Contrary to the popular adage, it’s okay to judge a book by its cover in the 21st century. From my perspective, a great cover acts as a visual appetizer before we get to the main course. The right design can even sell books by the shelf-load if it’s weaponized correctly as a marketing tool. It can be the very reason someone pulls the book off the shelf in the first place, reads the blurb… or the prologue, and walks away with a happy purchase.

As someone on whom this has worked quite a lot, I have made a long sweep on book cover designs of 2024 and created this list of personal favorites. The year so far has blessed us with creative outputs that are, in my humble opinion, a feast for the eyes and, in some cases, even the imagination. 

For the fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, there’s a lot to be discovered in this new soul-stirring Korean bestseller by Jungeun Yun. “We will wash away your pain and iron away any creases in your heart…” reads the book synopsis, hinting at the magical realism woven into the story. In the quaint village of Marigold perched atop a hill, the elderly Jieun has conjured up an enchanting Mind Laundry. Here, she purges her customers' painful memories from their hearts, turning them into stains on a T-shirt and transforming those stains into brilliant red petals.

The cover features the Marigold Mind Laundry within a bubbling detergent box, leaving nothing for the imagination. Washed over in a wide ranging palette of pastel colors, especially the tree with red petals, the cover evokes a kind of peace and happiness that complements each other. It’s cheesy and cliche but in a way that stands for great cover design, in perfect sync with the book’s theme.

In this book, Rolling Stone senior writer David Browne chronicles the rise and fall of Greenwich Village's music scene in the latter half of the 20th century. 

The cover design, with its extending lowercase ‘n’ transforming into lowercase ‘l’s’ in the word 'village,' is not only visually striking but, if intended as a metaphor for the revolutionary spirit of the narrative, it's absolutely brilliant.

Radical Thinking is a book about how our perspectives shape our understanding of the world, checking the influences on our thoughts—from what we notice to our beliefs and desires. Author Peter Lamont, a former magician and now a Professor of History and Theory of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, takes readers through everyday observations and local history, including tales of Sherlock Holmes and the origins of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The visual hierarchy created by the open book draws the viewer's attention immediately to the central message. Per the book's theme, the little book suggests that understanding the bigger picture requires looking beyond surface, akin to how one might flip through the pages of a book. It’s effective, and charismatic and lends weight to the overarching theme, radical thinking while embracing a bold kind of simplicity and pragmatism. 

Sally Rooney’s next was one of the most anticipated books of the year—no questions asked. Intermezzo follows two brothers and their partners, exploring themes of grief and the dynamics of (yet another) age-gap relationship. 

The book cover, featuring a deep boundless Yves Klein blue, depicts a man’s silhouette in the distance, framed by two pairs of walking legs. British-Indian designer Kishan Rajani wanted to capture the complexity of relationships in Sally’s novels. It meant illustrating brothers Peter and Ivan Koublec through ‘forced perspective’ to invite readers to reflect on their bond and its development in the story.

'I Love You So Much It Is Killing Us Both' unfolds between the suburbs of Los Angeles and New York City, offering an intimate look into the life of Khaki Oliver, a woman constantly trying to lose herself in something, no matter how temporary or permanent. The use of typography is desperate and yet almost sinister, striking against a grey tonal background of flowing scenery—the epitome of isolation and estrangement. 

But mostly, we can agree the cover design is an all-out guns-blazing emo work of art with equal parts punk rock and grunge, and so the 14 year-old in us, somewhere down there, will be itching to pick it up off the shelf in the nearest bookstore.

“If the characters in Jami Attenberg’s novels existed on Google Maps, their collective pin would probably drop at a spot called Dysfunction Junction..” goes The New York Times Review on Jami Attenberg’s latest on family drama and deeply flawed and complex characters. 

Using a simple sans serif font that guides the eye to the telephone, the visual in its entirety feels both modern and nostalgic, with softer edges that convey a sense of familiarity. The retro theme is a fitting choice for the era in which the story takes place, transporting us through time. 

‘I’m not speaking for you, I am speaking to you America.’

The cover design uniquely captures the book's exploration of Mormonism, utopian aspirations, polyamory, and the interplay between personal and archival histories. 

A single stroke or thread, combined with the clever use of negative space, communicates a sense of connection and disconnection, visually echoing the central theme. The dwindly lines seem to reverberate, symbolizing the repeated unmaking and remaking of America through various lenses—whether domestic labor, extraction economies, or the performative nature of family in theater, film, and daily life.

When Graham tests a new algorithm designed to detect online lies, a small tweak causes real-world changes—starting with Nessie. As the algorithm's power grows, Graham realizes he can reshape reality itself.

What do I like about this cover? The imagery of clouds and a mirror suggests a digitally altered self, with the reader's reflection distorted in ways that are imperceptible, mirroring the novel's exploration of truth and deception. The pink bleeding inside and outside symbolizes the blurring boundary between reality and artificiality, as the two realms seep into one another. The sky evokes a liminal space, representing both the limits of human understanding and the potential vastness of AI. 

As we can tell from above, each cover paints a story of its own, reflecting not just the narrative within but also the artistic vision of the designers who bring these works to life. They are a testament to the (now) proven fact that the art of design is just as integral in storytelling as the words themselves. No matter what you believe, book covers secretly hold the power to elevate your reading experience.

This list of favorites was first published on Openvy.