Monday, August 6, 2012

Cover Issues: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

This is my second "Cover Issues" post. I find it interesting when they start changing all the covers. And for some reason I just have to make a post out of it and give my opinion :) So I think they did a good thing giving these covers a little re-do. Honestly, I never liked the first set. Specials and Extras would be the only ones that I would keep if I was forced to choose from the old set.


Uglies:
So first off, I haven't read these yet. So I can't relate the cover to the story and all that. This is 95% based on looks and 5% based on matching the title. First up, Uglies... As for the old cover, the girl is just standard to me, not really special or significant. And what is up with the weird looking plant by her face?! Not sure. And for the new cover, I love it! It looks so clean. I love how all of them are white. I love the hands, they look so perfect, almost like barbie hands, and the nails are perfectly painted. And the creepy face under the sheet or whatever that is. And dont miss out on the scalpul like i did the first few times i saw it. It's just awesome.


Here I found the full picture... And it's even weirder. I think they could've made it better by cropping it differently, but I'm not sure anything would have helped.


Pretties:
Onto Pretties, the old one is boring, lame, weird looking and everything else. I actually own the first three books and this cover is just ugly, the tones are all weird. And she's kinda in focus and he's half ass in focus and I just don't like it. The new one-- we got a good looking pair of legs there, along with some markings. Which I assume would be used for plastic surgery. I get it, it makes sense. I also failed to mention that all the covers have the names of all the books at the top and the title of that book is the one that stands out in color. Pretty good idea. 


Here's the full picture of Pretties... It helps me a lot to see the full option. He looks a lot better like this and she does too. I think she could've been wearing a different shirt, I don't really care for that one. And still the red tones/shadows are just messing me up.


Specials:
Specials time! I liked the first cover. I thought all the marking on her face were pretty cool. They could mean some pretty awesome things in the story, if they represent something. And her eyes are black. Like black, black! And that's always fun. For the new cover, I love how it's a red head and I believe it's a guy which is different. With the back muscles and the short hair, I think so. But you never know. Especially when you haven't read the books. She could be superwoman for all I know. Hehe. But I love how the spine is tattooed. How awesome is that?!


The full picture once again.I think they should have put more of her face in the cover, because she is really pretty. And she says a whole lot more with her eyes, when you can see both of them.


Extras:
Lastly-- Extras. I thought the old one wasn't bad. The girls pretty, she has the hair in her face, that gives it a little something extra. Haha. Get it? -- extra. Anyways, And there's the eyes... Oooooh, the eye. Fabulous right?! But the new one. The eye is even better! Look at that eye shadow. And the lashes. Loving it! But I think I'm just in love with the makeup. And her skin looks absolutely perfect.  


For this one I think it's pretty awesome that only one eye is different. It just bugs me that all these pictures have zero background. It's just a colored backdrop. I feel like they could've added so much just by having a background. Some kind of scene going on.



So I think that since I have the first three with the old covers, I'll probably just try and find the fourth book with the old cover so they match. Because we all know they have to match! But I had fun doing this one. I had a lot more to say about them than I thought I did. Hope you enjoyed. Leave me a comment and tell me what you thought. Let me know if you like these kinds of posts. 

And here's some questions for you:
- Have you read the books? Were they good?
-Do either sets of covers go along with the plot?
-Which set do you prefer? Specific single cover you prefer? 


Have a fabulous day!

4 comments:

  1. Well, I just wanted to say that before you judge the covers (especially the first one), you should probably read the books. The new covers are nice, but the old covers kind of say more about the books themselves.

    For example, in Uglies, the people aren't actually ugly. They're considered ugly by pretties (people who have had the surgery to become pretty) because they're not pretty. They're not ugly, though, but normal. Which is exactly how the girl in the picture looks. That girl is by no means ugly. The plant has to do with the plot of the book and for someone who has read it, it make sense. There's a lot to do with natural in Uglies.

    I think the reason for only the colored backdrops is because they cropped it anyhow. They obviously didn't plan on using the full picture, so why add a scene when you don't need one?

    I have to agree with you on the bad coloring of Pretties. The color scheme isn't working out for anyone. I think a lot of the half faces has to do with how a more mystery-looking half-face can be more pretty, sometimes. With pretties, everything is about symmetry and being perfect. If you only see half of their face, you can't tell if they have a symmetrical face. Seeing the full picture of the girl, I don't think she's all that pretty, just pretty average.

    The third cover... It's been a while since I've read the series, but I don't remember anything about a cool spine tattoo having anything to do with the book. The face tattoo, however, is rather important. It's called a "flash tattoo" and is linked to a few characters in the book. Her eyes are "black, black" because she's a "cruel pretty", a special.

    I kind of dislike the new Extras picture. The old one makes so much more sense. The book takes place somewhere in Asia. The person on the new cover looks to be a Caucasian female with some serious makeup/blush happening. That doesn't connect with the book very well. And I feel they went a bit overkill with the digital eye effects. The old cover is nice and simple, which kind of makes more sense to me.

    One thing I absolutely love about the new covers is how they have all the book titles on each cover, and the current book in a different color. That's a really nice touch. Usually I'm a fan of modern things, (I feel like the new covers have a "modern" feel to them) but I didn't really care for these ones. Overall, they don't seem to connect with the stories as well as the old covers.

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    1. Yay! Finally a comment on my most viewed post. And you've read the books. Thanks for all your insight into the meaning of the covers.

      I don't judge a book by the cover, I judge it by reading it. I just like to do these for fun. I'm sure I'll do some comparing after I read the books. And then I can look back and see what I said and see what the covers really mean.

      Like I said in my post, I own the first 3 books so far and I plan to read them soon.

      Thanks for commenting.

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  2. i just stumbled across this which is pretty awesome and super coincidental that i did a * cover wars * post on my blog today for the Uglies. Id love it if you check it out and voted on your favorite pick ! I love this series. did you ever get around to reading it ? Katie @ Inkk

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    Replies
    1. I will definitely check it out. I haven't yet, but it is still pretty high up on my 'to be read series' list :)

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