Friday Face-Off: New Beginnings
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:
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”
~ NEW BEGINNINGS
Mogsy’s Pick:
Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater
First off, my sincerest apologies in advance to anyone who enjoyed this book, because I loathed it with every fiber of my being. But because it was a follow-up to the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, featuring two of the side characters as they start their new life after high school, I thought it was an apt one to feature for today’s topic. Sinner is a “new adult” novel, following Isabel Culpeper who has left Minnesota for sunny California where she is studying to be a doctor and working part time at a clothing designer’s store. But some things you just can’t leave behind, like Cole St. Clair, the rock star/werewolf with whom she had started a budding romance towards the end of the first trilogy. Cole is trying to start afresh himself after doing a stint in rehab for alcohol and drug addiction, and when he is offered a new gig to star in a reality TV show, he decides to look Isabel up while he’s in L.A.
Why Stiefvater chose to write a spin-off to Mercy Falls focusing on the two most bitter, self-absorbed, and annoying characters from the original trilogy is beyond me, but hey, it’s a new beginning! Let’s take a look at the covers:
From left to right:
Scholastic Press (2014) – Scholastic (2015)
Spanish Edition (2014) – German Edition (2015) – Portuguese Edition (2015)
Turkish Edition (2017) – Italian Edition (2015) – Polish Edition (2016)
Winner:
Tough choice this week since I’m not particularly drawn to any of them, but at least the Spanish edition tries to match the style of the original Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy covers. Somehow, the palm tree silhouettes just don’t have the same effect though!
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
They are all kind of meh, so I will go with Italian
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Not a bad choice 🙂
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I think i like the first two although the Turkish edition is neat also.
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Gotta say, the claw marks are pretty dramatic 🙂
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I can’t really say that any of them greatly appeal but I do prefer the two covers with the claw marks!
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They do add a bit of flair to their covers 🙂
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I like the first one, I think the colours of the sunset are really eye-catching.
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Haha, that they are! It almost looks post apocalyptic 😀
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I’m not crazy about any of these either (and I’m not sure if I read this, lol) but I do like the Italian edition the best😁
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Haha, you’d probably remember if you read this…both of them were sooooo annoying! I can’t really forget this book even if I want to, lol.
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From your synopsis I believe I might have loathed this story too… 🤣
Still, the Scholastic 2014 cover does sport some beautiful color choices.
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Oh man, I wanted to wring both protagonists’ necks, they were so self-centered and whiny 😛
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I like the top right-hand cover best – the Scholastic. I’ve recently listened to The Scorpio Races on audiobook and been very impressed with the quality of the worldbuilding and prose – but I have to say, I wasn’t tempted to dive into this one, Mogsy:))
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Haha, I definitely would stay away. I enjoyed The Scorpio Races! I even enjoyed the trilogy before this one, The Wolves of Mercy Falls, which spawned this spin-off novel. But something really tanked Sinner, and I place 100% of the blame on the horrible characters.
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I’ll take your advice, Mogsy – I’m NOT a fan of trudging through any book with dislikeable characters!
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Nice pick! I do love the cover you went with best, I was NOT a fan of that orange one for some reason lol.
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I don’t really like the orange one either. It feels wrong for the book somehow. When I saw it for the first time, I thought it might have been a dystopian novel! There’s definitely something “end of the world” about that color 😛
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First of all I never would have known what to choose as book to illustrate today’s topic! Second I have not read this one but well the other books in the Shiver series (and loved them LOL) Third I agree with your choice Mogsy!
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I enjoyed the books in the Shiver series too! Which is why this one was such a disappointment, I just hated the characters 😛
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The Spanish one immediately stood out against the others followed by the Turkish version.
Lynn 😀
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