Friday Face-Off: Stormy Sky
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:
“Raining Cats and Dogs”
~ a cover featuring a STORMY SKY
Mogsy’s Pick:
The Young Elites by Marie Lu
Ten years ago, in the world of The Young Elites, an illness swept through the kingdom of Kennetra, killing many. Those children who survived were marked forever by distinctive scars and other features, like our protagonist Adelina Amouteru, who lost her left eye to the infection and also had her dark hair turn silver. Some even came away with magical powers, and were thus labeled the “Malfetto”. Today, they are still persecuted and looked upon with contempt by much of the population.
As one of the marked, Adelina’s status makes her undesirable for marriage, leading her cruel and unfeeling father to try and sell her off to become some nobleman’s mistress. After finding out about the plot, Adelina attempts to run away, only to wind up manifesting her powers, accidentally killing her father in a horrific accident. And so, we begin the book with our protagonist locked up in prison, awaiting her execution. Before she makes it up to the block, however, Adelina is snatched out of the Inquisitors’ grasp by a group of vigilantes known as the Young Elites, so called because their members are all like her – marked Malfettos who are empowered with special magical abilities.
It feels like we’ve seen this story many times before, and indeed, I kind of recall this one being your typical run-of-the-mill YA fantasy fare. But will its covers end up making more of a splash? We shall see by taking a look at the contenders…
From left to right:
G.P. Putnam’s Sons BYR (2014) – German Edition (2017) – Italian Edition (2016)
Indonesian Edition (2015) – French Edition (2015) – Serbian Edition (2015) – Czech Edition (2016)
Russian Edition (2016) – Chinese Edition (2016) – Thai Edition (2018)
Winner:
Don’t get me wrong, I like pretty backgrounds and landscapes as much as the next person. But all things being aesthetically equal, you’ll likely find me drawn to a cover featuring an actual character. Of these, the Russian edition is probably the nicest, even if it’s a little cheesy. But given the fact I’m not entirely blown away with any of the choices this week, it’s the closest to being the winner, even though it’s hard to tell, but Adelina appears to have both her eyes in this image. (Also interesting to note, this is the second time I’ve given the top spot to a Russian cover featuring a girl in a purple dress.)
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
I’ve always liked that cover since I tend to be drawn to covers that have storm clouds like that. So the first one is probably my fave, although I also like the German one. The Russian and Italian ones work for me as well.
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Yes, I do like the effects of the storm clouds on the US cover, wish they had done something more though!
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The Russian is wonderful so yes that one, but I also like the Indonesian cos it looks so dark.
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The Russian one is beautiful, I’m just a sucker for pretty purple dresses 😛
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Great pick! Yours was my second choice, but I must say I love the German edition as well; the white hair covering the eyes is pretty mysterious I think. 😉
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I was contemplating the German one too, actually. I like how simple it is, and that it hides her missing eye in a clever way!
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I also enjoy the German cover. The silver hair on that one, and the Russian cover is giving me serious Daenerys Targaryen vibes.
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When I looked at that cover, my first thought was Dany Targaryen too! 😛
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I like your choice but I was also drawn to the German edition.
Lynn 😀
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That one seems popular this week!
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I like the one you picked but man, that Indonesian one looks pretty cool as well. I remember this series getting so much hype a few years back. Maybe that’s why I’ve never read it!
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I quite liked the Indonesian cover too, but in the end I just had to go with a “people” cover 🙂
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I can see why the publisher probably didn’t want to ruin the beautiful girl by giving her only one eye😊 I think I like your choice too. I’m also not crazy about these covers. This was actually a tough week!
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Haha, I never thought about that, but I guess you’re right, even an eyepatch would probably ruin a lot of the effect 😛
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The Indonesian cover keeps drawing my eye to it: I don’t know if it’s the combination of sword and shield on the bleak background, or the ruins in the distance, but I kind of like it…
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That’s probably my favorite of the covers that don’t have a person featured on it!
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Wow I didn’t know that The Young Elites had so many different covers! I totally agree with you on the Russian cover, it’s beautiful. But I also really like the cover with the girl with the white hair!
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Yes, it always amazes me how many editions of certain books are out there. Every time I do a Friday Faceoff post, I discover more 🙂
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I think I like the first one, G.P. Putnam’s Sons BYR (2014) best. This one has a lot of great covers but nothing stands out as being overly spectacular. I like the one you chose too!
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I agree, all the covers are just so-so. I just chose the one that stuck out to me most. I can never resist a pretty purple dress 🙂
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Yes I do like your chosen cover-the colours are very vivid. I like covers that have some kind of weather theme to them from stormy skies to snowscapes!
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