Friday Face-Off: Fantasy Beast
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:
“The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow!”
~ a cover featuring a FANTASY BEAST
Mogsy’s Pick:
The Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey
The fantasy beast I’ve chosen for the theme is week is…the Wendigo! And what a frightening creature of dread and darkness it is, described as mythical man-eating monster which may appear human-like in its characteristics. Many Native American cultures also portray the cannibalistic Wendigos as the embodiment of insatiable greed and excess, gluttonous but also extremely thin to the point of starvation at the same time. The Curse of the Wendigo is the second Monstrumologist novel by Rick Yancey, following the series’ young narrator Will Henry as he accompanies the eccentric Dr. Warthrop into the heart of the Brutal Canadian wilderness in search of more monsters. Let’s take a look at the covers:
From left to right:
Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers (2010) – Gallery/Saga Press (2015) – Persian Edition (2017)
German Edition (2012) – Korean Edition (2017)
Russian Edition (2012) – Russian Edition (2014) – Indonesian Edition (2017)
Winner:
Lots of creeptastic ones to choose from today, but my favorite might be the German edition because of the really striking image of the Wendigo against the backdrop of the full moon as well as the amazing atmosphere and the cool art style. Though I must say the Indonesian edition is a close second.
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
Haven’t read that, so I’m judging only by the cover 😉 My favorite is the Persian one, though from what I know of Wendigo myths, it totally misses the mark 😉 The German one is very Expressionist, and really caught my attention. But the most creepy for me is the Russian 2014 one.
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I love the Persian one too, it was almost my first choice, but then the detail in the German edition edged it out. The black against the red is really striking!
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I also love the Persian edition, that flow!! Beautiful
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That one seems to be a popular one this week! It’s a nice one 🙂
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This is the book where Yancy and I parted ways forever 😦
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I think I read the next one, but the series lost a lot of momentum with it, along with my interest. I read a couple of Yancey’s other books, but nothing has really stood up to the original Monstrumologist.
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I am totally a fan of the Wendigo! It just fascinates me! I agree with your winning choice and the Indonesian one would be in second place. There needs to be more Wendigo books! I do have this on my TBR!
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I agree! Horror needs more Wendigo books, if you have any recs, I’d love some!
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The Persian edition is my fav!
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Yes, that one seems to be a standout this week!
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I read the first one in this series but never continued on. I enjoyed it but thought it was a tad slow. I like the German edition as well but I have to admit the Indonesian one is a close second. Great choice to showcase. I am always drawn to books with red, black and white on the covers.
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The first book freaked me out so bad! The middle was a bit slow, I agree. But the ending in the tunnels really got to me. I’m not even a claustrophobe and I was really disturbed, lol!
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I like that first but then I so the shape in the Persian one so that one!
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I know, the Persian one is very striking in that regard. I keep looking at it, wondering what the heck that is supposed to be…
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This is tough, I like so many of these! My favorites are the Saga Press edition, the German, and the 2012 Russian editions.
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Saga reissued this entire series a few years back, and their covers are all deliciously creepy like this!
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Your choice is the one that immediately caught my attention, probably because the starkness of the black and white cover is very effective. The 2014 Russian edition is not bad, either, and it carries a sort of Lovecraftian vibe that goes well with the theme of this scary creature…
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The Russian is horrifying! Might be too creepy, even for me 😛
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I LOVE that Persian cover!
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It really is amazing how such a simple cover can be so effective! 😀
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Ooh a Wendigo- nice! 🙂 Okay I like that first one a lot- probably my fave.
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I like that one because it has an old school vibe to it 🙂 Gotta be the silhouette and birds.
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I agree with your choice though the Persian edition is pretty cool too. I like the wispiness of the illustration.
This is one of my favorite series (though I’ve only read this and the first book so far).
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Lots of people seem to favor the Persian edition this week, and I can see why! It’s so simple and yet very alluring. It’s very dynamic too, and I can’t help but stare at it trying to make out the shapes.
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The covers for this are great!!
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Agreed, there were several here this week that I really liked!
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Oooh great pick. I think one of the scariest stories I read was a wendigo story (and on r/nosleep on reddit back in the day at that).
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Wow, all of these are rather amazing covers! I agree though that yours is the most impactful by far, followed by the Indonesian, and my personal honorable mention, the Simon Schuster one; I like the crows cawing at each against the backdrop of the moon. 😉
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I love Wendigo stories – I should give this a try. I love some of these covers – your choice is probably my favourite although I love the last two as well – Russian/Indonesian.
Lynn 😀
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