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Ah, House of Ice and Whispers. A title that promises mystery, danger, and intrigue — and a cover that delivers none of the above, instead serving up a $12 buffet of “fantasy clichés” on a chipped, medieval-themed plate from the local thrift store. Let’s start with the...
Ah, The Clock-Maker. A title brimming with the promise of intricate gears, delicate craftsmanship, and maybe an eccentric old man in a waistcoat. Instead, what we get is a shirtless man glaring into our souls like we just scratched his Ferrari — and not a single clock...
Ah yes, Yesterday’s Murder, the perfect title for a book whose cover looks like it was designed by someone who just discovered free trial stock photo downloads and thought, “Yeah, this one screams homicide.” We open with the classic “sad person facing away from the...
Ah, Snowed In With Them — the four-book collection you didn’t know you needed, mostly because the cover looks like it was designed by someone who confused “romance anthology” with “PowerPoint template for a corporate HR seminar.” Let’s start with the main imagery:...
Ah yes, “Dating the Player,” a sports romance cover so confused about its own aesthetic that it could double as an SAT question on mixed metaphors. It’s The Legends Book 1, which—judging by this design—must be an epic saga chronicling the rise and fall of badly chosen...
How to Take a Perfectly Innocent Romance Concept and Bake It in the Oven of Questionable Choices Ah, Caked Up. The title alone promises sweet romance, flour-dusted flirtations, and perhaps a suggestive wink over a tray of cupcakes. What we got instead is an...
Gather round, dear readers, and let us behold The Edge of Tomorrow — not the Tom Cruise blockbuster, but a book cover so visually underwhelming that it’s less “edge of tomorrow” and more “the awkward middle of last Tuesday.” We start with a stretched stock photo of a...
Ah, The Art of Overthinking. A title that promises deep introspection and maybe a dash of self-help wisdom — but instead delivers the visual equivalent of a breakup text written in Comic Sans. First, let’s appreciate our cover’s emotional centerpiece: a woman in an...
Welcome back to Horrible Covers, the series where we lovingly peel back the glossy laminate of bad book design to expose the glue stick and construction paper underneath. Today’s feline fiasco comes to us in the form of Famous Felines Throughout the Ages by Ryan Burr...
Ah, White Dawn. Or as I like to call it, “Fifty Shades of Frozen Disappointment.” Here we have a cover that’s clearly aiming for “ethereal fantasy beauty” but ends up landing somewhere between “bridal boutique window mannequin” and “first-year photography student...
Ah, Advance and Retreat, Book Six of the Dark Empire series, where the cover boldly asks the eternal question: “How much bare shoulder is too much bare shoulder?” and then immediately ignores any advice you might offer. Let’s start with the layout. We’ve got three...
Ah, EOS, Book One of Dawn of the Atlantis Grail — or as the cover whispers in an oddly confident tone, “I am a Dan Brown novel’s secret society emblem… but in space.” Let’s break this masterpiece down. Front and center we have a golden Eye of Horus — fine, ancient...
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.”