{"id":813,"date":"2025-08-28T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/?p=813"},"modified":"2025-09-23T09:53:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T09:53:41","slug":"23-of-the-best-book-covers-of-august-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/28\/23-of-the-best-book-covers-of-august-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"23 of the Best Book Covers of August 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you might gather from the publisher\u2019s description below, Open Wide<\/em> is an \u2026 unsettling (!) <\/em>book. I\u2019ve always been fascinated by how cover designers can lean into the darker sides of a narrative without spilling into full-on genre territory\u2014and Eli Mock<\/a> absolutely nails the vibe on Jessica Gross\u2019 Open Wide<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Below, he tells us more about the cover\u2014and the rest of our favorite finds released or announced in August follow.<\/p>\n

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Official publisher description:<\/strong>
Olive is desperate to get close to Theo\u2014really, really close. She\u2019s always struggled to connect with people. And now she\u2019s in her 30s, single, and so flustered by relationships that she secretly records her conversations, hoping to decipher social cues and find a way to be less alone.<\/p>\n

Then Theo turns up for a shift at the same food pantry where she volunteers. He\u2019s a surgeon fascinated by human organs, a former soccer player, and possibly as weird as Olive. For the first time, someone seems to crave and understand her. Every recording of Theo is a balm, which just makes Olive more afraid of losing him. The only solution seems to be to bind him to her forever. Luckily, the gap between Theo\u2019s front teeth is just wide enough for something\u2014or someone\u2014to slip inside.<\/p>\n

Arresting and immersive, Open Wide<\/em> explores the complexities of intimacy, love and consent, as universal human impulses bleed into the surreal.<\/p>\n

What was the brief for this project?<\/strong>
<\/strong>The cover needed to capture the romantic body horror and possessive nature of Olive\u2019s relationship. We wanted something weird, but not too gruesome. <\/p>\n

Tell us a bit about the relevance of the central object on the cover.<\/strong>
<\/strong>It\u2019s a portal\u2014Olive\u2019s obsession with Theo leads her to find a gap in his teeth that allows her to unzip his body and climb inside. It\u2019s a little violent, so I drew a rough opening, and if you look closely, filled it with an image of intestines. The jacket is printed with a neon pink that really helps it pop.<\/p>\n

The composition is so striking. Where did you source the face?<\/strong>
<\/strong>The painting is Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin<\/em> by Illia Repin and can be found at The Met. Olive mentions it as her favorite painting and that she developed a crush on the subject. It also happens to loosely fit the description of Theo, who is a little uneasy with continuing the relationship (justifiably!) when he learns that Olive has been \u201cunzipping\u201d and climbing inside his body.<\/p>\n

Given the title, were there elements you were playing against or seeking to avoid?<\/strong>
<\/strong>One of the directions I was asked to explore included a mouth and teeth. It may have been a bit too on-the-nose.<\/p>\n

How did you choose the overall color palette?<\/strong>
<\/strong>I went with neon pink and red as a reference to intestines, or as Olive and Theo call them, \u201cpink pasta.\u201d I like the contrast it creates with the oil painting. <\/p>\n

What were you looking to convey with the type treatment and arrangement?<\/strong>
<\/strong>The type was loosely inspired by Theo\u2019s teeth\u2014slightly rounded, bold, with a perfect gap between OPEN<\/em> and WIDE<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What other comps did you explore before arriving at the final design?<\/strong>
<\/strong>I tried a few directions with exaggerated mouth and teeth. There were also some intestine-heavy concepts. They were all a bit too gruesome.<\/p>\n

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Cover design by Jack Smyth<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Sarah Brody<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Matt Dorfman<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Jaya Miceli<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Elizabeth Yaffe<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Suzanne Dean<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Sarah Schulte<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Linda Huang<\/a>; art by Julia Dufoss\u00e9<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Pete Adlington<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design and illustration by Farjana Yasmin<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design and painting by Olivia McGiff<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Emily Mahon<\/a>; photo by Mallory Morrison<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Adriana Tonello<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Anna Morrison<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Rodrigo Corral<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Jamie Keenan<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Jared Bartman<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Ben Denzer<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Emily Mahon<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Kimberly Glyder<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Coralie Bickford-Smith<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Cover design by Amanda Hudson<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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The post 23 of the Best Book Covers of August 2025<\/a> appeared first on PRINT Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you might gather from the publisher\u2019s description below, Open Wide is an \u2026 unsettling (!) book. I\u2019ve always been fascinated by how cover designers can lean into the darker<\/p>\n

Continue reading <\/use> <\/svg>23 of the Best Book Covers of August 2025<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-color-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839,"href":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813\/revisions\/839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicsofabed.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}