Please excuse me while I now scream and rant some. (want to skip the fuss, scroll down...)
WHAT THE EFFING HELL!?!?!
Okay, I feel a little better. Sort of. Now let me explain. For those who don't know, when the UK (finally) had rights for VA and started releasing them, they took the new versions of the US covers for Vampire Academy and Frostbite (books 1 & 2). Then before 3 (Shadow Kiss) they decided on a redesign. Books 1-5 took on the US modal image and put it on a black background with some pretty swirls (see below). Not my favourite covers, I love the VA gates on the US ones, but good covers anyway (in person, they don't look good on screen, and okay, I'm not a fan of the Spirit Bound cover at all). Now, for the final one, they decided to change things agian. For the final one!!! Instead of the US cover modal, it's a black heart design (which I don't like). Instead of all black, it's all red. The only thing they haven't changed from the 'new' UK versions, is the font for 'Vampire Academy' (which I've never really been a fan of).
When Penguin posted this cover, I commented that I wasn't happy because a) I didn't like it and b) it was different to the rest. They commented back that the rest of the series are going to be rereleased at the same time as Last Sacrifice is released with all red covers to match. I've seen no sign of this on Waterstones or Amazon.co.uk's sites though, so...guess we'll see.
So once again I'm screaming in frustration and anger. One change to make UK covers different to US I get. A second change, for the final effing book, just one year later, I really, really don't get. It's annoying because it means covers don't match. It means no continuity. And for new readers I'm sure confusing, for potential readers, how are they going to know they're all the same series? Sure they all say 'Vampire Academy' on them but do they look like they're from the same series? Um, I think not. Not a happy VA fan today. Not at all.
Straight comments on the cover minus all the side fuss. It's not pretty. The fonts/title/author name placement don't work with a solid background like that and no design to fit around it. The 'blood dripping' from the top right corner seems a little tacky and cliched to me, along with the dripping black heart. The birds in the black heart along with whatever else is there that I can't make out, I just plain don't get. It's plain and I don't think it's the kind of thing I would look at and go 'ooh I wanna read that!'. Instead I'm looking at it and thinking 'erm, tacky, cliched vampire crap...??' Which is very, very unfortunate because I'm a huge Vampire Academy fan and Richelle's work is a gazillion miles from cliched, tacky and crap. I'm curious though, to what others, who care less or none about the cover change, what do you think of it? I promise not to delete comments simply cause you disagree with me ;-) I'm genuinely curious and want to know what others think of it, because clearly, I am not impressed.
There are so many beautiful, stunning YA covers out there, and yes I know you can't please everyone, but it kind of seems to me like VA (in the UK at least) has never been given a chance with a stunning cover. Which royally pisses me off because they're some of the very best YA UF books out there. I like the current UK covers, but I don't love them, I think if they were going to change from the US versions, they should have been given a complete overhaul, not a half-assed one which they then decided to change again, because this is crazy.
The one thing about this that makes me laugh? Around April/May, I bought the UK covers, despite having the US ones, because I had to get a UK copy of Spirit Bound in order to read it on release day. I thought what the heck, they're pretty covers and then I'll have a whole matching UK set alongside my US one. One of my best twitter buddies (I forget which of the two it was, we were all chatting together that night), Aly or Nikki, said 'I'd wait til the last one is out, in case they change them again'. I basically blew the comment off saying 'Nah, it'll be fine, they won't change them again now.' How wrong was I. And I owe one of them, possibly both, an apology!!
The 'new' (old now I suppose) UK covers for 1-5:
5 comments:
Wow that's bad. I mean real bad. I feel for you =/
The US covers for the entire series are much better I think
They so, so are! Even the the LS one, which I'm not fond of. The gates. The gates make them ;)
Oh. My. God! Normally I would rub it in, laugh & say I told ya so,(you know I can't help myself ;) ...pretty sure it was me now since I just said the same thing on twitter too! lol- But this time I will totally take the high road here and refrain myself because I 100% agree with everything you said, LS cover is absolutely atrocious!!! I would be livid too! What in the hell where they thinking?!...I guess at least you have the US covers, they are your signed set right? So the new craptastic ones can be your reading copies right?!
WTF is right! I like the UK 1-5 that you posted, pretty enough. But what in god's name did they do to the last one? And they want to change the other 5 into that? If I were RM, I'd be screaming at the UK publisher for that. We all know to *try* not to judge a book by its cover. But, come on, you know we all have and still kinda do. If we see a cover we like, we're much more prone to picking it up and reading synopsis as opposed to picking up an ugly covered book to do same. I think this cover will dissuade many readers who haven't yet read RM. Stupidity at its finest. GAH!
That sucks Cem. I see your point. I mean that is freaking drastic change! It makes you wonder if that's even the same book since it differs so drastically. They should've kept it similar to the US ones like they've been doing to help keep the continuity or whatever.
So that is the FINAL cover? Like it isn't one in the works? Because that really really doesn't fit whatsoever with the previous covers and they should be keeping them the same so readers know that this is apart of the same series.
And to suddenly change the look of the books at the last one in the series is really stupid and ridiculous if you ask me. I mean why the heck are they doing this NOW at the END of the series?
Cem, I feel your pain and totally understand your outrage.
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