,

WORST Book Cover Art

Do you have a really abominably painfully ugly book cover to nominate? Something so bad that you feel a need to put a post-it note over it while reading what is inside to keep from cringeing? Please feel free to add to the list.

PLEASE NOTE: Nominations should be considered only on the Cover Art--the outside packaging. Not to what is inside. Remember, authors rarely get to influence their cover art choice and bad covers are usually not their fault. (There are different lists for criticizing the insides. This is not one of them.) Ugly cover art only, please!

Again, this Listopia list refers only to the outside packaging! Not to the book inside.

Let's try to be nice about self-published books. But publishers that can afford to hire professional artists are fair game.
1

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4.12 avg rating — 647 ratings
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3.88 avg rating — 50,782 ratings
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3.23 avg rating — 30 ratings
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3.75 avg rating — 463 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 16,770 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 101,043 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 1,956 ratings
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3.86 avg rating — 169,010 ratings
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3.86 avg rating — 901,960 ratings
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23

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3.36 avg rating — 135 ratings
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25

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4.22 avg rating — 1,086 ratings
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4.14 avg rating — 5,171,038 ratings
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4.07 avg rating — 283,754 ratings
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30

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3.86 avg rating — 8,280 ratings
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3.88 avg rating — 824 ratings
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32

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3.84 avg rating — 16,954 ratings
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33

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4.32 avg rating — 15,568 ratings
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34

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3.76 avg rating — 1,898 ratings
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35

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3.86 avg rating — 1,009,108 ratings
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36

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3.41 avg rating — 225 ratings
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3.94 avg rating — 32,997 ratings
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38

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3.62 avg rating — 685 ratings
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3.74 avg rating — 52,703 ratings
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40

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4.23 avg rating — 1,805,273 ratings
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41

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4.04 avg rating — 10,270 ratings
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42

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4.31 avg rating — 88,669 ratings
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43

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3.44 avg rating — 372 ratings
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44

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3.93 avg rating — 506 ratings
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45

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3.27 avg rating — 4,049 ratings
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46

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47

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3.86 avg rating — 24,749 ratings
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48

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3.79 avg rating — 1,681 ratings
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49

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4.07 avg rating — 9,523 ratings
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50

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4.23 avg rating — 1,850,812 ratings
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51

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3.59 avg rating — 5,172 ratings
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52

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3.89 avg rating — 1,485,239 ratings
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52

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3.73 avg rating — 102,731 ratings
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54

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3.80 avg rating — 38,195 ratings
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55

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4.01 avg rating — 379 ratings
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3.76 avg rating — 222 ratings
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3.90 avg rating — 1,975 ratings
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58

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4.23 avg rating — 11,459 ratings
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59

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3.92 avg rating — 4,876 ratings
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60

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3.09 avg rating — 229 ratings
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60

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4.02 avg rating — 958,973 ratings
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62

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63

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3.70 avg rating — 840 ratings
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64

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3.94 avg rating — 538 ratings
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65

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 5 ratings
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66

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67

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3.70 avg rating — 163,536 ratings
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68

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3.98 avg rating — 337 ratings
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69

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4.06 avg rating — 126,261 ratings
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70

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4.44 avg rating — 2,502,595 ratings
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71

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4.12 avg rating — 6,607 ratings
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72

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3.56 avg rating — 80 ratings
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73

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4.15 avg rating — 206,979 ratings
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74

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4.14 avg rating — 3,776 ratings
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75

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4.23 avg rating — 127,647 ratings
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76

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3.92 avg rating — 910,445 ratings
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77

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3.73 avg rating — 15,026 ratings
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78

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3.67 avg rating — 3,127 ratings
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3.45 avg rating — 2,569 ratings
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80

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3.79 avg rating — 910 ratings
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81

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3.68 avg rating — 2,188 ratings
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82

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3.77 avg rating — 453 ratings
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83

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4.20 avg rating — 16,911 ratings
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84

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3.85 avg rating — 165 ratings
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85

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3.18 avg rating — 264 ratings
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86

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3.36 avg rating — 1,169 ratings
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87

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4.34 avg rating — 8,726,394 ratings
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88

