Thursday 19 June 2014

Who Wore It Better #13 - The Ask and the Answer

Who Wore It Better is a meme created and hosted by Nitzan at The Book Babes Read and co-hosted here on Beautiful Bookish Butterflies by Amanda and Stacie. We don't talk about clothing or fashion and we definitely don't talk frills and spills, we talk books and their covers and who we think has the best. This week, Amanda's talking about the covers for The Ask and the Answer, book #2 in the Chaos Walking Trilogy. Nitzan and Amanda don't always agree on novels, and their opinions differ hugely for this series, but once Amanda saw that there were over 11 cover options for this series, she soon got over the fact that she disliked The Knife of Never Letting Go. Sure her, she doesn't care.


The Covers



Cover #1 - US HC/PB Edition
Cover #2.1 - New UK Paperback
Cover #2.2 - UK HC/PB Edition
Cover #3 - Czech Hardcover Edition
Cover #4 - Russian Paperback Edition
Cover #5 - French Paperback Edition
Cover #6 - Dutch Paperback Edition
Cover #7 - German Paperback Edition
Cover #8 - Czech Paperback Edition
Cover #9 - French Mass-Market Edition
Cover X - German Hardcover Edition

My Thoughts


As you can see, this week is a little different from the rest. The first reason is that there are A LOT of covers to talk about, and two, there's a 'Cover X' in the mix this week which has never been used, but more on that later. Because we've got 11 covers to talk through, my reasons will be shorter, blunter and in some cases, crueller. Lets get started. Cover #1, the US Hardcover and Paperback is my favourite for certain; the colours work, the silhouettes work and the writing and two moons are mysterious and lovely looking. Cover #2.1, the new UK edition is just wonderful, the cracked style, the linking A's symbolising you can't have a question without an answer, it's lovely and while Cover #2.2 shares a similar look, I prefer #2.1. Cover #3, the Czech Hardcover just has this elegant but dangerous feel to it, the writing is featured too, but this cover is just aesthetically more pleasing than the following seven. Those four are the covers I would love to own, where-as the next 3 are covers that I think are okay, but eye catching enough to love. Cover #4, the Russian edition wowed me at first with the question mark, the background, the horses and the sign of death, but it became an eye sore and was demoted to a lower spot. Cover #5, the French Paperback is very simple, it has the horses and the men riding, it has the deserted world feel and the colour red mask the idea of danger and death again, but it has a more adult look about it. Cover #6, the Dutch Paperback is, odd, and has more of a dystopian technology feel to it, plus I'd heard Todd and Viola aren't together much in this installment, so it's also misrepresentative of the plot inside a little. The following three covers are covers that would influence my picking up the book and result in me never trying it in the first place. (yes, I judge books by their cover, shoot me) Cover #7, the German Paperback reminds more of 172 hours on the mood mixed with dystopia romance, also, misrepresentative. Cover #8, the Czech Paperback Edition makes reminds me of Oblivion and I also dislike the use of the girl and how Ness's name is vertically titled on the cover. I dislike the colours, the layout and the general feel of it. Cover #9, the French Mass-Market Edition looks like an even worse version of the Czech Edition, cheaper, more generic and even more shocking, even the writing is lacklustre in comparison and I genuinely dislike the use of these female models like this.

Cover X is something I created so that if I ever came across a cover that I personally think should never have been created, used, published or seen, I could highlight this especially, and in this case, the German Hardcover Edition wins the first trophy. Everything about this cover is shocking; the use of the angry face , clearly edited into a picture that could have been done Paint by a 5 year old, meant to represent the Mayor, the use of silhouettes running TOWARDS the face, also, easily copied onto the image and the lack of anything else representative to the story that the other covers have; the horses and riders, the writing, the mysterious element and the creative means of another world. This cover should never have seen the light of day and should never have been created, of course, in my opinion anyway.

Your Thoughts


What do you think of this collection of covers then? There's a lot to choose from and probably a lot of different opinions are going to come flying in and people are bound to disagree with some of my choices. Would you have a different Cover X and wipe it from existence? Would you love to own a different cover here from the one you have? What do you think about my choices? Leave me your thoughts, and essays on the covers and leave me any reviews from the series too, I'd love some encouragement to continue it.

8 comments:

  1. I love all these cover features! It's interesting to see the different covers for the same book, though most of the time there are some pretty horrible ones out there, lol. But that's just me being judgemental. >.< I haven't read The Knife of Letting Go yet (nor have I read anything else by Patrick Ness... oops), so I wouldn't know which cover is best suited, but I have to say that my favorite so far is the new UK paperback. I've seen the same edition cover for the first book and it was GORGEOUS. Loved the shatter effect and the typography and the colors. The US hardback isn't that bad either, but I still prefer the UK PB, heh. I guess it looks more sci-fi, and I love sci-fi with a burning passion. The Russian version is pretty good, too!

    Cover X: Yeah, I'm not too big on this one either. Generally I hate covers with closeups of faces and this is no exception. And I agree, the cover looks so simple even my youngest sister could do it (she's 10). Then again, I've seen worse covers, so this is more on the okay side in my opinion! :P

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    1. So glad to here you like the UK version! For once, we didn't do too bad ;)
      But that final cover, Cover X, is shocking, there's no denying it really! :O

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  2. I think my favourite is 2.1 - I'm a big fan of minimalist covers (probably because I love contemporary so much). I agree with you about the last one - looks super tacky. Three is quite nice as well. As always, love this meme!

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    1. Thank you Emily! I love researching and looking for all the covers and finding my favourite, it's fantastic!

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  3. Great pick this week, there are so many covers for that book. Confession: I don't like #1! I don't know why, but there is just too much going on for me. I think the new UK paperback might be my favourite actually, I did like the old ones but the new ones are better I think. I seem to prefer more simple covers sometimes. Number 5 & 4 are both really interesting, I actually really like 5 but I don't know if it matches the story very well. I love the blood red colour of it though.

    Cover X - completely agree about that one. I am not really sure how that cover ever got approved! I honestly don't know why anyone would willingly pick up and buy that book, I would cry if that ended up on my bookshelf, haha.

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    1. It's so good to see your thoughts on these Charnell, honestly, I thought more people would like the US cover, but most prefer the UK covers, which is fab for us, but also just surprising! Pretty glad about people agreeing on Cover X, I've been waiting for a special cover to bring it out so I'm people like it :P

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  4. I agree with you on the German Hardcover Edition, though I really dislike the Russian Paperback Edition, too. I prefer the Czech Hardcover Edition cover and the Dutch Paperback Edition cover over the others, and the New UK Paperback cover looks really cool, as well.

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    1. Some different opinions there Sofia and I like them! Thank you for telling me them :D

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