These 40 Book Covers Are Painful To Look At But Impossible To Ignore

You’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but some covers make that rule physically impossible to follow.

From baffling font choices and Photoshop crimes to imagery so confusing it feels accidental, these book covers miss the mark in the most spectacular way. Instead of selling the story, they raise urgent questions like who approved this and how did this get printed. Collected from the wonderfully brutal corner of the internet known as r/TerribleBookCovers, these designs are unintentional comedy at its finest.

Here are some book covers that are so bad they’re hilarious, proof that sometimes the real story is happening entirely on the cover.

#1 The Picture Of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

Image source: Turn7Boom Nirast25: Jigsaw without makeup.

#2 I Think This One Actually Might Be The Worst

Image source: LamppostBoy Squirra: Lions and tigers and RAPTORS, ON OUR SIX! GoochPhilosopher: We're not in the Danger Zone anymore, Toto

#3 Someone Designing A Book Cover For A German War Story Assuming It's An American Cowboy Story

Image source: Book_1love radio_recherche: The western front extended further than I thought.

#4 Miserable Candle Man Is My Favorite Beatles Song

Image source: Farfignewtons42 Ravenser_Odd: This takes me right back to the old days, when we had to generate our own AI slop by hand.

#5 Who Decided This Should Be The Ebook Cover For A Dostoevsky Book Haha

Image source: reddit.com Rough3Years: “Have you read The Brothers Karamazov?” “No. I also don’t have any graphic designer experience, but I’ll do it for free to boost my resu..” “You’re hired.” mBunnyEx: The novel is in the public domain, meaning some eBook mill is slapping generic covers on free books, sells them online and essentially makes free money.

#6 Found This Absolute Gem At My Neighborhood Lfl

Image source: T-Hexx MoreReputation8908: He was pretty damn funny. There is some stuff that hasn’t aged well, i guess, but still. Pretty funny.

#7 Terrible Frankenstein Collection

Image source: GodAllMighty888

#8 Le Hobbit: I'll See Your Chonky Bilbo And Raise You Whatever The Eff This Is

Image source: ActuariesGoneWild CaptNihilo: Well once you find out that Bilbo's real name is Bilba Labingi in Hobbit tongue it kinda just makes sense given his attire. WhatIsAChickenAlek: Mama mia! You forgot the gabagool Gandalf! Covalent_Blonde_: I can't handle the dragon's stubby little legs! He is like a flying corgi! As a bonus, that dragon also looks skeeved out by 1970s Italian footballer Bilbo living in a space-aged culvert!

#9 1984 By George Orwell

Image source: Unfair_Umpire_3635 GreyDesertCat: Big Douche is Watching.

#10 Bred By The Orc, Caroline Lee & Veronika Kane

Image source: silveragecollector silveragecollector: Thankfully its one of those handsome Scottish orcs. Ok_Dimension_4707: Those are the daintiest tusks I’ve ever seen!

#11 But... You're A Horse By David Bussell

Image source: FunnyErectionBunny Pyotr-the-Great: "Oh yeah I forgot. Well in that case bye" The end.

#12 Do You Feel Like God Loves You?

Image source: Present-Room-5413 Someoneoverthere42: Just because God loves you, doesn't mean you're not an idiot.

#13 I Wouldn't Bet On This Hobbit To Get The Ring Anywhere

Image source: FunnyBunnyWonderland _svaha_: I love when this particular version of The Hobbit shows up on this sub. I've had this copy since childhood and I hate it but I don't have the heart to get rid of John Goodman Bilbo. TheBigSmoke420: Guillermo.

#14 Poirot's Early Cases By Agatha Christie (1979 Fontana Books Edition)

Image source: Ghosts_of_Bordeaux Background-Cow7487: Gregor Samsa woke one morning from troubled dreams, and found himself transformed in his bed into a Belgian detective.

#15 Bigfoot Looking Fabulous

Image source: Dry-Impression-2403 r3cktor: You can learn two things from this cover: 1: The Hunt for Bigfoot is a novel 2: Lisa is a Shiel midgetcastle: Bigfoot has a very nice manicure.

#16 Bilbo Le Hobbit, By J. R. R. Tolkien

Image source: nyradiophile

#17 Spanish Edition Of The Picture Of Dorian Gray

Image source: Significant-Town-817 LoveAndViscera: At least it’s not a spoiler.

#18 Rexus By Dakota Krout

Image source: NIKO-JRM Grove-Of-Hares: ‘He gained the Bonecruncher specialization (Mythical rarity), which grants Living Weapons—his hands transform into T-Rex heads named "Lefty" and "Terror." The weapons have their own stats and levels and must be fed during combat to restore mana.’ …alright.

#19 Catcher In The Rye (Japanese Edition)

Image source: toasterpedia deathdefyingrob1344: The cover art is a bit misleading lol

#20 Just Found This Sub, Thought You All Would Appreciate The Sodfather

Image source: MagisterOtiosus

#21 Hello, My Name Is William Goldman. You Designed This Cover

Image source: InfiniteAccount4783

#22 2,000 Years In The Future And This Book Is The Only Surviving Work Of Literature

Image source: Hillbilly_Historian

#23 Recipes For Romance By I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!

Image source: FightinRndTheWorld Nearby-Complaint: Fabio was just doing side quests, huh?

#24 Emma By Jane Austen

Image source: nigelghostdog

#25 The Fireclown

Image source: a_wizard_skull GobboZeb: Moorcock wrote literally anything that came into his head. A lot of his books are written like they're late for work, rushing to the good parts before dropping them like a 6 year old who saw a slightly different toy under the couch.

#26 No Man Knows My Pastries

Image source: Dry-Impression-2403 Goatdown: There is an attempt at humor here which is confusing because I don't know if it is real or a joke. Either is plausible. Then I saw that it was published by a Mormon owned press, and I am now convinced that this must somehow be adjacent to Napolean Dynamite.

#27 The Metamorphosis, By Franz Kafka

Image source: contextproblem

#28 I Got Both My Alien Homeboys From Another Galaxy Pregnant By Quan Millz

Image source: Bud_The_Weiser

#29 Race Of The Century

Image source: Puppychow123 ooojaeger: Is that a glare or is it no longer in mint condition because that's one of the rarest books in the world.

#30 The Creation Of Human Ability By L. Ron Hubbard

Image source: GrodanHej

#31 The Plot Against The “King” Don’t Delete Mods, It’s A Real Book

Image source: MrsGrayWolfe

#32 Empress Theresa's Cover Is So Bad It Wraps Around To Becoming Funny

Image source: steeltheprotogen Al3xGr4nt: If you're interested in a deep dive read check out Krimson Rogue on youtube. Its insane.

#33 Fighting Fantasy Did Great Things. Terrible, But Great

Image source: CommanderFuzzy

#34 Orgullo Y Prejuicio By Jane Austen

Image source: Flowesque

#35 Jesus He’s Big

Image source: Glum-Lavishness-4485

#36 God Emperor Of Dune (Hebrew Version) By Frank Herbert

Image source: NIKO-JRM

#37 It's Bootleg But Wonderful The Only Way I'm Reading Animal Farm Is If This Is The Cover. This Needs To Be Everywhere

Image source: Black-outbunny

#38 A Wrinkle In Time By Madeleine L'engle

Image source: Other-Spell-342

#39 Found This In A Bookstore In Alabama. I Regret Not Buying It

Image source: yeti_legs9000

#40 Witchcraft It Is

Image source: BookMansion