STOP CHANGING COVERS!

You might not know this, but my mom is a neat freak. Actually, it'd be more correct to label her as a clean freak. But they both go hand-in-hand since she likes to have the house spotless and basically look like the house is unlived in. This is excluding my and Shelle's rooms since we actually live in our rooms like normal people. Plus, it's not like I can hide my piles of books anywhere. :P

Nonetheless, about half of the time that she comes into my room, she's always nagging me to clean my room, and you know, my friends tell me that it's actually pretty neat. My mom just has a problem with me have piles of stuff lying around everywhere.

So yeah, I grew up cleaning up after myself so that my mom wouldn't ever get mad and have so many angry rants about what slobs her children are. And because of that, some of her neat/cleanliness has rubbed off on me to a very mild form of OCD, so there are times when I have to have certain things neat and organized. And when I am unable to have them the right way I want them to be, I become a little irked.

For example, I like having the covers of all of the series of books that I own to match with their series. It looks infinitely nicer for all of the covers to match within the series compared to owning mismatched covers for a series. And because of that, I'm really getting irritated with publishers' decisions to change the covers of books midway through the series. Just make up your mind before you publish the books! Why must you change the covers when the series is halfway over already?!

Take the Shade series by Jeri Smith-Ready. Two books have already been released and the third one is going to be out in May this year. And they decide to completely revamp the covers for the series with the publication of Shine, the third book. WHY?! I like the old covers well enough. I don't want to own another series with a girl's face in the covers!

old version/new version

Blood Red Road is the first book of the Dust Land series by Moira Young, which I really enjoyed reading last year. I couldn't wait for it's sequel, but now I'm a little dismayed to find out that the covers for this series was also changing with the release of Rebel Heart, the sequel. I mean, I do like the new covers, but I also liked the old cover! It was a lot different from all of the other YA books being released, and I think it represented the setting of the book more accurately. 

old version/new version

Then there's Lauren Oliver's Delirium series (or is it a trilogy?) which had a cover change after Delirium was made into paperback and with the cover reveal of its sequel, Pandemonium. They were nice enough to sell a special edition hardback version Delirium with its new cover, though. And I have to admit, the new covers do look very pretty... :P

old version/new version

Let's not forget to mention Andrea Cremer's Nightshade series's new covers. Even though I didn't enjoy the first book that much, I really liked the old version's cover, especially compared to the new version's. But I've now grown used to the new covers, so they aren't that bad looking anymore, lol. I think I like Bloodrose's cover the best out of the whole series. 

old version/new version

In addition, there's Nancy Holder and Debbie Vigiue's Crusade series that also had a face-lift with the release of their sequel, Damned. I liked the old version better since it looked more mysterious and intriguing. Plus, the old cover has more appeal to both genders compared to the new one, which (I think) would make boys embarrassed to carry around if they did read it. 

old version/new version

Argh! Why must they always change the covers once they make a sequel?! I don't even know if I want to buy the first book in a series anymore if they're just gonna keep on changing them. I might as well wait until the sequel comes out and buy them both then. But then I wouldn't know if I'd even like the series, so I might have wasted money on the sequel if I didn't like the first book... :\

And, you know, I'm still not through giving examples. There are a couple other series that I can easily think of that have had their covers changed. A more recent series was Cate Tiernan's Immortal Beloved series. I actually like both the old and new covers, although I prefer Darkness Fall's cover to Immortal Beloved's new cover. 

old version/new version

Then there's Daisy Whitney's The Mockingbirds series that recently got a new look with the upcoming release of its sequel, The Rivals, which is coming out next month. I like the new covers, but I think I prefer the old version because I like the color scheme and design better. 

old version/new version

Also, there's Inara Scott's Delacroix Academy series that not only had a cover change, but the first book was also renamed from The Candidates to The Talents. I'm still not sure which title I like better, but I definitely prefer it's original cover compared to it's new cover. 

old version/new version

And last but not least, there's Amy Kathleen Ryan's Sky Chaser series who's first book, Glow, will be getting a new look for its paperback release later this year, which will match Spark, it's sequel's new look. I liked Glow's old cover, but I think I like the new covers better since they look more different. The light colors give it more of a refreshing look that definitely appeals to me even though the summary makes it seem pretty dark and mysterious, lol. 

old version/new version

I realized something while typing this post, the companies changed the old, more abstract/not-showing-faces covers for covers that do show at least a person's face. Why do that? There are so many books that have faces on them that they're starting to blur together. At least the abstract covers will stand out better. Plus, I don't know about you, but I don't particularly want to go out into public reading a book with an embarrassing face on the front like Shine. :P 

There's just something about a cover with a girl's face on it that somehow makes it look extremely girly and not serious, which usually detracts people from finding out the awesomeness lying within its pages. 

Whew! Super long rant is over. 

You may resume your regular programs now. :P

pointy.star