I’m headed out to the Blue Mountains for a weekend of birthday fun, so there will be no Fan Art Friday this week. Instead, allow me to belatedly roll out the new Uglies covers!
They’ve been around on the internets for a while, but I haven’t shown them here. The new covers are finally leaking into stores, though, so now is a great time to show them.
Click here for the bigger and zoomable version.
Of course, whenever new covers appear online, they create dissent and controversy. Fans mostly don’t like new looks for books, because the old covers are the ones they’re used to. If you’re a fan, after all, that old look was probably the reason you picked up the books in the first place!
So really, the new covers aren’t for fans at all. You guys already HAVE my books, after all. These are for all the people who’ve never picked up Uglies because the old covers looked boring or stupid to them. Maybe they never even noticed the series on the shelves. It’s for non-fans (who probably don’t read this blog) that this new look exists.
So feel free to complain!
For me the Original Style covers are still classics, but I get why S&S has to hit the refresh button after, what, six years? And you have to admit that these new covers are very lovely indeed, and are unified in a way the Original Flavor ones weren’t. (Pretties had a different designer than the other three, in fact. You can tell.) The new ones also have a cool, clinical feel that nails a lot of what the series is about.
But I will take this opportunity to express my appreciation to Rodrigo Corral for his awesome work on the first cover of Uglies. Covers matter, and a lot of you, possibly many thousands, would never have seen the Uglies series without his strokes of genius. And that would mean less food, clothing, and shelter for me. And I like food, clothing, and shelter.
So, thanks, Rodrigo. The rest of you should click here for an archive of his other work. I think you’ll agree that the dude rocks.
the only ones i get are the pretties and extras. i don’t get the uglies or the specials. and i don’t think the eye for the extras cover is glowy enough. it should have looked more like the original there. because when i picture an eye screen i think glowy. but thats just my opinion. and can someone explain the 1 and 3 covers for me…
2 person-la i agree with u extras the eye looks like a cumputer chip not futeristic enough. i think #1 is like someone getting a face lift u can c the face in the blanket i dont get #3 though
<3 SKY-LA:)
I like the new covers, but I’m kind of upset. When these books first came out, I was a much slower and casual reader than I am now, so I only recently got into this series. As far as covers go, I am a collector, and with the new editions coming out, I can’t seem to find the larger trade paperback of Specials anywhere to match the rest of them! =< It's depressing, because it doesn't fit right on my bookshelf. Of course, this isn't a huge or very important matter, but it's still depressing nontheless.
I was in love with the original cover of Leviathan as well and shelled out the extra cash to make sure I had that particular cover. It was beautiful! I had to have one! Every cover of Westerfeld's books is gorgeous. I think these will draw in people who may not have been so in love with the original covers, though they were very fitting for the story.
Since I found a way on to Devian Art (the school has it blocked) I’ve been reading some weird fanfics. But the most recent one, Gone and Married by Myst47 (or married and gone, I don’t remember), I swear you could feel the atmosphere in the room go to crap. I wanted to scream “THAT B*TCH!!!”, but I was at school so I could only feel depressed….
@alice: No idea what you’re talkin ’bout, but I still laughed.
okay so they’re different. not bad, but definetly different. and yes i agree with scott-la, the old covers were the things that got me to pick up the books. and just the title of uglied too…i dont think i would have picked the new covers up even if they are cool.
I like haw the new cover captures it…but i REALY like the other covers…the awesome ones…because its all about their faces…close ups of her different stages. i just thought they protraid Tally.
Is there a place to buy the old covers? 😛
Is there a place to buy the old covers?
I kinda like them. I like the Extras cover. But I like the old ones a little better. They reminded me more of the books. Any place to buy the old set? I have the old Uglies and Pretties, but I still want the matching Specials and Extras.
I kinda like them. I like the Extras cover. But I like the old ones a little better. They reminded me more of the books. Any place to buy the old set? I have the old Uglies and Pretties, but I still want the matching Specials and Extras. 🙂
i like them ok, but i’m a really sentimental person and i’m very attached to the original covers. i like how those covers showed tally and the changes she went through. and i love the flash tattoos in specials those are insane! but i don’t mind these, just won’t go out and buy them
I love them!
I hate when modeled faces are put on the cover of books, it a huge turnoff for me. I like to imagine the characters and what they look like, not for some lame model to do that for me ugh.
I love the new covers different, yet new!
= )
I LOVE the specials cover… Reading that right now actually. (awesome!) but i dont really like the rest of them all that much. I like how they are all… Uniformish. Like, most of them are the same (font, background, etc.) but still prefer the old ones (except for the specials… The ols one kinda looks like the eye was just randomly edited. Guess it will make sense later…)
Oops i meant extras! Darn self. I must be really tired if i cant remeber my FAVORITE BOOKS (oh wait i take that back it ties with the leviathin trilogy) by my FAVORITE AUTHOR EVER
Really Scott? Really?! It’s SUNDAY now….you OWE us! LOL
Or maybe we could just settle on more Goliath art…
It’s Sunday! SUNDAY! Gotta get art on Sunday.
I like the old covers a little better, honestly. These are good too, but the new Specials cover isn’t even close to beating the old cover, sorry.
Sorry, but I don’t like the new covers all that much. 🙁 The Pretties one is pretty good, but I can’t stand the Uglies and Specials covers. And I actually thought the original Extras cover was the bet of the original covers.
