Cover Crazy: SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo

Cover Crazy is hosted by The Book Worms. Each week, bloggers "admire the art and beauty of a book’s design, so I’m going to post minimal words. It is up to you to write how you feel and what you like about it the way you’d like to."

SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo:

The cover design for SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo was unleashed into the world this past week.  I personally think it's gorgeous.  I love the look of the font and the way it extends into swirls, which mirror the swirls in the cover's design.  The silver swirls remind me of bare trees rising up.  I love how the colors remind me of plumes of smoke.  Combined with the distressed background, the colors give a dark feeling to this cover.  It's also nice to see a full illustration that doesn't come out of the children's department as most do these days!  This cover has a dangerous feel to it, imo.

When Macmillan sent me my ARC a couple of weeks ago, it had no cover.  I assumed the title font and color scheme would be what was used in the final cover and was intrigued by the dragon-like creatures (They only kept the distressed background). While I really liked the direction it was going, I really like the way this cover has come together! (Plus, how AWESOME is it that Veronica Roth is blurbing this title??)


This is yet another home run from Rich Deas, whom I interviewed in January for his design work on another Macmillan title, Marissa Meyer's CINDER. 

What do you think?  Do you like illustrated covers outside MG?  Should more designers start swinging back this way?  Or does it make you lose interest?