Black Young Adult Cover Trends

Let’s talk about some black cover trends I have noticed.

Flowers/Greenery

Possible causes: Literary fiction bouquet trend, the content

Calling My Name

The Revolution of Birdie Randolph

The Belles

A Blade So Black

Tyler Johnson Was Here

Learning To Breathe

 

Looking up commentary on the flower trend found this article:

Book Cover Monotony and the Rise of the ‘Bouquet Book’

I wonder if some of these books have flowers because the subject matter of the book. For example, A Blade So Black is about a girl entering into Wonderland so it makes sense there are flowers on the cover.

Art= animated people

Possible causes: The Hate U Give, Children of Blood and Bone

One of the interesting things I realized while drafting this post is animated covers are becoming more prominent while photographic covers are lessening.

Black Enough: Being Young & Black In America

On The Come Up

Opposite of Always

Watch Us Rise

Girls Like Us

Inventing Victoria

Let Me Hear A Rhyme

Home and Away

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine

The Voice In My Head

Finding Yvonne

 

Real Peps

Possible causes: people pushing for black people on book covers

A Dream So Dark

The Everlasting Rose

The Weight of Stars

Full Disclosure

When Stars Lead to You

Truly Madly Royally

Sorry Not Sorry

Spin

You Don’t Know Me But I Know You

 

No Peps

Possible causes: the content, dislike of people on covers

Undead Girl Gang

Mirage

No One Here Is Lonely

Overturned

The Beauty That Remains

Beasts Made of Night

 

Minimalism=character + 1 solid color

Possible causes:  the content

Rebound

Monday’s Not Coming

#PrettyBoyMustDie

Odd One Out

Let’s Talk About Love

Tiffany Sly Lives Here

Security Breach

 

A mini-trend inside a trend I have noticed is red being used as the background color

Thoughts

-Reading the article mentioned earlier I did not know I would leave it thinking that most black book covers fit the content/vibe of the book. I think that is why I don’t personally have a problem with seeing more animated or no people on book covers.

-The cover trends are dispersed over genre: certain cover trends like for example flowers are not regulated to only contemporary.

 

More posts talking about covers…I like talking about covers…

Analyze Book Covers: Layers

Analyzing Book Covers

Top Ten Cover Trends In My TBR

259: A Princess In Theory(&Black💜Romance Novels TBR)

Synopsis

From acclaimed author Alyssa Cole comes the tale of a city Cinderella and her Prince Charming in disguise . . .

Between grad school and multiple jobs, Naledi Smith doesn’t have time for fairy tales…or patience for the constant e-mails claiming she’s betrothed to an African prince. Sure. Right. Delete! As a former foster kid, she’s learned that the only things she can depend on are herself and the scientific method, and a silly e-mail won’t convince her otherwise.

Prince Thabiso is the sole heir to the throne of Thesolo, shouldering the hopes of his parents and his people. At the top of their list? His marriage. Ever dutiful, he tracks down his missing betrothed. When Naledi mistakes the prince for a pauper, Thabiso can’t resist the chance to experience life—and love—without the burden of his crown.

The chemistry between them is instant and irresistible, and flirty friendship quickly evolves into passionate nights. But when the truth is revealed, can a princess in theory become a princess ever after?

Selected as one of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2018!

*this was my first finished book of 2019

The Good

💜Puts commentary into a fun/cute contemporary and does not drag down the story (a skill that is needed more and more in books now)

~Microagressions

~black feminism

~commentary about how women (particularly) black women get treated in science field

~and more

💜Having said all the above it is still fun, it is not heavy

💜Current (mentions f-boys for example)

💜Black love couple (and both are dark skin and have natural hair)

💜Very movie-esque- I could see it becoming a movie

&Black Romance Novel TBR

💜A Royal Wedding by Jeevani Charika

💜Dater’s Handbook by Cara Lockwood

💜The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory

💜Reckless by Selena Montgomery

💜One of Alyssa Cole’s other books

(cover image and synopsis from goodreads)

Black Big Books: 5 Read & 5 Unread

After seeing a 800+ page ya novel at the store I started to have a taste for a book that is really big. Since February is next month (as of when I typed this up) I thought about the biggest black books I have read and that are on my tbr.

Five Books Read

Roots (729)

Children of Blood and Bone (531)

The Belles (448)

The Hate U Give (444)

Black Boy (470)

Five Books Unread

Ida: A Sword Among Lions (800)

Black and British: A Forgotten History (624)

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (622)

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (592)

Three Negro Classics (511)

Five Interesting Facts

60% of read is young adult

100% of unread is non-fiction

90% of unread is historical non-fiction

400 is the page range of most of the ya novels

All of the ya novels I have read in the last two years

Five Thoughts/Opinions

Just want to put out here I would not mind having more ya on the bigger scale, it would be interesting to see a 1000 page ya novel

There is something to be said about how the overall ya page size growing has benefited  black ya authors

It amazes me that a black woman, Paula Giddings, wrote an 800 page non-fiction book about another black woman.

Last year I created a list of 52 black women non-fiction authors books I want to read because I have not read enough non-fiction (period).

Part of me feels over the years I have lost the big magnum opus size novels but this shows that is not true.

Five Questions I always wonder

What black author has written the biggest novel ever? How big was it?

How is the size of ya novels affecting teenagers? Do they like the size increase?

What large black novel is on your read/tbr list? (I particularly want to hear from people who read adult novels since I do not read a lot of adult so I know I’m missing the really larger novels)