I’ll let you guys be the ultimate judge, but I think this yet another case of a white-washed cover – even if it’s more by omission than outright misrepresentation.
This is the cover of Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound) that I originally found:
This is the cover of Midnight Riot that came with my physical book.
The main character, who is a man of color, has been turned into a complete silhouette in the final version. In my opinion this doesn’t add any artistic merit to the cover, especially since I prefer the cover that isn’t completely silhouetted out. And the silhouette doesn’t achieve some thematic representation of the book that I can see. Why do it? The only reason I can see is to hide the ethnicity of the main character.
And a look into the sequel, Moon Over Soho (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound), shows the same thing happening.
Here’s one version:
Here’s the final version:
So, what do you all think?
