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What are you wearing right now?
Wait. That was… awkward… Let’s rephrase it. Are you wearing anything red?
Have you ever noticed what effect red produces on people?
Our clothes are our “covers”. And the public typically judges by those.
The same happens with books.
According to the survey, 52% of readers make their choice based only on the jacket artwork.
Following the red cover book challenge, we decided to approach it from quite a different angle. Why is it that books with red covers drag our attention?
Red stirs the mind and is associated with passion, seduction, or warning. It’s a trigger to such emotions as anger, rage, anxiety, love, etc.
What do you usually expect from a book with a red cover?
Scroll through 22 captivating red cover books to check whether your suppositions about the contents are true.
The Most Interesting Books with Red Covers (Fiction Addition)
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
If you assume it’s a story about love, mystery, and challenges, that would be a very superficial statement. And it isn’t just a dedicated retelling of “Beauty and the Beast”.
Look inside the book here
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
This science fiction novel about a parallel universe is a total thrill for minds. Notably, it became a nominee for The Technology award.
Check the book on Amazon.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Adolf Hitler was actually a dark inspiration for this dystopian world.
Check out some other surprising facts about Fahrenheit 451 and peer into it on Amazon.
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
The book can definitely boost your obsession with dragons. Being an alternative story of the Napoleonic Wars, it reveals a deep affection between a master and his dragon-warrior.
Want to read it? Grab it here.
1984 by George Orwell
Another dystopia? This time, it owes to Stalin’s influence. A chilling tale about dictatorship and propaganda mixed with the “forbidden” passions.
Get this book from Amazon.
The World Is a Narrow Bridge by Aaron Their
If you’re a theology enthusiast, this red cover book will knock you for six. Its specific humor, surrealism, and absurdity make it the weirdest narration about a divine mission.
Check it here.
The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar
Bored with lyrical tenderness?
Read this book to get impressed by several layers of eccentric sociological phenomena and bureaucracy, spiced with collisions of the traditional and the modern.
Buy it here.
Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T. Sullivan
It’s more than just a story about teenagers’ heroism, self-awareness, and love. The red cover hints at the pulse-pounding suspense and tension in this WWII thriller.
Сheck the book on Amazon
The House That Fell From The Sky by Patrick R. Delaney
D’you want a creepy horror tale before bedtime? That’s the one then. Enjoy its gothic vibes and escalation of danger.
Discover its price.
Love & Misadventure by Lang Leav
Love (a sigh)… Lang Leav describes this feeling in her poems with such simplicity and ease.
By the way, she illustrated the book herself.
Check it here.
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
The second novel of the bestselling Hunger Games trilogy overwhelms you with a horrifying twist in the story. And the rebellious protagonist becomes even stronger in front of the oppressive regime.
Check out the book to feel the resistance.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
All Muggles, be warned: in this book you will face extraordinary magical creatures that may scare you to death!
If you didn’t get that you’re a Muggle, perhaps you’re not a Harry Potter fan. Or are you?
Check the price for Muggles.
The Book of Blood: From Legends and Leeches to Vampires and Veins by H. P. Newquist
Have you ever wondered why bloodletting was once so immensely popular? Discover the secrets of blood science with this “all-bloody” book.
Get it from Amazon.
Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
Again, it’s nothing like “Beauty and the Beast”. Buy the book here and let yourself get into the trap of the most bloodcurdling seduction and attraction.
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh
Can love survive anything? Fill your romantic heart with some delicious literary work about love & passion blended with torments & secrets.
Check it here.
The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross
A beautiful girl in a red dress. When you look at the cover. But when you start reading, you get mesmerized not by the girl’s beauty, but by the “thing” that makes her special.
Definitely a must-read on your list of books with red covers.
Get your copy on Amazon.
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
An epic story of love and war. 30 million copies.
What if we told you the book that earned her author the Pulitzer Prize was written out of boredom?
Check other fascinating facts about the novel and see its price here.
Strangers by Dean Koontz
What connects 6 strangers with different “maladies”? Get yourself a copy to find out.
The scenes in it evoke an unbearable psychological terror.
The M.D.: A Horror Story by Thomas M. Disch
Stephen King called it one of the best horror-fantasy novels. Buy this book to enjoy the chill.
The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis
Though this novel is far from the top of red cover books on our list, it’s a piece of sci-fi steampunk about clockwork people that makes imagination topsy-turvy.
Check it yourself.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
It’s a romantic and heartbreaking journey for a reader. A story about love and happiness despite losses and miseries.
Here’s the link to it, if you’re ready to cry your eyes out.
Vicious by V. E. Schwab
Do you like bad guys? What about those with superpowers? Buy “Vicious” and discover the path to ethical ambiguity.
Wrap Up
Were your assumptions about these books with red covers true? The answers will differ, just like the emotions we experience looking at a red cover.
Being a manipulative color, red warps your mind. While red cover books can make your heart beat faster.
Don’t forget, though, that there are other books too and enjoy the benefits of reading.