Friday Face-Off: Guitar
Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme created by Books by Proxy! Each Friday, we will pit cover against cover while also taking the opportunity to showcase gorgeous artwork and feature some of our favorite book covers. If you want to join the fun, simply choose a book each Friday that fits that week’s predetermined theme, post and compare two or more different covers available for that book, then name your favorite. A list of future weeks’ themes are available at Lynn’s Book Blog.
This week’s theme is:
“You couldn’t not like someone who liked the guitar”
~ a cover featuring a GUITAR
Mogsy’s Pick:
The Lost Boys Symphony by Mark Andrew Ferguson
This week we’re going to keep things simple again with a head-to-head between only two covers. The Lost Boys Symphony may be a time travel story, but it’s also unlike any I have ever read. The story focuses on the lives of three friends: Henry, Gabe, and Val. Henry and Gabe have known each other since they were children. In high school they meet Val, and Henry starts dating her. The three of them have been inseparable ever since.
Partway through college, however, Val suddenly decides to break up with Henry and transfers to another school. Understandably heartbroken, Henry decides to immerse himself in his other passion, which is music. But then he gets sick. Very sick. And his illness is manifesting in very strange ways, making him hear things and see things that he knows should be impossible. Searching for answers, Henry follows Val to New York City, and ends up blacking out while walking across the George Washington Bridge. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a room with two strangers—but in truth, they aren’t strangers at all. They are his future selves, Henry at 41 and 80, and they have kidnapped the 19-year-old him in order to send him an important message…
Now let’s check out these two covers:
2015 Hardcover by Little, Brown and Company (left) vs. 2016 Paperback by Back Bay Books (right)
Winner:
I’m not in love with either cover, to be honest. But the more I studied the hardback edition the more I started to appreciate it for its symbolism, the way the design incorporates the image of the guitar (representing Henry’s background in music) as the George Washington Bridge, which has huge significance in the story. It’s plain, but it’s clever. So it wins!
What do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
I was searching for the guitar on the hard cover and just noticed when you told us so! Yay for the that cover!
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Yeah, it’s actually quite subtle! It took me a while too, until I noticed the tuning knobs in the lower corner, then realized that was a headstock!
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The guitar and bridge work well as a joint image on this cover. It’s an interesting design.
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Agreed! It’s a very clever design!
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I will go with the bridge too, but I am not impressed
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I’m with you…not the best options this week, but I couldn’t think of another book I’ve read with a cover that features a guitar 😀
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I like this one as well!
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Cheers, glad you like it too! 😀
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I like the hardcover version more as well. It took me a minute to see the guitar aspect, and it’s kind of cool in its cleverness and simplicity. And the story sounds interesting, too.
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Definitely, I really like that it was kinda subtle. You don’t really see the guitar in it until you notice the tuning knobs, or wonder why there are “bumps”/the frets on the bridge, lol!
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The winner definitely has an Interesting cover. The bridge as a guitar works really well.
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It’s a creative fusion of the two ideas! I definitely like it better than the other cover.
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I’ve never heard of this book, but I love anything with a music theme. Love the first cover as well, although I’m drawn to the colors of the second one.
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I agree with you there. I thought the second cover was kind of plain to be honest, but without the brilliant mix of covers, it would have been downright dreary.
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Before noticing that the bridge was also the neck of a guitar (silly me! 😀 ) I thought that what are indeed the guitar’s chords could be the lines on a music sheet, and the small figures, notes. Still, it’s a call-back to music, and that’s a very, very clever cover!
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Don’t feel silly, the guitar was easy to miss! I think it may have been the artist’s intent to keep it subtle, because even the body of the guitar was only suggested by a couple swirly lines!
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Well done finding this one – I struggled, I went for a cover for a book I haven’t read, one of the Newford Books – although I have read one and I’ve added Trader to my list now as well.
Did you enjoy this one – I’m sure I’ve heard about it because I remember quite liking the premise and thinking maybe I’d give it a go but obviously just forgot to add it to my list!
Lynn 😀
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I would have struggled to find a book for this week too, if I hadn’t read this one. I actually considered using this for the week we did “Bridge” but now I’m glad I saved it, haha!
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I kinda like the covers, both of them. But I agree the one with guitar as bridge is more creative. I just like the colors on the other cover. Definitely sounds like an interesting book, too!
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Definitely the 2015 cover. The 2016 one looks like it was made by someone experimenting with a graphic programme in the mid-90s…
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Haha! That’s hilarious 😀
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