The Cover Wars: Hopeless by Colleen Hoover | US vs UK

In The Cover Wars, I'm going to pit covers of the same book against each other. Only one shall leave victorious. The winner takes it all! 

Ready, set.... fight! 

For me, the clear winner with no real contest is the UK cover. This seems to be an unpopular opinion, but hear me out:

I liked this book, but it took me years to read it because of that damned US cover. First of all, the girl scares me. she looks so very wrong. Something about where her neck is, and her hand looks detached from the rest of her. It makes me think that to lie in such a position in which the hand rests like that is one where the arm is broken. And the fade-out contributes to the general feeling of wrong-ness. It took me years to realize the girl is actually pretty because I was always so overcome by it.

The photoshop job here is quite awful in my opinion - which is a pet-peeve of mine when it comes to covers. If I notice the photoshop, then the cover is simply not good enough.

This cover doesn't appeal to me on an aesthetic or artistic level at all.

Now lets take a look at the UK version, shall we? Holly canolly it looks gorgeous! It's simple, mysterious and beautiful in an understated kind of way. The usage of space is great, despite there being a lot of dead space. But just by putting text on it, it's actually very well balanced. In fact, it looks like there is less dead space on it than the US version!

The cover doesn't need to be clattered to be meaningful. The black background is effective for two reasons:

             a. it gives off a dark edge to the story. Dark, heavy colors usually do that - as opposed to the light, soothing colors of the US version. The US cover is mellow and calming, but the UK one tells you "you're in for a hell of a ride" by simply using black.
           
             b. The contrast between the blackness and the glow of the snow globe tells me this is a story about the light amidst the darkness. As in, the good that can be found even in the darkest of times. And isn't that exactly what this book is about?

Now, I'll be honest - I'm pretty sure there is no snow-globe in Hopeless. But, here is what this tells me after reading the book. Inside a snow-globe there is a city. A sheltered city that only exists inside this bubble. And when you shake it, a storm beseeches the city.

Isn't that exactly Sky? Sheltered, living a life that's partly unreal, and Dean comes along and shakes her city and brings on a storm?

The snow globe is Sky. It represents her story.

For that reason, this cover gets an A+ from me. If I had seen this cover existed, I would've read this book a lot sooner. Heck, I would've bought this cover is a heartbeat if I didn't own the sequel, Losing Hope, in the US version (but at least it's signed *wink*)

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COVER BETWEEN THE TWO?