Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

Never Let Me Go - picture not mine!

The first cover is very similar to the original (I guess) cover on Never Let Me Go. Containing a girl with blond hair and a neutral face, it is similar to the original cover. However, this cover has the purpose of showing something is off, as seen in the foreground and background of the cover. Around the girl, there is all of this natural scenery. In the background of the picture, there is a dark green/black color that could represent foreboding. The girl is wearing simple, but non natural colors - orange/red and black. This helps her stand out from the natural scene and creates an almost disturbing aura about the cover. With this, the purpose is to tell the reader that the girl is different and out of place by sitting in a natural scene. This cover is one of two with an actual person in it, but the implementation of this girl is just off enough to tip the audience that she is different.

Never Let Me Go - picture not mine!

This cover depicts a boat, which is a very important scene in the novel. The boat is an old row boat that is leaning up against a pole, with faded dark colors around it. The faded colors are a mix of black, gray and yellow, which can always symbol ominous or depressing subject matter. The darkness of this cover shows that this book will be sad, and in this case, the purpose is to let the audience know that, along with providing more significance to the boat scene (which actually brings a whole new light to the scene, as I thought it was a meh scene). Along with this negative outlook, the black coloring represents death, and it could show that the purpose of the cover is to let the audience know that death will be a prominent theme of the book.

Never Let Me Go - picture not mine!

This cover is more different than the others, with cooler colors, and nothing natural about it. The cover has important organs such as lungs, stomach, and liver (I actually have no idea what some of this is... I guess I blocked bio from my mind). However, the rest of the body parts, such as all of those other arteries are not present in the cover, it's just those 4 things. Along with this, there are no colors, only shades of black and gray. These colors represent death, such as what the colors mean above. This cover takes a much more scientific approach to the plot of the book. The purpose of this cover could be to go along with the scientific elements of the stories along with identifying all of the essential/nonessential organs that the donors are giving away.

Never Let Me Go - picture not mine!

This final cover is much more upbeat and mysterious than the other ones. This cover has a girl, who is faded and blurred in a blue dress in a yellow background. The overall mood of this cover is nostalgic, and it appears to be representing flashbacks and memory. The yellow can represent the faded parts of a photograph, or a faded memory. The blurred girl adds to the memory aspect of the cover, as she is blurry and as someone gets older, the more blurry and faded their memories become. This cover's purpose could be to hint at the memory aspect of the novel, and to hint at the fact that Kathy as a narrator is unreliable, which is something seen throughout the novella. This hinting is demonstrated through this memory concept as nobody remembers anything perfectly except if they are photographic (lucky).


The four covers are very different from each other, but also are mostly similar in their negative, off putting and freaky moods. The first three covers all hint at something bad, whether it be death or the oddity of what is assumed to be Kathy. Both the boat cover and the body cover utilize black, which symbolizes death. This differs from the woods cover, which just shows the creepiness and uncanny sense of fear that the reader would feel. All three of these covers differ from the fourth, which has a much more positive light with it, along with having a different color scheme than the other three book covers. While the other covers have black, and a sickly yellow and green, the fourth cover has a bright blue and a parchment yellow. Another aspect that all four covers differ in is their themes, because each one is about a different thing in the book: clones, death, science, and memory.

The third cover would make anyone get the scientific vibes from it, as it has to do with a body and important organs, and had I not read the book, I would think that it was about some old person dying due to organ failure and their family being really upset about it. When I first saw this cover, it made sense to me, but I thought of science and death, as I explained with the color scheme earlier. Now that I've read the entire book, not only was I right, but also I think that the relationship lies in the death aspect of the book, as everyone dies (spoiler!!), and they are all dying due to the organs they have to donate. This is obviously from the scientific perspective, and it is focusing on the aspect of being a donor, which is a real thing today because when you get your license you can be a donor. While this may not spark any form of controversy, it is still relevant because in this world people choose to be donors. Overall, someone who is not overly sensitive would probably take a look at this cover because the oversensitive teenager writing this wanted to curl up in a ball and sob after studying it for so long.

The fourth cover is very nostalgic and gives the memory vibe to it, and its also the first word I think of when I see this cover. If I hadn't read the book I would think this book was about a relationship that was on and off, probably taking place in a high school. The relationship between the cover and the novel is about the memories that Kathy shares throughout the novel, and how memories fade making her an unreliable narrator. Memories don't really have much controversy, unless someone is obsessed with the Mandela effect, and in that case, they could argue for hours over the Berenstain Bears. Overall, this cover makes this book appear to be all about relationships, and that would usually appeal to girls as there are a lot of relationship books meant for girls.

Wow, this was a lot... maybe next time I shouldn't develop color scheme theories until after I decide to compare all of the book covers.