I own all of the original covered books, but I’ve misplaced my Pretties copy. Looks like I’ll have to get a new one that doesn’t match at all!
I think they’re pretty cool, actually. Very modern. I hope they bring in a whole new slew of fans to your amazing stories! 🙂
The new covers are what caught my eye and I’m so glad they did. I’m sorry to say I’ve been walking past your books for years… so glad I discovered the series now though… I’m almost done reading Extras. Last night at the mall I called some girl a ‘fashion-missing bubblehead’ (under my breath, of course)… LOVE the fun wording in your books! 🙂
So confused- what do these new covers have to do with the books??? They’re just weird 🙂 I like the original covers because they portrayed the books a lot better. These are weird (and pretties does look like a sarah dessen novel!!!)
Well, I love the new uglies cover, with the face under the sheet, but the makeuped eye is odd…I like the pretties cover, the legs are really nice. Well I love ur books Scott!
Sott-la I love those new covers….. i was just wondering if you ever thought of writing maybe one more book to end tally youngbloods story beacuase i just feel like i need to know more about what happened to her and David. I loved all of your books but i just didnt feel satified when tally’s story ended in a book about a girl named aya. I LOVED the uglies series, you have no idea how many times i read the book.I just always wonder if tally would ever be faced with a situation that makes her go back to pretty town and diego and face Dr.Cable,all the crims, the place where Zane had died, ect… well anyways Your books are amazing and those new covers will catch so many peoples attention 🙂
Uglies-I like the old cover better. This one kinda freaks me out.
Pretties- I like this MUCH better. I didnt like the original much anyway. If I didnt already know about the series, I would defiantly pick this up.
Specials- I like this one better too. They did look powerful enough on the original cover.
Extras- I like the oroginal cover better. It’s actually the reason I found out about the books. And one thing that bothers me, this one didn’t have an Asian model and that was the only reason I knew they were Asian until the middle of the book.
All- I like these better over all. They go together better, they look more medical (which was a pretty big part of the book, seeing as how every book had surgery), and I like how the name of the book is highlighted but you can see the other names faded. One thing I don’t like other books is you dont know it’s a seires and sometimes they aren’t clear about the order, and it just looks cool 🙂
i was so mad when i saw these new covers in the book store. i just really loved how unique the original covers are!
Over the years, I have been hearing only positive things about the books “Uglies, Pretties, Specials, and Extras”, but I had never had the courage to try them out myself. I practically live in the bookstore near my house and, unfortunately, I had never really noticed the older covers amongst the other books in the store. I have seen friends of mine walking around with your books but from my opinion, I didn’t find them very flattering. Maybe it is just me, but I don’t tend to walk around with books that have strangers on the cover. The newer covers caught my eye and I’m near finishing the second book, “Pretties”. It’s only been a day or two since I started them. They’re really a great series that I can’t seem to put down. I personally love the newer covers ( not only because they are slightly metallic looking when you tilt them ) but because there are no actual faces. It also helps when reading, that I imagine the uglies or the pretties mentioned in the series in my own way, not the way that you, the author, would prefer us to see them.
That’s my opinion.
I love the newer covers!
I agree with Julia (comment 60, i think), because these kind of creep me out. That’s just me. And Sammy, I kind of need the faces on the cover because otherwise the characters just all look like Sims. Am I weird?
i dont see it i love the first covers it shows how tally changes. I think thats her lol still i love the old covers.
I agree with Julia (comment 60, i think), because these kind of creep me out.
Although I love the original covers for the series, the new ones take my breath away! They’re beautiful and creepy as hell, which is exactly what these books are about. Also, I get a sort of Nip/Tuck feel from the new covers…anyone else feel so too?
Personally, it never matters to me what was the original cover. what matters is what the best cover for the style. Typically I like Minimalist / Symbolic / Thematic covers the most. I love when all the covers have very basic symbolic themes incorporated into each one. I am an EXTREME non-fan of the Twilight Series, but I will absolutely praise their cover designs as being not only captivating but symbolically beautiful.
I love these new covers, they convey exactly what the books are about in extremely simple and beautiful ways. I love the creepiness of the Uglies Cover and The Primal look of the Spine tattoos on the Specials Cover the most. and probably my favourite touch is incorporating the name of every book onto the covers. Brilliant.
I remember my sister read these when i was six, and I thought it was about a school and its cliques. Then, later I read the books. Ooops 😛
omg i kinda like the new covers but like a previous commenter said, they have too much white space 🙁
the new Uglies cover kinda gives me the creeps but i think it should have a pic of some sort of perception of the Smokies camp…
the new Pretties cover does suit the book well but idk it still just has too much white space..
the new Specials cover is really cool but i do like the old one too…i like the pic on the old cover of the flash tattoos on Tally but the spinal cord is really cool..
the new Extras cover is very similar to the old one but it has more creepiness to it….idk what to think though!!
“You see, freedom has a way of destroying things.” 😀
I WANT TO BE SPECIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! D: AND I AM SO SAD ABOUT THE COVERS
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When I originally read the series, I only bought the first one and got the rest from the library. I kinda want to buy these now, though.
These covers are all right…but I preferred the original ones because they showed Tally’s change throughout the series. Does anyone know where I can buy the series with the original covers? Thanks