Battles were fought. Book covers were judged. Voting buttons were clicked. And ultimately, select winners prevailed.
We know you all worked long and hard in this year’s Battle of US vs UK Book Covers. It was a tough one. So many colors. So many themes and narrative details sought to be captured in just a couple images. And so many questions dared to be provoked. Realism or surrealism? Photography or impressionistic painting? Text heavy or face-based? And where do animals fit into all this?
In all the years we’ve done this, this battle proved to us that US book designs are getting better! With 17 wins, the US designs beat out their UK counterparts by a landslide this year, making the US our overall winner. Given that our voters were primarily US-based, maybe this shows that publishers are starting to get to know their audience a tad more—at least as far as visual art/design goes.
So, did your favorite book covers come out on top? Place your bets now, and scroll below to find this year’s results.
Winner: 🇺🇸
Songs of No Provenance by Lydi Conklin
Kicking off the competition is the great Lydi Conklin’s Songs of No Provenance. Though neither aim to capture the main character’s music career explicitly, both covers capture the novel’s themes of identity, appropriation, fame, and secrecy on a metaphorical level—with vastly different approaches. Featuring a colorful, cartoonish crowd, the US cover leans into the comedy that Conklin is known for. Meanwhile, the UK cover goes for a more edgy approach, with its realistic black and white image of a person covered in eyes, hinting at Conklin’s daring prose and the feeling of being watched while in the spotlight. Voters largely preferred the US cover, perhaps hinting at an early inclination toward striking pops of color.
Winner: 🇺🇸
Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One by Kristen Arnett
Only in the second round, and we already have an extremely close call. With Kristen Arnett’s Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One, the US cover won by a margin of only 5 votes. For a book about clownery, it makes sense for y’all to try to play tricks on me—I really thought UK was gonna win with its silly clown face! But our audience preferred the slightly more abstract clown approach on this one, and like with Conklin’s, it looks like once again bright colors prevail.
Winner: 🇺🇸
Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang
The voting for Liann Zhang’s Julie Chan is Dead was a clear knockout—a whopping 82% voters chose the US cover. Though the bright yellow and hint of violence in the UK cover is definitely intriguing, you can’t help but admit that the US cover brings out more of the mystery of this novel: Who is the girl covering her face with her phone? Why is she the only brunette in this sea of blondes? The duplicity and interrogation of fame, identity, and technology are front in center here.
Winner: 🇺🇸
Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su
Another knockout, Maggie Su’s Blob: A Love Story pitted realism against surrealism: 73% of voters rooting for a literal blob on the US cover, versus 27% of voters for the UK’s balloony lettering alluding to the blob. And though the lettering of the UK’s balloons are brighter and more eye-catching, the literal blob is frankly super fun and hilarious. I want to know what the blob is doing. And the way that the blob warps the subtitle? With the US cover, it’s all in the details.
Winner: 🇺🇸
Open Wide by Jessica Gross
Jessica Gross’s Open Wide was a close call! It was nearly a 50/50 split amongst our Instagram voters for the two very different covers, but our web voters swayed the decision, and the US cover won out by a margin of 20 votes. The unique drawing on the UK version is cheeky and humorous, but the suggestive imagery on the US cover is both provocative and captivating. A slash of bright pink amongst the grey combined with the man’s ambiguous, though clearly worried expression shows why the US cover pulled through.
Winner: 🇺🇸
Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell
Tense and beautiful, Roisín O’Donnell’s Nesting tracks a woman bidding to start over, breaking free from her husband’s control. Though the UK cover was beautiful in its own right, featuring a woman with her two daughters by the ocean, it seems our readers slightly preferred the metaphorical imagery of freedom that the bird on the US cover represents. With a title like Nesting, you can see why voters appreciated the parallel being explicitly made on the cover. This marks yet another win for the US.
Winner: 🇺🇸
Soft Core by Brittany Newell
With a title as suggestive as Brittany Newell’s Soft Core, you have no choice but to have a cover that matches that risqué energy. And though both covers definitely accomplish this in their own right, readers had a clear preference for the US cover’s pop of color, and the sensual nature of the leather gloved hand, front and center. Though the UK cover offers us another sensual portrait, it isn’t quite as explicit as its US counterpart, which seems to capture a hand reaching toward a crotch—much more racy than a hand moving through strands of hair. The US won with a significant 63% of the votes.
