I'm going to say this right off the bat, this cover isn't specifically ugly for any reason other than it's just very poorly designed. That star background is a hideous choice, and the silhouette thing is way overdone, and the addition of the bear "just to show off she's a mom" is an unnecessary addition considering the word "mom" is in the fucking title of the thing. The fonts are completely and wholly uninteresting and the entire thing just stinks to high heavens of "I designed this in my 8th grade media class", and I say all this as a graphic designer myself who often has to make her own novel covers, so.
But mostly it's that star pattern background. That's just completely unpleasant on the eyes, and while I'm sure it's meant to come off as patriotic in some way, I wouldn't touch that thing with someone else's disembodied hands. When it comes to reading the back of this thing, I have a few questions right off the bat. The first of which is what is with these [word] names? Sally Sin. Simon Stills. Also, why does it make it seem like this is a collection of stories rather than a singular novel? "Original Sin" and "To Sin Again"? Is this just a series of short tales featuring a woman with the last name that rivals that of a porn star? I was under the impression this was a novel titled Spy Mom. Then again, the tagline does say "The Adventures of Sally Sin", so perhaps I was an idiot. Especially since there's a quote on the back that specifies this is two stories in one book and the bubble on the front, which I'm only noticing now because I am indeed an idiot, that says it's two novels in one.
Either way, this whole thing reeks of self publishing, and as a self published author, I can say that. Also, if you're going to put that star pattern on the front, why not double down on it, commit, and plaster it all over the back too? Consistency is key, man. This is just lazy. It's also just not a very pretty red, and clashes with the blue and white and black. It should've been a dark red, not this almost salmon color they decided to go with. However, after doing some research, I discovered this woman is actually a published author under Simon & Schuster who mostly writes kids books about young girl spies. I suddenly feel a lot worse, honestly. Now I have to apologize and congratulate her on, not only being a published author but also for doing something kinda cool. Spy books featuring girl leads? Young me would've killed for that. Man, little girls get all kinds of cool shit now.
Oddly enough, on her website she doesn't have Spy Mom there, but who a date I found does say it was released in 2011/2012 so perhaps it's something she moved on from and doesn't want associated with her newer career path. Which, being an artist, I completely understand. There's plenty I've distanced myself from that I made in my past. It's not unusual for an artist to do.
What's surprising is that on Goodreads the book has solid reviews, so I'm unsure why it'd be something to distance oneself from, especially since she seems to still write into the whole "spy" genre, just for kids now. Whatever. I'm not Beth, so it's not my place to say why she changed course. Either way, I still stand by the fact that the design of this is atrocious, but who knows, perhaps the book itself is good fun, much like a James Patterson can sometimes be. Something to throw in your carry on bag when you go on vacation, something light and breezy. Not surprisingly, a lot of the reviews are from women, and especially, moms, so perhaps they're a little biased. I'm a woman, but I'm not a mother (one day I hope to be though) so I'm not exactly the demographic for this just yet. Plus I just am not that into spy stuff. But I do still stand by the fact that this cover is awful, and hey, from what her newer books look like, she seems to have found a genuine cover artist who does fantastic work.
The thing is, just to play devils advocate, I also looked up the cover artist, who does work for Penguin/Random House and has a bunch of cover work available on her website, and honestly, it's all excellent stuff. So maybe this book was just both their first foray into the field, and they've both grown and learned since then. However, I'd like to ask something...
...why exactly do 4 of these 6 covers feature essentially the same design? Is it just something that a lot of fiction writers (people who seem to be writing period piece fiction in particular, from what I can tell) like to go with? I get that it's appealing to see actual people on the cover, it helps us connect to other people because we are people also. What can I say, we're a simple minded species. Anyway, this is likely just a result of coincidence, but I find it kind of funny nonetheless. It isn't a criticism either, I'm just amused by this fact. Aside from the similarity, they're all really well done, especially the Jamie Ford one. That's beautiful design work.
So yeah, it seems both of the people involved in this wound up being professionals and, honestly, after looking at their more current work I understand why. This rarely happens. Usually the books I cover (haha, get it? cover? I'm hilarious) here are piles of garbage; self help books of one kind or another or some terrible romance novel from the 90s or awful horror book but, really, this is the rare instance when I have to formally apologize for maybe being so harsh. In the end, I actually like both these peoples works.
I still don't forgive the sin that is the cover for Sally Sin, but hey, artists evolve.
These people are actually making a real living at what they do while I bitch about books on a blog and am self published. Perhaps I should be harsher on myself in the future instead of on others...
...nah. That's no fun.
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