See the coveted Flying Monkey Awards presented Daily on YouTube!
And see who wins the Flying Monkey Award!
The Graphic Design Equivalent of an Existential Crisis — “Challenges of Living Among Humans” by Derick M. M. Lewis Here lies a cover that whispers in Times New Roman:“Design is a human construct, and I reject it.” Derick M. M. Lewis’s Challenges of Living Among Humans...
When a Book Cover Picks a Fight With Your Eyeballs: The Tip of Your Sword There are some book covers that whisper seductively from the shelf: “Come hither, reader, and discover my secrets.” Then there’s The Tip of Your Sword, which leaps out like an overcaffeinated...
Never Too Late... to Call a Graphic Designer Ah, “Never Too Late” by Glenda Poulter—a cover so daring, so unapologetically chaotic, it almost loops back around to genius. Almost. This is the visual equivalent of someone opening too many tabs in their mind and then...
“Vague Vows and Vaguely Visible Vistas” Step aside, mystery. Move over, intrigue. Amara’s Vow is here to bring you... fog. And rocks. And a castle—or perhaps a toaster—lurking in the background. It’s a masterclass in saying absolutely nothing with a maximum of...
“When Your Romance Novel Looks Like a Witness Protection Brochure” Let’s gather around the fireplace and talk about Kindling—a cover so wildly misguided that even the flames in the background seem to be trying to escape the scene. Right off the bat, we’re met with two...
“Graphic Design is My Passion: Particle Accelerator Edition” Imagine you’re in a thrift store. You spot a book with a title like The Babel Matrix, a name that screams “existential sci-fi thriller” or maybe “Neo-Gnostic time loop conspiracy”. Intrigued, you flip it...
Welcome back to Horrible Covers, the place where ambition meets Photoshop disaster. This week, we’re inspecting a DIY-level business book cover that claims to teach builders how to scale smarter—but its design screams “cheap motivational video.” The Visual Catastrophe...
Behold: a cover that’s so desperate to look intense, it forgot to look sensible. Dead Before Dawn doesn’t whisper danger—it blasts it into your retinas with all the charm of a malfunctioning flashlight in a haunted cornfield. Scene Breakdown You’re welcomed to a...
Behold, a cover that dares to ask: What if digital mysticism, cyberpunk cosplay, and awkward design choices had a child and sent it directly to Kindle Unlimited? Welcome to The Matriarch Messiah, where the stakes are high, the trench coats are shiny, and Photoshop is...
When Helvetica Met Existentialism: Notes to a Little Bird There are book covers that whisper. There are those that shout. And then there’s Notes to a Little Bird, which awkwardly mumbles while holding a megaphone the wrong way. At first glance, you might assume this...
From the very first glance, this cover is a haunting display of every design decision gone sideways. Three Little Graves & The Big Bad Wolf is the visual equivalent of a supernatural fever dream—a mix of bad choices, poor taste, and unfiltered purple fog. Let’s...
Ah yes, King of the Carousel, the book that dares to ask the question: “What if a carousel horse had deep, unspoken trauma… and you stared at it for an uncomfortably long time?” At first glance, you might assume this is a graphic novel about haunted amusement park...
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.”