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File Under: Murder by Dairy Splash If you ever wondered what would happen if a Hallmark movie, a yogurt commercial, and a Lisa Frank folder had a child – Peach Clobber is your answer. The cover hits you with the graphic design equivalent of a sugar rush and a lactose...
“To boldly go where no design consistency has gone before.” Buckle up, space cadets — today’s entry on Horrible Covers launches us directly into the budget end of the sci-fi multiverse with Starship Bandits by Yanez and Buzzell. A title that promises interstellar...
“Insert feelings to play. Jackpot: Existential Dread.” Welcome back, dear readers, to Horrible Covers, where we gamble away our sanity in pursuit of design disasters — and today, we’ve officially hit the sad jackpot. Behold: Emotional Slot Machine by Patrick Jones. A...
You’ve heard of Space Force, right? Now imagine if it had a dress code of Forever 21 and a recruitment campaign run entirely through Microsoft Paint. That, dear reader, is the essence of Katie Kincaid Candidate. This cover dares you to ask, “What if Judy Moody applied...
If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if a noir graphic novel, a space opera, and a blood-splattered True Crime docuseries had a chaotic love child—look no further. “Dimensional Debris” by Barbara Harrison offers us a cover that’s less “eye-catching” and...
True crime covers should chill the spine, unsettle the nerves, and scream “dark secrets lurk here.” Instead, Allegedly looks like a tourism pamphlet for small-town Oklahoma, complete with a centered water tower and some free clipart birds for “atmosphere.” The star of...
If you’ve ever wondered what happens when the Urban Fantasy Starter Pack™ gets run through Photoshop on autopilot, look no further than Guardian of Wrath. This cover doesn’t so much roar with power as it sighs with déjà vu. First up, our heroine. She’s here in the...
Breaking news: this cover is a design crime in progress, and the only mystery left is who approved it. News at Eleven and Homicide should be a sharp, witty cozy mystery about journalism, intrigue, and murder. Instead, it looks like someone cracked open Microsoft...
Start your engines, because this cover is about to crash and burn harder than a rookie driver taking the first corner at Monaco. Formula Freedom should be a high-octane, adrenaline-soaked ride filled with love and danger. Instead, it looks like someone mashed together...
Nothing says “buy my book” quite like slapping a branded T-shirt on your heroine and calling it a day. Yes, instead of giving us atmosphere, intrigue, or even the faintest whiff of genre, we get Cold Fever Books across her chest, like a billboard you can’t unsee....
Maybe because Good Reads would not have it!Some book covers whisper poetry, some invite quiet reverence, and some slap you in the face with a divine laser beam of overcooked Photoshop glow. Sonnets of the Bible falls firmly into the last category. Instead of feeling...
Sometimes a title tells you everything you need to know. Sometimes a cover takes that information, dresses it in a wrinkled button-down shirt, slaps a wolf at the bottom like a confused mascot, and hopes you won’t notice that nothing makes sense. Welcome to...
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.”