15 Book Covers With Hidden Faces

Hi everyone!  It’s Sabrina here, and today I’m sharing with you a list revolving around a book cover style that I love – hidden faces!   I find this cover style so fun and creative – though of course, some examples are better than others – and it reminds me of certain picture books I adored as a child that had animals hidden in their artwork.  I have 15 books to talk to you about today, so let’s get into it!

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Silver in the Wood
Emily Tesh
Adult Fantasy Novella

I know I just talked about this book in our October wrap up, so I’m mentioning it first today.  I really love this magical, atmospheric story – though I wish it were longer!  The audiobook narrator was amazing and truly helped bring the characters to life.  The cover is a strange one for me, because while I love the face and the little cottage made out of branches and leaves so much, I think the black background is a bit too stark.

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Sleeping Giants
Sylvain Neuvel
Adult Sci-Fi

For a book about discovering ancient alien artefacts, this book sure was dull.  The focus was never on what I was expecting or wanting it to be on – the especially strong focus on politics was not what I thought I’d get from this book.  The format also didn’t work for me.  Still, the cover is nice, lol.  I love the sort of three dimensional effect the stars give the hidden face.  It’s stunning, and in this case really works with a black background.

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The Girl From Everywhere
Heidi Heilig
YA Historical Fantasy

Honestly, the face in this cover will always be funny to me.  It seems so out of place, in my eyes.  I do like the design of the rest of it though. This is another book I wanted to love, but I slogged through about 35% and couldn’t make myself go any further.  The main character rubbed me the wrong way and I found it very repetitive.  I won’t be picking this one back up.

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The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
N.K. Jemisin
Adult Fantasy

I have mixed feelings about this cover, because I hate the colours, but the intricacies of the building featured plus the menacing looking face in the background are really interesting features.  I also had mixed feelings on the book itself, because while I love the author’s writing style, the plot didn’t really capture my attention.  I liked the main character and the magic and the intense world-building, but the relationships didn’t work for me, and they took up a large portion of the story.

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The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes
Neil Gaiman
Adult Fantasy Graphic Novel

The face on this cover is definitely one of the more abstract featured in this list – I almost didn’t notice it, which definitely adds to the charm!  The book itself was unfortunately such a let down for me and I DNFed it.  I had for so long believed that I would love it and when I was finally able to get it from the library and start reading it, I was enormously disappointed.  I was so bored by the story and the art style didn’t work for me either.

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The Mermaid, The Witch, and The Sea
Maggie Tokuda-Hall
YA Fantasy

This cover should win awards, in my humble opinion.  It’s absolutely gorgeous and yes, that includes the strange face peering up from the ocean.  Of course there is a second hidden face in this cover, amongst the lines behind the ship, which I think is beautiful too.  Fortunately, I also really loved this book!  Though the first part was definitely my favourite, I loved the way the story took some unexpected turns and the the character development.

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Neverworld Wake
Marisha Pessl
YA Contemporary Sci-Fi Mystery

I don’t really know how to explain the genres of this book, so you’ll have to forgive me for the list above 😅  I adore this cover and it’s definitely what made me want to read the book – it’s misty and atmospheric, and the hidden face pretending to be a mountain is so weird and awesome.  Sadly, I didn’t like the story nearly as much as the cover – I never grew attached to the characters and the mystery has one of my least favourite twists.

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I Am Her Revenge
Meredith Moore
YA Mystery

Frankly, I don’t remember much at all about this book that I read back in 2016 – I think it was set in a boarding school?  And it can’t have been that bad, because I gave it three out of five stars.  I do remember thinking the true nature of the mother-daughter relationship was too obvious to the reader, but that was 2016 me talking and who knows what I would think today.  Still, the cover is really pretty!

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Remote Control
Nnedi Okorafor
Sci-Fi Novella

I really enjoyed this not-so-far-in-the-future sci-fi about a girl that gains strange and dangerous abilities.  I loved the sci-fi elements as well as the circular nature of the story.  The main character was so intriguing and her journey was truly compelling.  On the other hand, I still haven’t quite decided how I feel about this cover, because the stuff inside the girl’s head looks a bit scary to me. Is it a tree? It reminds me more of how things grow on a pier underwater – cool, but also sort of gross 😅

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Havenfall
Sara Holland
YA Fantasy

I adore this cover to pieces, especially because I actually didn’t realise there was a face in the art when I first looked at it.  I love the blue with gold accents and the waterfalls!  It’s so cool and pretty!  In the end, I didn’t read a whole lot of this book before DNFing because I could quickly tell what was going to happen by the end and the writing style and characters weren’t intriguing me enough for me to get over that.

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The Archived
Victoria Schwab
YA Fantasy

This book was my first read by this author, wayyy back in 2014, so you can’t blame me for remembering barely anything about it!  I don’t think I enjoyed the plot all that much, but I think the atmosphere of it was strange and a bit spooky – which I did enjoy.  The cover is a bit of a weird one, but it has its own unique charm too.

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Silver in the Blood
Jessica Day George
YA Historical Fantasy

I started reading this book in 2019, but at 17% in I wasn’t feeling compelled to continue at the time – though I still hope to pick it back up at some stage, I just have to remember to do so.  From what I remember, it was a bit slow moving.  But this cover is so pretty and magical and whimsical that I’m thinking surely I will have to enjoy the book if I give it more of a chance!

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Lost in the Never Woods
Aiden Thomas
YA Fantasy

This is another book I have to remember to pick up again – I was in a bit of a reading slump when I first tried reading it, so I want to give it another go when I can appreciate it properly.  I was certainly interested in the story, but I hadn’t become invested in the characters quite yet when I decided to put it on hold.  This is also another beautiful cover – I love the colours and the trees and, of course, the hidden faces!

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Tiger’s Promise
Colleen Houck
YA Fantasy Novella

I actually won this novella as an audiobook back in 2014 when it was released, if you can believe it!  I was a huge Colleen Houck fan in my teens, though I do wonder if I would feel the same way if I read her books today.  The covers for this series are undeniably stunning, and I think this one is no exception!  I love all the little details and the colour scheme too.

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The Dead and the Dark
Courtney Gould
YA Paranormal Horror

I talked about this in our most recent wrap up too, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to mention it again because it was so good!  The mystery and paranormal elements gripped me right from the start and I loved the relationship dynamics between the two main characters and their parents.  The small town atmosphere was palpable and added so much to the story.  The cover is of this one is quite pretty and I love the way the two faces are incorporated.

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What do you think?

Do you like hidden faces in book covers? Do you have any good examples to recommend? What’s your favourite book cover style? Let me know!

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