Winner: 🇬🇧
Swallows by Natsuo Kirino
Once again, our voters were confident. Though I could see an appeal to the minimalism featured in the US cover of Natsuo Kirino’s Swallows, the UK cover is both chicly minimalist, as well as fun—we have a pink and orange egg opening up! How cute. And the pops of color once again seemed to hold sway with our voters. Nearly 70% of the votes went to the UK cover here, in the UK’s first win of the competition!
Winner: 🇬🇧
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
The cover of R.F. Kuang’s highly anticipated Katabasis was tasked with incorporating the multilayered nature inherent to Kuang’s storytelling. Both the US and UK covers feature a complex labyrinth—the US cover giving us a more distant and three-dimensional view, while the UK cover immerses us deep into its running staircases. I’ll have to agree with the voters, who found the more immersive perspective of the labyrinth to be more exciting. 61% of voters selected the UK cover over the US cover, in the UK’s second win.
Winner: 🇺🇸
Endling by Maria Reva
Finally, we’re getting back into some closer calls! Both covers for Maria Reva’s Endling feature large expanses—the US cover with a van traveling set against a stark red sunset and a black-and-white striped road, and the UK cover giving us a realistic portrait of a single cloud, reminiscent of a snail. Though the snail-cloud of the UK cover is both fun and artistic, I can see why the US cover slightly won out, with 55% of the votes—the contrasting colors are just so brash and unique. The US cover will definitely stick out on a bookshelf.
Winner: 🇺🇸
Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
Patricia Lockwood’s WIll There Ever Be Another You has two very different covers, both irresistibly iridescent—just like the prose found inside of this novel. And though the split glass and fractured light shining on the UK cover is elusive, who could possibly say no to the cute cat on the US cover—especially anyone familiar with Patricia Lockwood’s classic tweet about her cat, Miette? With a whopping 72% of the votes for the US cover and its cat, it looks like Electric Lit readers might all be cat people.
Winner: 🇺🇸
Flashlight by Susan Choi
With the covers for Susan Choi’s Flashlight, we pit photographic realism against impressionistic painting. I personally thought the bright yellow of the UK cover fit the title better, especially in contrast to the darkness of the path featured here as well. But voters would confidently disagree—75% preferred the more painterly approach of the deep orange sun setting on the US cover, featuring a silhouette disappearing in the distance.
Winner: 🇺🇸
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
Interestingly, the outcomes for our web votes and our Instagram votes were vastly different for Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel. For our web votes, the outcome was pretty close, with the US winning slightly, 38 to 34.But on Instagram the difference was drastic. 176 votes went to the eerie darkness heavily featured on the US cover, which perhaps better captures the feeling of being trapped when compared to the literal barred off window shown in the UK cover, which only received 105 votes.
Winner: 🇺🇸
The Antidote by Karen Russell
Both versions of Karen Russell’s The Antidote feature a cool gradient of color, paired with sepia toned imagery. The US version features a lone house, looking awfully isolated, while the UK cover features a lone woman—and a hare perched on the lettering! I thought maybe the hare would win over the voters, especially given their proven love for furry creatures on covers, but turns out the more flashy color gradient won us all over, with nearly 60% of the votes.
Winner: 🇺🇸
The Pretender by Jo Harkin
If my time working in social media has taught me anything, it’s that people (and algorithms) prefer faces. So it makes sense that, when comparing the two covers for Jo Harkin’s The Pretender, the people preferred the cover with not just a face, but two of them, each fit with their own mysterious, Mona Lisa-esque smile. 75% of votes went to the US cover, over the UK cover’s 25%.
Winner: 🇺🇸
Helm by Sarah Hall
The trend of “more color = more votes” continues, with Sarah Hall’s Helm. Though the muted grey contrasting against the small, orange sunset in the UK cover is beautiful in its own right, there’s just something so immediate about the bright green of the US cover, complete with its falling yellow letters. The US wins once again, with 67% of the votes.
