When the Once Upon a Time series was originally published, they were released with a series of covers paintings of the female main characters drawn from neck to knees. I loved the original covers. The paintings give them an old fashioned feeling, and a lot of them feel just a little bit enchanted. Most of the original covers also have a scene from the book below the title bar, adding one more level of magic to the image. Look at the cover of The Crimson Thread. You see the girl in the dress with golden swirls, and below that is Rumpelstiltskin spinning the gold on his wheel. I love the dual layers to the covers, and many of them have this.
But, I will admit that not all of them do the story justice. Like the cover of Scarlet Moon. I had to read the synopsis to realize it was a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood and even then, it took me a while to decide that it really was supposed to be a red cloak, and I think they added a little bit too much of her face into the drawing. It looks a little bit weird.
Then one day as I was checking out Goodreads, I saw a new cover for one of the books. I did some checking and saw a cover in the same style for the books scheduled to be released soon. And then I saw that a lot of the older books in the series were also getting the new covers. I didn't know what to think. The new covers are, for the most part, stunning. They are very beautiful and will definitely draw the eye. In these new covers, They depict the full model and use photographs instead of paintings/drawings. And each of the models is wearing a breathtakingly beautiful dress. And they are lovely.
But I don't think that they are anything new, or unique. There are so many book covers out there all in this same style. And, to be perfectly honest, some of the models are in awkward poses and just look... strange. I have a feeling that these newer covers are generally the more popular images, and I don't blame anyone who loves them. They are gorgeous.
So, now I struggle. I like having my books match. I think that a series should be uniform when on my shelf. Personally, although I do like both sets, I prefer the original covers. But, the original covers aren't being published anymore. (at least they haven't for the last several books releases) and there are some of the older titles that have not yet been given new covers. There are definite pros and cons to each. What do you think? Which set do you prefer?
I'm going to compare a few below, tell me which one you think does a better job.
These are the covers for The Night Dance (The Twelve Dancing Princesses): I love that we can see the shoes in the newer covers, but I also love the image of the sister's prepared for the ball at the bottom in the older cover.
These are the covers for Before Midnight (Cinderella): I think this might be the cover I have the hardest time choosing between. I think that both of them do a good job capturing and relaying that fairy tale feeling.
These are the two covers the Beauty Sleep (Sleeping Beauty): I do not like the cover with the model. I think her pose is awkward and strange and very posed and I do not like it. The painted cover is not my favorite of the series, but I definitely prefer it to the alternative.
So, what do you think? Old or new?