every...
They say don’t judge a book by its cover, but Tenacity: Hoot on the Appalachian Trail practically begs for it—mostly because the cover already looks like it gave up halfway up the mountain. Let’s get this out of the way: this is not a cover—it’s a screensaver. A...
You know you're in for a wild ride when the book cover looks like the final group project of three graphic design students who never met in person and communicated exclusively through vague emojis. Fangs of Destiny: The Alpha’s Reckoning isn’t just a paranormal...
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.”