Friday Face-Off: Dark and Forboding
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:
Longest Night
~ a cover that is DARK AND FORBODING
Mogsy’s Pick:
The Only Child by Andrew Pyper
As soon as I saw today’s topic, my mind went immediately to The Only Child, a mystery-horror novel that manages to incorporate three of the greatest Gothic horror novels of the 1800s into one strange tale. I own the US edition, whose cover has always struck me as the epitome of dark and foreboding, and I was glad to see that the book had several other editions as well, so let’s take a look at some of their covers now:
From left to right:
Simon & Schuster (2017) – Sterling Mystery Series (2017)
Portuguese Edition (2020) – Serbian Edition (2017)
Winner:
Ooh, tough choice this week. I love the Simon & Schuster cover, as well the equally ominous and bleak Sterling Mystery Series cover. But when it comes to causing pure uneasiness and dread, I’m going to have to go with the Serbian edition.
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
The Serbian edition is really creepy!
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I know! I’m not even claustrophobic, but I feel antsy just looking at it!
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The first two are my faves. I’ve read The Homecoming by this author and liked it okay. I do want to read more from him.
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You should check out The Damned! It was the first book I ever read by Pyper, and I thought it was better than this and Homecoming 🙂
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That Sterling Mystery Series cover immediately caught my eye! Yet another book I’ve somehow missed…
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That one has a real gloom to it!
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Cool choice! I think I like the first two best, but they’re all good.
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Agreed, the first two exude atmosphere!
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🙂
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What a creepy chair… The color and the lighting only enhance that dark atmosphere…
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Yeah, whoever that chair is meant for is about to have a real crappy day!
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I think the one you chose is the most powerful Mogsy!
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I thought so too, as it’s very symbolic in a way! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
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Definitely foreboding. That cover you picked is definitely unsettling.
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Yup, makes me glad that chair isn’t meant for me! 😛
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I say the first one, dunno it is fitting
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That’s the version I own, so I definitely feel so attachment to it too.
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Ooh I think I like that first Simon & Shuster one!
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That’s the edition I have, so I am quite fond of it too!
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I like that Sterling cover because I love taking that kind of photo of old buildings!
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I can see why that one would appeal to you most if you like the style!
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I love that Simon & Schuster cover. The mystery of the fog and that fascinating old building with the dark, bold figure walking below, and that sinister flock of birds circling above.
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Good observation with the birds! It’s such a small detail that I hardly even noticed it, but you’re right that it does add something sinister to the already foreboding atmosphere.
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I enjoyed this book and I think I would probably have to go for the Simon and Schuster but that may simply be because of the ‘familiarity’ aspect because that chair is definitely foreboding.
Lynn 😀
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