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: “Trip trap, trip trap, trip trap. A cover featuring footsteps.”
This started as a tough theme for me, as all I could think of were covers I’d seen from vintage mystery novels. But then I spotted this book on my shelves and decided to peruse its various covers, and luckily there were a couple of covers with footsteps on them! Let the Right One In by Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist was later published in the U.S. with a title change (Let Me In), and is still one of my favorite dark vampire tales today. It also has the distinction of having not one but two AMAZING movies produced, based on both the Swedish (Let the Right One In) and the American (Let Me In) editions. I’ve watched both movies and I couldn’t begin to tell you which I loved more. The Swedish movie has one of the most terrifying car crash scenes I’ve ever seen, and the American version stars a young Chloë Grace Moretz. But it all started with the book, which I highly recommend if you haven’t read it and you love disturbing horror. The story is set in a snowy Swedish winter landscape, giving us the “footsteps” cover I spotted on Goodreads. Take a look at some of the covers:
Swedish edition 2004 | U.S. edition Thomas Dunne Books 2007
French edition 2010 | German edition 2007
St. Martin’s Griffin 2010 | Portuguese edition 2009
Thai edition 2010 | Quercus (U.S.) edition 2007
German edition 2007 | Quercus 2009
Russian edition 2009 | Dutch edition 2007
Most of these do a good job evoking a feeling of dread, the silent, snowy landscape, a splash of blood and the spooky forest, but a couple are kind of silly. (The Russian edition screams young adult!) My favorite is a toss-up between the Thomas Dunne edition that I own and the French edition, which nails the ambiance of the story (I think that building might be a hospital, where a really disturbing scene takes place). So I’m giving a slight edge to the French edition:
I simply loved this book! Thanks for sharing this, Tammy.
I vaguely remember seeing the movie when it first came out. I remember enjoying it, so I think I’m actually going to read this one!
All those covers are pretty creepy, but my favourite is the Portuguese edition.
Wow, who knew this book had so many covers?! I have one of them. I think it’s the movie tie-in version.
I didn’t know either until I checked out Goodreads!
Who knew so many covers. The French edition immediately reminded me of one of the movies so I was drawn to it and yes, the Russian edition drives me crazy!!!! I sort of like the Thai edition but having seen the movie, this version reminds me of a farmhouse and I recall no farmhouse. For some reason I like I like the Quercus one the best with the St. Martin’s Griffin one coming in close behind.
Yeah, I thought the one with the farmhouse definitely missed the mark
Oh, a vampire story I did not know about! I must get my fangs… ooops, sorry, I mean my hands on this book asap! 😀
Ooh yes, you need to read this, it’s very Swedish and I loved it!
Good choice this week! There are a lot of great covers for this book! I think I like the Dutch edition 2007 best but it doesn’t sound like it fits the story as well as some of the others? (I haven’t read it so I don’t actually know)
Yeah, the Dutch cover is very strange to me. There isn’t actually a character who wears a dress like that
This books certainly has a wide variety of covers, Tammy! And a great choice for this week’s rather challenging subject… I agree with your selection – that lit up building looks rather vulnerable there in the snowscape…
That second floor room that’s glowing red is definitely ominous!
I loved the Swedish movie enough that I bought the book, but haven’t yet read it. Great movie, though! Haven’t tried the US version. I’m torn on which cover I prefer, though I keep going back to the one set of tracks in the St. Martin’s Griffin edition.
The U.S. movie is really good too! I think it’s time to rewatch both
Haha, yes, when this theme came up, the first place I looked were my “snowy” books too! I think I gotta go with the Quercus 2007 edition 😀
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It’s going to be either snow or sand for footprints, right? 😉
I like how varied everyone’s choices are this week. 🙂 I LOVE the imagery of the Thai one. And I have no idea what they were going for with the Russian one. 😛
Ha ha sometimes I feel like the cover artist doesn’t even read the book ahead of time, lol.
Haven’t read this one, although I definitely have heard of it 🙂 I’m a wuss about vampire stories though 😀 although I recently read The Strain (and actually there’s a SCATHING review coming out tomorrow. I just finished it so I would be justified to post that xD sooooo many problems with that series.)
But anyway. I think those are all awesome covers 🙂
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I’m so curious to read your review of The Strain! I haven’t read the book or seen the series so I’m in the dark.
Thanks! Well, for better or worse, it’s out and it’s a scathing one 😀 have fun! LOL
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What an excellent choice – some of these covers are really creepy but I particularly like the Quercus.
Lynn 😀
It’s such a creepy story, that I think the publishers did a great job:-)
I love the French cover too!
I watched the Swedish film, not realising what it was about until part-way through or I wouldn’t have chosen it. Enjoyed the film though 🙂
The Swedish film is definitely hard to watch in spots:-)
I’ve heard good things about this one and it’s nice to hear that you also loved it! So nice to see the French one win though. 😀 #represent The Thai edition somehow draws me in too!