Armchair BEA

I’m not a person who gets all gushy about book covers. I don’t care about cover reveals. I don’t care if the covers of a series don’t match. But there are a few things I absolutely hate when I see them on covers.

Whitewashing

This is when the cover models are white when the people in the story are not.  Here’s an example.

Alienated (Alienated, #1)Alienated by Melissa Landers

This is a description of the alien race in the book.

“All of them, men and women alike, wore their shoulder-length light brown hair tied neatly behind the neck. It blended perfectly with their russet skin, and when combined with the tan uniforms, they were a monochromatic solid wall of brown. Like walking paper bags.”

Ok, got that?  Now look at the male person on the cover.  He’s the alien.  He’s looking a bit pale, isn’t he?

There are all kinds of examples of this.  Check out this article for more.

The Overly Sexy

In the Mercy Thompson series Mercy is:

  • Half Native American / half white
  • a mechanic with the grease stains to prove it
  • not fond of a lot of jewelry
  • the owner of one small tattoo of a coyote footprint

So what do her covers look like?

firetouched

Ok, so maybe trying not to whitewash her so that’s good but the dangly feather earrings are a bit much.  What’s the all the arm tattoos?  And the outfit?  She totally can not run and fight in those pants and she never ever is depicted as randomly deciding to knot her shirt into a fake halter top.

Seriously, does that cover make people more interested in reading the book?  Maybe the flaming dog in the background helps.

And let’s take it as a given that I’m not a fan of any of the Fabio-esque romance book covers either.

Lone Arrow's PrideLone Arrow’s Pride by Karen Kay

 

No.

 

 

 

TopazTopaz by Beverly Jenkins

These people never look comfortable. That’s not sexy. That’s “Wait, wait, I’m getting a cramp.”

 

 

What are your book cover pet peeves?