The Friday Face-Off: Green With Envy

The Friday Face-Off is a bookish meme hosted by Books by Proxy that compares book covers to decide which is best. Those interested must select a book with a cover that matches the week’s theme and compare it to an alternate cover (the Face-Off). At the end of the post, a winner should be declared.

That’s just a quick run-down of the instructions. Visit Books by Proxy’s blog for more details.

This week’s theme:

Green with envy

A cover which is predominantly green

For my first Friday Face-Off post, I’ve selected a novel I very recently acquired: Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi. I’ve heard varying opinions about this novel, but I am curious about it because the majority of readers have said it’s written well, it’s a great story, and it’s a fairy tale retelling. Also, I’ve heard it has elements of magic realism in it and that’s always appealing to me.

Like Proxy, I’ll mostly compare the US and UK covers.

The face-off:

UK cover

These are the covers for the hardcover editions of the novel. The US cover, which was published by Riverhead Books, is used for both hardcover and paperback copies. It fits this week’s theme with its green background. It was designed by Helen Yentus. I couldn’t find the name of the UK cover designer, but that edition was published by Picador Press.

The winner:

I really like this cover, which is one of the reasons why I picked up the book. Green is my least liked color, but the one used here is cool and isn’t overbearing. I also like that the title dominates the cover and that the typography grabs at my attention with its boldness, which is further emphasized with its embossed texture. I also like that the snake and flower intertwines with the title, which I think adds a little complexity to the otherwise simple cover. I assume that the snake and flower is of some major significance in the novel (if it’s not, please don’t tell me).

The UK cover wasn’t outstanding. It’s nice, but bland and I’m not a fan of the typography or the color combination. I much rather this UK cover, which is used for the paperbacks:

I still prefer the US cover to this one but I find this cover much prettier than the previous UK cover.

Which of the three do you prefer? Also, have you read Boy, Snow, Bird?