The Friday Face-Off was created by Books by Proxy, where each week bloggers can showcase books with covers centered around a weekly theme. You can visit Lynn’s Books for a list of upcoming themes. Join in the fun each Friday by finding a book whose cover is based on the theme!
This week’s theme: “Hi little cub. Oh no, don’t be ssscared.” – A cover featuring a snake.
This was a surprisingly hard topic for me, but thanks to Google (“book covers with snakes”) I found a book I read years ago that actually has a few covers with snakes on them. The Little Friend was Donna Tartt’s follow-up to her extremely popular The Secret History. I don’t remember many details about the story, but I think “snake” was a thematic rather than an actual element. Take a look:
U.S. hardcover edition 2002 | Italian edition 2004
Italian edition 2015 | Turkish edition 2017
Croatian edition 2008 | Romanian edition 2011
Spanish edition 2014 | Hebrew edition 2005
So there are quite a variety of covers for this book, and none of them really wows me, I have to admit. And some are downright creepy. (I’m looking at you, Croatian edition!) This would have been a great choice for the “doll” theme, which I believe is one of the past themes? I don’t really like either of the snake covers, so I’m choosing the Italian edition as my favorite, simply because I love the simple yet effectively creepy design:
I did read this book but I think I picked it up with sky high expectations and so although the writing was impressive ultimately it didn’t work out well for me. I can’t remember the snake or what the significance was – I love your choice of cover – there’s just something creepy about it.
Lynn 😀
The Little Friend is on my to read shelf and I really want to read it as soon as possible! I loved The Goldfinch and felt a bit lukewarm about The Secret History. Also, seeing all these foreign editions and whether they chose to focus on the doll or the snake was so intriguing!
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I think the covers are all creepy – especially the doll ones! I like your choice the best – yes… it was a tricky one to track down this week, wasn’t it? But the thing that strikes me is that if you gathered the different covers together and explained they were all featuring the same book, I don’t know if I’d believe you if it weren’t for the title and author splashed across the front! Interesting selection, Tammy:)
Oh, these are wonderfully creepy covers, Tammy! I’d not even heard of this book, but I have heard of the author of course. I like your choice best, too. All the dolls!
I’m liking a lot of these and I agree with your choice. I’ve not read this one and I’m going to go check it out. Have a lovely weekend!
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I would pick the same one but is it a surprise? You know I don’t like snakes. And seriously, that Croatian one is really freaking me out. Who is that kid planning on hanging?
It is creepy indeed, and that makes me wonder what exactly makes dolls so creepy when they are taken out of their “natural” environment of the playroom… 🙂
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So this has become my MUST STOP by place Fridays because wow you always have the best covers here! These are so good and creepy! Nothing creepier than this kind of dolls. Though I love snakes too so this is a hard one!
I haven’t read this author, but one of these days I’ll get to her. I think my favorite cover is the Italian too! 🙂
Ooh I didn’t even think of this one, great choice! I agree the one you chose has a very nice simple look, but still perfectly creepy. I also like the Turkish edition quite a bit. These are some interesting covers, haha.
Wow, those doll covers are seriously creepy! I’ve not read or even heard of the books so those cover definitely have me curious. I agree with your choice of favorite too.
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Some of these covers are creepy! I think I like the Italian edition best. No dolls looking out at me from the shelf lol. 🙂
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Gah, those are some creepy covers! It doesn’t help that I hate dolls, since I think they’re so freaky, so I actually might have to go with the snake cover 😛
creepy!! (I like it! ) 😀 I would have picked the same as you
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Ok the doll covers are creepier than the snakes lol. But the one with the noose is definitely creepiest of them all. I think I’m going with the Spanish edition for this one!
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That is one creepy cover!
I think I like the Spanish edition best because it shows that the book is creepy without actually being creepy itself Tho the one you chose is probably actually best, I don’t like the creepy dolls!
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