The 10 Best Book Covers of June

Another month of books, another month of book covers. In June, we saw bright colors, 3-D objets d’art, and an unusual number of fire-adjacent treatments. Here are a few of my favorites from the month.

Kathryn Harlan, Fruiting Bodies (cover design by Sarahmay Wilkinson; W.W. Norton and Company, June 7)

Gotta love mushrooms sprouting from a vaginal coral in a disembodied hand! I’m also charmed by the unusual color story and the way the text is integrated—an enigmatic and weirdly pretty cover all around.

Nishant Batsha, Mother Ocean Father Nation (cover illustration and design by Vivian Rowe; Ecco, June 7)

Vintage matchbox vibes—and more importantly, a cover that doesn’t look like every other cover out there.

Lisa Taddeo, Ghost Lover (cover design by Alison Forner; Avid Reader Press, June 14)

I tend to be a fan of book covers that make use of a single 3D object on a plain field (we have two good ones this month, as you shall see), but Forner elevates it here by adding the scattered candies and incorporating all of the cover text into the object itself. The sharp shadows are also doing lots of work against the light background.

Sun Yung Shin, The Wet Hex (cover design by Christina Vang; Coffee House Press, June 14)

Speaking of matches—and of interesting 3D object treatments. This is another striking version, not least because it uses a bold, saturated a red-and-green combination (with white accents) and still manages not to look the least bit Christmas-y.

Marcy Dermansky, Hurricane Girl (cover design by Janet Hansen, cover illustration by Tyler Spangler; Knopf, June 14)

This cover says sherbet and summer without looking lightweight—in fact, the longer you look at it, the weirder and more ominous it seems. (Neon! Waves! Maybe these bright colors are kind of angry? Is that…a bullet hole….?) Very fun framing text treatment here, too—it’s one of those rare covers that makes me really want to read the book.

Ada Calhoun, Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me (cover design by Becca Fox Design; Grove Press, June 14)

Another one that’s all about color and text; the title is enlarged to the point that it serves the same purpose that an illustration would. And notice the third color! It’s not instantly obvious but lends a subtle depth to the composition that really ties it all together.

Lidia Yuknavitch, Thrust (cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer; Riverhead, June 28)

“I was truly, wholly engulfed by Thrust,” Lauren Peters-Collaer told Lit Hub last year. “The ferocity and tenderness of Lidia’s writing, the brilliance of the world she invites us into, and the questions she poses are electrifying and deeply stirring. Thrust is a reservoir of incredible imagery and I was particularly affected by its articulation of the force and resilience of human body and spirit. With this cover, I was hoping to speak to that through an image that felt outside of time, and both magical and corporeal, strange and elegant. With a plethora of meaningful objects and unforgettable characters to draw on, Lidia provided everything and more. I imagine this unfettered heroine leading readers into a new world, a new way, as only Lidia can.” Sexy, weird, badass, beautiful—I’m sure it will.

Samantha Allen, Patricia Wants to Cuddle (cover design by Evan Gaffney, illustration by Richard A. Chance; Zando, June 28)

Considering the state of the world these days, I need more book covers that just make me smile.

Shashi Bhat, The Most Precious Substance on Earth (cover design and illustration by Tree Abraham; Grand Central, June 28)

Another neon beauty, given depth by the distressing—but it’s all about the integration of illustration and title here.

Alexis Schaitkin, Elsewhere (cover design by Anne Twomey, cover image by Nikolai Astrup; Celadon Books, June 28)

This looks like it could be the cover for one of the fantasy novels I inhaled as a youth, so maybe that’s why I like it so much—I keep looking for a dragon in that sky—but it’s also just that it’s an unusual treatment for a literary novel, and one that invites continued looking. (What are the people doing? Is that a face in the fire?)