Horror Books Have Lost Their Identity
Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2020 1:45 pm
Here are a couple of books I've read by British author, Adam Neville. The covers do a a decent job advertising the fact that these are not going to end well.
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Horror Books Have Lost Their Identity
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Re: Horror Books Have Lost Their Identity
Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2020 8:06 pm
Interesting video. I don't read a lot of horror, but agree that the cover should give the reader a fairly concrete idea of what they're in for. Horror books generally don't have happy endings. It takes a certain kind of twisted mind to enjoy them, I think.
Here are a couple of books I've read by British author, Adam Neville. The covers do a a decent job advertising the fact that these are not going to end well.
Here are a couple of books I've read by British author, Adam Neville. The covers do a a decent job advertising the fact that these are not going to end well.
Re: Horror Books Have Lost Their Identity
Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:37 pm
One of my very favorite horror novels is Peter Straub's "Ghost Story." Look at all the covers:
Re: Horror Books Have Lost Their Identity
Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:45 pm
Re: Horror Books Have Lost Their Identity
Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2020 11:02 pm
Only the version with the wasp on the cover really has anything to do with the book. The rest apply only in a very loose sense and a couple have absolutely nothing to do with anything.
Now, if you had asked me to make a cover for this book, I would have depicted a tall, feral-looking man standing near a short, ugly boy in a farmer's field towards dusk with the horizon barely glowing with sunset. Both figures are nearly in silhouette but not quite but their features can't be seen. Both figures are looking at the viewer of the picture and their eyes glow golden. Around them are a couple or three sheep carcasses with blood spatter in their neck areas.
On the back cover, I'd have a haunting image of a young woman dressed in 1920s fashion smiling evilly against the backdrop of an old wall of a house with fading, peeling 1900s style wallpaper.
These sceness would apply to the storyline and would let the viewer know unmistakably that this is a horror novel and the scene depicted are scary and weird--disturbing and chilling. I think it captures the strangeness of the story and sets the mood for the reader.
Now, if you had asked me to make a cover for this book, I would have depicted a tall, feral-looking man standing near a short, ugly boy in a farmer's field towards dusk with the horizon barely glowing with sunset. Both figures are nearly in silhouette but not quite but their features can't be seen. Both figures are looking at the viewer of the picture and their eyes glow golden. Around them are a couple or three sheep carcasses with blood spatter in their neck areas.
On the back cover, I'd have a haunting image of a young woman dressed in 1920s fashion smiling evilly against the backdrop of an old wall of a house with fading, peeling 1900s style wallpaper.
These sceness would apply to the storyline and would let the viewer know unmistakably that this is a horror novel and the scene depicted are scary and weird--disturbing and chilling. I think it captures the strangeness of the story and sets the mood for the reader.