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Strap in, saddle up, and prepare for liftoff into the neon-lit fever dream that is Race to Novus — a book cover that boldly asks, “What if we combined cowboys, cyberpunk, and Photoshop confusion… and then forgot to blend any of it?” This is not a race; it’s a genre...
Ah yes, Advocatus — the book cover equivalent of a fog machine left running in a broom closet during a low-budget fantasy cosplay shoot. If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a 3D rendering, a lens flare, and an unfortunate font choice all get locked in a dark...
Once upon a time in the vast, cracked wasteland of Microsoft Publisher, a lone warrior emerged — silhouetted, confused, and possibly transparent. Welcome to The Sand Dweller (Original Edition), where minimal effort meets maximum awkwardness in a desert of design...
Some sequels improve on the original. Others... just return with more fog, more fonts, and a skeleton who looks like he took a wrong turn on the way to Pirates of the Caribbean. Welcome to Grim Reflection, the latest entry in the Ghost Punch series — a title that...
Welcome to the blazing gates of graphic design purgatory, where gradients go to die and fonts party without adult supervision. Today’s catastrophe is Orcus Child — a cover that feels like it was conjured during a late-night design séance using nothing but a cracked...
When a cover tries to whisper “playful paranormal adventure” but instead shouts “graphic design séance gone wrong,” you get That’s the Spirit, a visual buffet of every ghost‑themed cliché stirred into one overcaffeinated cauldron. This isn’t a cover so much as a...
Sometimes a cover stops you in your tracks. It pulls you in with intrigue, mood, and thematic nuance. And sometimes… it sits there like a medieval parking meter with an identity crisis. Welcome to the visual enigma that is A Man Called Boy — a title brimming with...
Let’s take a gentle walk through the shadowy woods of cover design crimes, where we stumble upon Aickman: Tales of a Normal Childhood — a title that screams “everyday nostalgia,” yet the cover whispers “paranormal therapy session in a haunted foliage simulator.” At...
“Fall Into Fantasy,” they said. And fall it did — directly into the uncanny valley, bouncing off every branch of Photoshop purgatory on the way down. Let’s start with the star of the show: the floating specter of stock asset regret. Hovering like a confused ghost...
Who sits upon the throne of bad fantasy cover design? Behold A City of Ashes, where the art direction clearly took a smoke break and never returned. This isn’t just dark fantasy — it’s a glow-filtered mess propped up by a very tired throne and a tragic...
Ah, Kingdom of Dragons — a title that promises legendary battles, ancient beasts, and heroic grandeur. What we got instead is a design tutorial on how to ignore light sources while drawing absolutely everything. This cover doesn’t feature a kingdom of dragons — it...
What do you get when you cross a church newsletter, a motivational poster, and the layout instincts of a discount toothpaste box? You get The Secret Behind Standing Marriages — a cover that’s less about standing firm in your relationship and more about falling...
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.”