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As a cover designer, I often like to pick apart covers. This helps me learn. I am perplexed by this cover. It shows up good in thumbnail size (usually where authors make their first mistake) and it does almost convey the book, but not quite. We're talking WWII Australia, but why are there pyramids. Should they be there? Does it add to the mystery? Or not fit at all. Instead of drawing me in to make we want to read this book, it almost makes me want to not read the book.

What does everyone think?

I have downloaded the book and have yet to read it. I have only read reviews and the cover page does seem a bit confusing and the book seems to be about war among tribals in Africa, because of the pyramids in the background.

I'm assuming this is the kind of cover that only makes sense after reading the book, although Cairo is mentioned quite a bit in the summary on Amazon.
I was more surprised to see that there's a kangaroo in front of the pyramids!

The cover of this book, at the first look, is intriguing. However, after reading the brief about the story, the cover makes a lot of sense as the story, or a major part of it, takes place in Cairo and the protagonists are Australians.

Covers definitely make an impression on me. I have read so many amazing books that have mediocre covers. I think the authors really need to spend the time making it stand out.

Personally, I find the cover slightly perplexing and messy. I know you shouldn’t judge a book by the cover, but, ultimately it’s common for a reader to be drawn to aestheticly pleasing covers.

I was definitely confused by the cover. The pyramids had me going "what??" and I kind of didn't want to read the book after I saw it because it didn't look like it had anything to do with what the book was supposed to be about.

The_book_of_t wrote: ↑24 Mar 2019, 20:13 Personally, I find the cover slightly perplexing and messy. I know you shouldn’t judge a book by the cover, but, ultimately it’s common for a reader to be drawn to aestheticly pleasing covers.

I agree. I also think the choice of colours and font make the book look dated. An eye-catching cover does make a difference unfortunately!

I think this cover is quite interesting. Perplexing, yes, but still it alone kind of made me want to read the book.

It does add up well. But for that you have to read the book. Initially you don't see the relevance of the pyramids in the cover with the storyline, but after some time you see it.

I agree. The cover design is really vague. It doesn't help inform the potential reader what kind of book this is. Honestly, I think the book deserves a better cover.

I am one of those who does judge a book by its cover, so I wanted to read this topic before I chose my next book to review. I am considering this book because my father was in Egypt during WWII, as was the father of the author, but I was so confused by the kangaroo on the cover. Reading the discussions on here has given me some valuable insight.

the cover actually confused me at first, but when I started reading the book, it kind of made sense

I suppose the pyramids were relevant in the first half, but they had no major significance. I personally can't stand the cover design with an image between block colour frames. I think it really undersells the book. It looks like a highschool academic history textbook.

It looks like one of those boring library books you hope you don't have to check out as reference for your paper haha.

The sandy/beige color is very uninviting and dull. If they had chosen white instead, it would have made a tremendous difference in my opinion.