I know today's Face Off contestants aren't perfect cover twins, but it's been awhile since we had 2 totally different books with similar feels — vs. two different versions of the same book — on FFO, and this pairing has been lingering in my drafts for awhile now. Squaring off today are Laura Henderson's Kisses and Lies and Anna Jarzab's All Unquiet Things. Both feature super-close crops of young girls lying in the grass with dead-in-the-eyes blank stares, and the effect is a little jarring. That said, I'd imagine these are wholly different in tone and topic, and that K&L isn't nearly as dark as AUT seems to be. But there's no denying that they both give off a similar creepy vibe, whether that's what's intended or not. So which of these would you reach for? Which would pique your interest? Which would draw your eye on the shelves?
Which one did it better?
Last Time on FFO: There was no Face Off last week, and though it's mostly because I forgot, I'm going to say it was because of the holiday... But before that, two different (VERY different) versions of Folly went head to head, and it was basically a dead tie — some liked the dark, creepy vibe of the hardcover, and some liked the mysterious, melancholic feel of the paperback...
Kisses and Lies girl just looks like she's thinking while All Unquiet Things girl looks dead. So Unquiet wins. Much creepier.
ReplyDeleteI have had AUT on my bookshelf for years and still haven't read it. I keep holding on to it because the cover is so disturbing (and matches the synopsis so well). So, that's my vote!
ReplyDeleteI'd go with AUT. The position of the twigs by her arm initially read as 'skeletal arm' to my eyes. And the K&T cover girl looks bored (and the dude behind her does, too), which makes me think it's a not-too-compelling contemporary YA (watch how I judge books by their cover! Muahahaha!).
ReplyDeleteSo, yeah, AUT.