Never judge a book by its cover........oh wait

Cover 1

Cover 2

Cover 3

Cover 4

Cover 1 portrays a lot of green - plants, grass, trees, and natural elements. There is a girl, most likely Kathy, sitting in the shrubbery with a lonely, melancholy look on her face. The intended purpose of this cover might be to illustrate that there is one central character in the story - Kathy. It could also be that the cover artist wants to depict the sadness and loneliness that Kathy, and all the students at Hailsham for that matter, many times feel. Maybe this cover is playing off of the “woods”??

Cover 2 is much more of an illustration than a photograph. The three other covers all seem that they could be photographs – they contain elements of reality – but this one clearly is a drawing or an art piece. It has very blurred out lines that convey motion, as well as bright colors – blues and yellows/oranges. Again, we see one girl on the cover, just like Cover 1. However, on this cover the girl’s face is not shown; we only see her silhouette. I think that this cover might be attempting to portray movement. I might even go as far to say that I think this cover is showing Kathy when she used to dance to her favorite song on her tape, Never Let Me Go. This cover seems to be attempting to depict a happier, freer portrayal of Hailsham and the clones than the other covers.

Cover 3 shows a small canoe tied to a post and a lake surrounding it. The entire cover is composed of the same color, with different shades – it is monochromatic. The color choice however, at least for me, is very dark and eerie. The shadows present on the cover give off a frightening aspect. It is significantly more difficult to draw a clear connection between cover and book for this cover than it is with the others – how could this possibly relate to Hailsham and Kathy’s story?! Well, maybe the artist wishes to illustrate not similar objects, but a similar vibe. By using shadows, dark colors, and a single, isolated kayak, the cover artist conveys a lonely, sad, and depressed mood for the audience, very similar to the one that results from reading Never Let Me Go. In this sense, Cover 3 is a lot like Cover 1 – they both portray sadness, seclusion, and loneliness.

Cover 4 is definitely the most sinister out of the four, with the darkest colors and the most unappealing, unnatural font – it is uncanny. It can be made out that there are trees in the background, which I think are most likely the mysterious and scary “woods” that surround Hailsham. In this sense, this cover could draw a parallel to Cover 1 – both illustrate nature and trees, which could be perceived as the woods. But not only that, this cover also has a very strange design that goes all around the words on the cover. It seems to be made out of wire or something of the sort, and forms various different shapes. It is very hard to make out what the purpose of this pattern is, similar to the troubles encountered with Cover 3, because neither of the two directly connect to the story of Hailsham and the clones. But, both are very dark and scary covers that relay the same mood that is relayed in the novel.

The first words that come to mind when I look at Cover 2 are carefree, young, and bliss. It makes me think of a better time when I was younger when everything was so simple and effortless. Contrastingly, the first words the pop in my head when I see Cover 4 are AHHH!, darkness, mystery, and eerie. It makes me think of a dark forest at night or a haunted house or a scary/horror movie.

If I hadn’t read any of the novel, Cover 2 would make me think that the novel was about a young, happy girl growing up in a cultural family. The dark hair and bright colors on the cover relay the message to me that a specific culture would be addressed in the story. However, now that I’ve read the novel, I know that the girl is Kathy and that this is her dancing around in her room while listening to her favorite tape, and instead of being a happy girl, this is showing her during one of the only times that she is truly happy. The story isn’t happy, but Kathy sometimes is. If I hadn’t read any of the novel and looked at Cover 4, I would think that the novel was a horror story about a girl that lived near mysterious, scary woods, surrounded by barbed wire, who one day went into them and never came back. Now, after reading the book, I can draw a clear connection between the cover and the story – these are indeed “the woods” outside of Hailsham that all of the students have heard terrible myths about – that once you go, you never come back. In that sense, my thoughts before and after reading the book looking at this cover are similar, but I now know that these woods are not central to the storyline, whereas before reading, I would have thought that they were.

In Cover 2, Kathy seems to be portrayed from the perspective of Madame. Madame walks in on Kathy dancing to her favorite song on the tape and just stands there staring at her, meaning that she would have gotten a very good look at Kathy. But, Madame is very wary and uneasy around the students, which would explain the blurred lines around Kathy on the cover. Maybe Madame doesn’t fully accept or understand that the clones have souls and are just like real people – just like her. On cover 4, it is not “who” is portrayed in question, but rather “what” is portrayed, and it is the woods. I think that they are shown from the perspective of the students at Hailsham, for they are all deeply frightened by them and have a very negative, dark impression of them, explaining the dark colors and tone of the cover.

Something I notice about Cover 2 is that the author’s name is very large – larger than the title of the book – therefore placing a lot of emphasis on it. This might mean that the girl is drawn from his perspective and she could very well be drawn as a Japanese girl (he is from Japan). Almost all, if not all, Japanese people have dark hair. Miss Emily does explain that the cloning program is national and worldwide, which would allow for this idea, that Kathy is drawn as Japanese girl, to be valid. As far as Cover 4 goes, all cultures have forms of scary myths, which makes it very hard to say that this cover is from _____ culture or country.

The kinds of people that would make Cover 2 would perhaps be a globally-minded company, because we see ethnic and cultural accents on the cover, especially the dark hair color aspect. I think that the kinds of people that would therefore read the book with this cover would be readers who enjoy learning about different cultures and, again, globally-minded individuals. The kinds of people that would make Cover 4 might be the same people involved in making scary movies or horror movies. I think a lot of experience and expertise is needed in order to make a truly frightening illustration like the one on this cover, which explains why I drew this inference. I also think that the kinds of people that would pick up this book and buy it because of the cover are those who love horror stories and who are intrigued by the uncanny.