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4.29 avg rating — 17,073 ratings
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89

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3.49 avg rating — 2,099 ratings
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90

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4.52 avg rating — 968,621 ratings
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91

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3.74 avg rating — 2,700 ratings
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92

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3.87 avg rating — 4,896 ratings
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93

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3.06 avg rating — 33 ratings
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94

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4.12 avg rating — 5,913 ratings
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95

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4.31 avg rating — 8,253 ratings
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96

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3.69 avg rating — 391,088 ratings
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97

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4.03 avg rating — 475,846 ratings
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98

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4.11 avg rating — 18,343 ratings
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99

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3.85 avg rating — 214,943 ratings
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100

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4.33 avg rating — 637,694 ratings
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423 books · 219 voters · list created January 26th, 2011 by MB (What she read) (votes) .
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


MB (What she read) 8635 books
114 friends
Nina 1083 books
55 friends
Brad 2944 books
686 friends
Alethea 3996 books
1098 friends
Kimberly 2026 books
278 friends
Rachel 419 books
57 friends
Zuzana 732 books
111 friends
Cindi 2313 books
62 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-13 of 13 (13 new)

dateDown arrow    newest »

message 1: by Alethea (new)

Alethea A Dude! I love The Dark Divine's cover! :) I just won't vote for it, hehe.


MB (What she read) No problem, our tastes are subjective. It'll be interesting to see what gets the most votes.

I'm going to add a lot more when I have a chance to think about it.

Frankly, I look at this as constructive criticism for publishers. Ha!


message 3: by Alethea (new)

Alethea A Don't get me started on indie publisher covers. It's like they're not even trying.

Notable exception: Flux Books, of which there is already one on this list (imho just meh but not the WORST I've seen!) I loooove the cover for Mahoney's Iron Witch.

I'll be back to vote (and abstain from voting) some more!


message 4: by Cindi (new)

Cindi I especially hate when they just put a bulging body with no head showing...it's too embarrassing to read them in public. It says, "Who cares about brains or personality...I only care about animal physicality!" What an insult to the author and the readers!!!!


MB (What she read) Oh, me too, Cindi! That is a style I dislike. For some reason the older style of romance covers that was popular a few years ago with a woman's legs and shoes didn't bother me as much. But chopping off the head/s is just annoying.

Subliminally, I feel like I'm being told to 'check my brain at the door' while reading.


Therealbadkitty All of the newer Nightshade covers are awful. The orginals are so beautiful why did they change it?!


message 7: by [deleted user] (new)

Cindi wrote: "I especially hate when they just put a bulging body with no head showing...it's too embarrassing to read them in public. It says, "Who cares about brains or personality...I only care about animal p..."

I agree!


message 8: by Lu (new)

Lu I vote for any cover with a shirtless dude and little else on the cover...then again I don't think I've ever read a book like that. Not my genre :D


MB (What she read) Lu wrote: "I vote for any cover with a shirtless dude and little else on the cover...then again I don't think I've ever read a book like that. Not my genre :D"

I hate those covers too. Unfortunately, they must sell well.


message 10: by Jan (last edited May 07, 2021 10:40PM) (new)

Jan All these covers are beautiful. I will not comment that somebody thinks ugly book cover art is possible. To each their own, but these are evocative covers that take me places. Anyone who thinks they're ugly is missing out on magical dreams.


message 11: by Ketutar (new)

Ketutar Jensen Jan wrote: "All these covers are beautiful. I will not comment that somebody thinks ugly book cover art is possible. To each their own, but these are evocative covers that take me places. Anyone who thinks the..."
It's very nice of you to think everything is beautiful, but you are pretty unique with that opinion.
I'd rather let the book take me places.


message 12: by Ketutar (new)

Ketutar Jensen Laura The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Donald Zochert
WHY THE HECK DID THEY USE THE TV SERIES THAT HAS PRACTICALLY NOTHING TO DO WITH LAURA INGALLS WILDER!!!??!?!?


message 13: by Ketutar (new)

Ketutar Jensen Yes, one could fill up this list with self published and the "Chinese" classic covers where they have just whacked on some image that may or may not be some way associated with the story itself...


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