We are all, deep down, suckers for an aesthetically pleasing book cover. There is no shame in wanting books that not only have an interesting or captivating story, but also those that will look pretty in your Instagram pictures and add a level of art to your home decor.
For all the aesthetic readers, who judge a book deeply by its cover, who are always looking for a cover worthy of sitting in your perfectly curated bookshelf or adding an interesting flair to the book pile on your coffee table, here we will look into the latest trends in book covers with the current aesthetic obsessions.
Museum Worthy Covers
A recent article in The New York Times declared the hottest new trend in book cover art in literary fiction, a cropped image of a centuries-old painting with a bright sans-serif font overlaid.
“These covers are the new signifiers of stylish literary fiction, telegraphing gravitas, wit and cool.”
Elisabeth Egan, The Book Cover Trend You’re Seeing Everywhere
The mix of the old paintings gives a classic, timeless feel to the covers, while the bright colors make it undeniably modern and cool. The New York Times cited My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh as the trendsetter, using the famous and recognizable painting, Portrait of a Young Woman in White (anonymous, 1798), with a simple hot pink text.
Now, similar book covers can be seen across genres with Hungerstone by Kat Dunn using The Nightmare (Henry Fuseli, 1781), Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan using After the Ball (Ramon Casas i Carbo, 1899), and The Longest Way to Eat a Melon by Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross using The Kittens and Snail (Alfred Arthur Brunel de Neuville).
Popularity of Pop Art
Pop art seems to be a book trend that will never go out of fashion; it has its ups and downs in popularity, but right now we see it on the up with popular titles using the simplistic pop of color and simple artwork or sans-serif fonts. Pop art is known for its bright colors and simplified use of everyday objects as art, often in a humorous or interesting way.
The most popular version of this can be seen in Sally Rooney’s UK cover of Normal People, which features a bright pistachio green with two people wrapped up in a sardine tin. Many aesthetic readers have strong opinions on the superiority of this cover over the US version and will opt to pay a little more for this version to grace their bookshelves.
Some other popular examples of books that have aesthetically used pop art recently are Milk Fed by Melissa Broder, Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan, and Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. In these, the simplistic cover art lets the story do the talking.
Written in Yellow
The use of bright yellow text is also a common trend in book covers right now. No matter if the image on the cover is dark, simplistic, or an elaborate image or illustration, the yellow text gives a book cover an interesting pop of color. Yellow is a color associated with calmness, happiness, and warmth, which gives these book covers a sense of approachability.
Among Friends by Hal Ebbott combines two trendy cover styles by laying a bright yellow text over a cropped version of the painting Life During Wartime (Bo Bartlett, 2018).
Whether it be laid over a dark background, plain and simple, like it is in Tony Tulathimutte’s Rejection, or matched with a pop of color and illustration like the cover of the extremely popular A Court of Thorns and Roses book series by Sarah J. Maas.
Hot Pink You Can’t Miss
Another color that you will see all over the bookstores lately is a hard one to miss. Hot pink has been featured throughout the designs of many books lately, especially paired with a dark or more gothic background, giving it an exciting and attention-grabbing burst.
The most popular book that comes to mind with hot pink is Mona Awad’s Bunny, a dark humor with features a hot pink cover with a black silhouette of a bunny and, of course, chalky yellow text.
Some other books that employ the hot pink trend in different and creative ways are The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling, Gone to the Wolves by John Wray, and Annie Bot by Sierra Greer, all of which are darker novels that use a similar black and pink color scheme as Bunny.
The Melodrama of Oil Paintings
This next trend has a similar feel to the museum painting book covers; however, it offers a bit more creativity. It entails covers that feature oil paintings, specifically oil paintings of faces or fragments of a face that portray a deep emotion.
The biggest example of this trend is Coco Mellors’ Cleopatra and Frankenstein, which depicts an oil painting close-up of a woman’s solemn face. Mellors continued with this style in her second novel, Blue Sisters.
This style of book cover can also be seen in Sirens & Muses by Antonia Angress, which portrays an oil painting of half of a woman’s face while the other half is being covered by her arm. In addition, The Doloriad by Missouri Williams has an extreme close-up of half a face in a wide smile. This style seems to capture the bold melodrama found within these stories.
Featuring Fruit
Finally, another oddly aesthetic book cover trend is featuring fruit on the cover. There is something that Bookstagram and Pinterest love about pairing a pretty book with a bowl of fresh fruit. These trendy covers help with that.
The Pinterest-worthy poetry collection by Wendy Cope, titled The Orange and Other Poems, features what appears to be a drawing of an orange using oil pastel or crayon, against a white background. Similarly, The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters features blueberries on a blueberry bush. Both of these give off an innocent and simple reminder of beauty.
Other stories that feature fruit on the cover include Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter, which shows the inside seeds of a pomegranate, and Something About Her by Clementine Taylor, which features two apples on a branch. These two examples seem to employ a more sensual use of the symbolism behind fruit.
Sometimes it is all about a pretty book cover. There’s no shame in reading a book just for its aesthetic every once in a while. Next time you are browsing through a bookstore and a striking cover piques your interest, take notice if it includes any of these trendy styles.
Want more book recs with pretty covers? Click here.
Find these books and more on our Books to Pick Up Because They’re Pretty bookshelf on Bookshop.org.
