Friday Face-Off: Spiders
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:
“All right! They’re spiders from Mars! You happy?”
~ a cover featuring A CRITTER OF THE EIGHT-LEGGED VARIETY
Mogsy’s Pick:
The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone
To be honest, spiders probably don’t bother me as much as they do others – yes, they’re icky, but unless I find one right up in my personal space, I typically leave them to do their own thing. Like people say, most house spiders are actually pretty harmless and are good to keep around because they take care of even worse insect pests.
But the spiders in The Hatching are another story. While reading this book, I had fight several urges not to jump into the shower because I was convinced I was feeling hundreds of tiny little skittering legs crawling all over my skin. The story begins in the jungles of Peru, where The Swarm (believe me, it’s completely appropriate to designate the spider horde as a character in its own right) claims its first victim. Before long, other disturbing reports are emerging all over the world. In China, a nuclear bomb goes off, which their government claims was a “training incident” gone wrong. In Minneapolis, an American billionaire’s private jet suddenly falls out of the sky. In Kanpur, India, a group of scientists receive unusual seismic readings at their earthquake lab. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, screams suddenly ring out aboard a cargo ship.
The commonality between all these events? Give yourself a pat on the back if you guessed eight-legged creepy crawlies. Needless to say, if you’re an arachnophobe, this one’s going to go really badly for you. But let’s take a look at the covers:
From left to right:
Gollancz Hardcover (2016) – Gollancz Paperback (2017)
Atria/Emily Bestler Books (2016) – French Edition (2018) – Spanish Edition (2016)
Portuguese Edition (2016) – Hungarian Edition (2017)
Winner:
There is just something about the Portuguese edition that really appeals to me. Maybe it’s the color scheme (I love the crimson/white/black combo), or the art style that makes that cover come alive with a hectic, frenetic energy. But even with the freaky image of the huge nasty spider dominating the picture, that one just keeps drawing my attention back to it.
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
I will pick the one that only have the web and NO spiders on it!! I couldn’t stand looking at them haha
Spiders are the worst!!
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Haha, I considered the “just webs” covers too for that reason 😀
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Ugh- spiders. 🙂 I think I like the French edition the best. I’m not sure I could handle those covers with a big huge spider on ’em lol.
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They are icky for sure, but for that reason they are also the most arresting 😀
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Uff, well… i also prefer any cover with no spider on them 😀
Hungarians went in all brutal with that realistic spider pic… ew-ew-ew 😀 😀
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Oh they did! I think it’s some type of wolf spider, that’s how all in they went!
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I like the 2016 one with just the web-I’m arachnophobic and I just can’t bring myself to buy this book right now as the only copy on Amazon has a ton of the hairy things on the cover! I love reading spider books but I hate seeing them on the cover!
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I think the Atria edition was smart that way, not showing the spiders, lol!
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This is a popular choice this week and we all seem to love the pink one.
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Yep, I expected to see this series on multiple blogs! It was the only book I could think of with spiders 😛
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Haha – between us we’ve covered books 1 and 2 in the series. I love your choice – and also the first one – Gollancz Hardcover – it kind of makes me think of white noise somehow or something frantically scratching at something. Scary.
Lynn 😀
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I think that’s awesome! I considered all three books in the series but ultimately went with book one because of the availability and number of covers.
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We picked the same book this week, and I honestly couldn’t think of a spider related book I’ve read, so I went with this one. And I completely agree with your favorite😉
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Me neither, this was the only one that came to mind! I did figure I’d see it on other blogs 😀
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I’m shivering just looking at all these spider covers lol. I like the one you picked, feels ominous!
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Yeah, there’s a creepy energy to it, thanks to the “scribbles” of the web!
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Brrrr… the last two covers you showcased are the most terrifying, indeed: for some reason, the lone spider – instead of the multitude – looks much more dangerous. And like you know I feel something crawling on my skin… eek! 😀
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You’re right, the big lone spider covers tend to look a lot more creepy than the ones featuring a swarm. It’s just so…domineering!
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Gollancz paperback cos it feeels like they are gonna crawl all over me
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Haha, you actually like it because of THAT? 😀
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I agree with your pick! I like that one best, but I don’t like spiders so if I had to own one of these I would pick Atria/Emily Bestler Books (2016) because it is still cool and doesn’t have a large spider on it!
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I wonder if that was a conscious decision from marketing. Like, someone one told the artist, “NO NO NO, no spiders, trust me, it’ll sell better with no spiders” 😀
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Ughhhh, totally creeped out here….
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The Hungarian one really does me in.
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Yikes! Yeah it’s a good pick- but ugh spiders 😉
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Haha, that’s a popular sentiment this week 😀
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Eek!! I hate all of these! haha but I agree with your pick! That’s definitely the most interesting cover!
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My feelings exactly. I don’t exactly want to cuddle up in bed with any of these books with their covers 😛
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They all look so scary. I wouldn’t want to read them. 🙂
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