Winner: 🇺🇸
Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna
In my experience going out for many many evenings and weekends, it’s that shining city lights are a precious and beautiful sight that everyone loves to stare at. So even though the UK cover of Oisín McKenna’s Evenings and Weekends is brighter with its shocking pink and orange, I too couldn’t help but adore the portrait of a city’s evening, given to us with the US cover, which won with 69% of the votes.
Winner: 🇺🇸
The South by Tash Aw
The US cover of Tash Aw’s The South won here with a staggering 74% of the votes! I find the UK cover to be magnificent—the neon green is eye-catching in the best way, while the portrait of a man looking wistfully to his side is a gorgeous image. But it stood no chance against the massiveness of the US cover, which gives us an expanse of the southern landscape behind sharp, delicate lettering. As the saying goes, bigger might just be better, at least when it comes to images on a book cover.
Winner: 🇬🇧
Absence by Issa Quincy
Another nailbiter! Both covers for Issa Quincy’s Absence heavily feature black and white photography set between bold colors. And though the US cover had more photographs featured, the UK cover had two things going for it: brighter colors and wacky shapes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen those shapes on a book cover before. Maybe that’s why the UK edged this one out, with 51% of the votes.
Winner: 🇬🇧
Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata
I was very surprised by this one! The US cover of Sayaka Murata’s Vanishing World is a gorgeous blue, featuring lots of tiny toy babies. So cute! But maybe a choking hazard—voters clearly preferred the flat, 2D drawing given to us in the UK cover. There’s something very reminiscent of the story of Adam and Eve there, a nod to a reference in the novel, which perhaps our readers picked up on.
Winner: 🇬🇧
The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien
Both versions of Madeleine Thien’s The Book of Records heavily feature flowing bodies of water. The US version gives us waves drawn onto a black backdrop with a chalky material, and a lone figure below a tiny setting moon. But the UK cover, on the other hand, completely washes over us, with a shiny gloss of bright blue snaking down the center. The UK cover is brighter, glossier, and feels slightly more immersive—like I’m about to be lost in a sea of records myself, rather than watch someone else be lost there. The UK wins with 54% of votes.
Winner: 🇬🇧
Beartooth by Callan Wink
The face of a bear is still a face, so it may be no surprise that voters greatly preferred the UK cover of Callan Wink’s Beartooth, featuring a bear baring (excuse the pun) its teeth over the more minimalist US design. There is a violence suggested in all that red of the US cover, but sometimes you really can’t beat a good face card. Especially if it’s a good bare face card. The UK wins here once again, with 71% of the vote.
Winner: 🇬🇧
The Bridegroom Was a Dog by Yoko Tawada
The US and UK covers of Yoko Tawada’s The Bridegroom Was a Dog are both fun and playful, cluing us in on the dreamlike, humorous quality to the narrative at hand. The former gives us a dog holding hands with a gloved hand, fit with a dainty wedding ring. But the latter—and our winner here—gives us a person whose face is being licked by this ridiculously long, pink tongue. 61% of voters went for the tongue-in-cheek option here, making the UK cover the winner for the fifth time in a row.
Winner: 🇬🇧
The Wax Child by Olga Ravn
Olva Ravn’s The Wax Child is represented in the US by a smoking crib, and in the UK by a woman with a wad of bright orange wax covering the entirety of her face. These similarly grim portraits are effective in communicating the eerie horrors that await readers just behind these gorgeous images. Maybe the presence of wax on the UK cover was enough to win more hearts, though—the UK comes out on top, with 54% of the votes. There’s only one more round, and the UK has won six times in a row! Get up, US!
Winner: 🇺🇸
A New New Me by Helen Oyeyemi
The covers for Helen Oyeyemi’s A New New Me feature bright colors that pop. The US cover gives us seven watercolored teacups reminiscent of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, alluding to the split personalities featured for each day of the week in this novel. Meanwhile, the UK cover offers us a groovily painted button, showing the beginnings of its unraveling. Closing out this year’s Battle of US vs. UK Book Covers, the US finally returns for one more win! 64% of the votes, against the UK’s 36%. It’s like we’re new again!
