Friday Face-Off: Insect
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:
“If I be waspish, best beware my sting”
~ a cover featuring an INSECT
Mogsy’s Pick:
Abomination by Gary Whitta
I have a confession to make. You see, I’m a bit squeamish when it comes to bugs. They’re icky and give me the creeps. So this week I figured, what better way to celebrate this week’s Friday Face-Off theme than with a horror novel?
Abomination is a historical tale of terror following Wulfric, a former knight who has fallen far from grace. Once the greatest soldier and former confidante of King Alfred the Great, he now lives in the shadows, wandering the English countryside dressed in rags and chains. Fifteen years ago, he fought to rid his kingdom of a plague of monstrous beasts known as abominations, and for his troubles he was cursed with a fate worse than death.
Any more than this, I’m not going to say; I’ll just leave you all to speculate as to why the insect featured on these covers is a giant scarab…
First row, from left to right: Inkshares (2015) – Portuguese: DarkSide Books (2017) – Spanish: Tusquets (2017)
Winner:
I love all three covers, to be honest. Each version does a great job portraying the eerie and disturbing nature of the story, but if I had to choose just one, I would probably go with the Portuguese edition as the winner. I’ve always thought the Inkshares cover is a little too dark, making it hard to see the detail on the scarab, and while I really like the Spanish edition, the imagery of the roots or veins or whatever they are just isn’t as eye-catching as the Portuguese edition featuring the black of the beetle and the red of the blood on a white background. This happens to be one of my favorite color combinations, and it’s easy to see why – the results are very striking.
What do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
I agree about the Portuguese version, it is striking with that color combo, plus the blood makes it look freaky! I like the Inkshares version but it is a little too dark.
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The blood really makes the cover, I think. And yes, that’s my only complaint with the Inkshares cover too, I can’t really make anything out on account of how dark it is.
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Portuguese definitely
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I think it’s the clear winner 🙂
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I agree with your pick. Very effective! Gah, hate bugs…
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I know, just looking at these covers is giving me the creeps!
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Yeah, those covers are a little creepy. But the Portuguese cover is the one that stands out most for me, too. The red-black-white color scheme really pops. Plus, blood and bugs, together on a cover… *shudders*
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It’s definitely a winning combination for a horror cover! 🙂
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Man, that Portuguese edition is AWESOME. It definitely grabs my attention. I probably wouldn’t even consider grabbing the US one but that one, for sure! Great feature and wonderful pick for favorite!
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Yeah, the US cover doesn’t stand out like the other ones!
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Hard to choose between covers that portray a bug so prominently, since I’m just as squeamish as you are where bugs of any kind or size are concerned! That said, the Portuguese cover is indeed striking. And now I need to go and buy some insect repellant… 😀
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Gah, I know! All those legs…imagining them skittering all over your skin… *shudder*
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Oh I like the first one as well!
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They’re all very nice, I think the other two are just too dark for me though 🙂
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I think I like the Spanish one the best. I haven’t read the book, but the roots (?) make me think of some deep, pervasive evil that will be difficult to eradicate.
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I couldn’t figure out if they were roots or something else either…zooming in, I thought they might be blood vessels and tiny capillaries, but who knows. It really is a sinister cover though, good call!
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Yeah, I’m with your choice this week – it’s so dramatic. Although insects and blood – enough to make anybody squeamish – especially since the insects antennae seem to be blood coated too !!
Lynn 😀
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I know, it’s so icky! The fact that it’s a scarab reminds me also of that scene in the Mummy where they burrow under the skin and you can see it moving up the limbs and into the trunk and up the next and into the brain…ew ew ew ew ew!
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That was the creepiest one of the bunch without a doubt.
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I agree, whoever designed it really gets the tone of the book!
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I love the Portuguese edition as well, and you’ve reminded me that at some point I’d love to read this. If I remember your review, you really loved it:-)
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Yep, after a shaky intro, I really got into the book. It was my first experience with an Inkshares title too, and it was a good one 🙂
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I actually like insects but they can still give me the willies:). All these covers are gorgeous as you say and I think the one you picked is the clear winner but I do hardcore love the Spanish edition as well!
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In order of favorites, I think mine goes Portuguese, Spanish, English. The Spanish one is really dramatic and ominous, but the Portuguese one is just gorgeous and striking!
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