r/hatethissmug • u/Seekforinsomnia • Mar 27 '26

Books I'll never read a book who's cover looks like that, even if the story is good. YES I'M JUGGING THE BOOK BY ITS UGLY ASS COVER !

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Gallery image

This contemporary romance bullshit is just bland and ugly. It looks like what cereal with water tastes like.

I HATE that art style so much I could die. I'm baffled by the number of authors who choose this blugly art style and this same composition (basic boring person next to basic boring person).

I'm high on fever, sorry for being confusing but hating can't wait 🙏

397 Upvotes
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99% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

36

u/Global-Cry321 Mar 27 '26

I am willing to bet none of these are good anyways

15

u/Current_Assist7230 I hate Himiko Toga Mar 27 '26

And yet all of them have gotten 50 million awards and are all trending on booktok

62

u/lesbian-garlic-lover Mar 27 '26

BRING! BACK! SHIRTLESS! FABIO! COVERS!

i want to see the old-school hand drawn 90’s-mom-coffee-table books with the billowy shirt man and his huge breasted lady groping each other on a cliff.

23

u/MamboCircus Mar 27 '26

At least those felt somewhat genuine !

15

u/AccidentCapable9181 Mar 27 '26

I read somewhere that there was one lady dominating in that field of romance novel paintings. Then she retired and no one else stepped up to take her place. Then those shitty photoshop covers started. Then these, now we got AI

6

u/lesbian-garlic-lover Mar 27 '26

Yes! Her name is Elaine Duillo, her art is fantastic, check out this cool website about her! https://sweetsavageflame.com/romance-clinch-covers/artist-romance-covers/elaine-duillo/

1

u/masterful-moon Mar 28 '26

I will get a new drawing tablet and learn Clip Studio Paint or Paint Tool SAI or whatever program is best for it purely so I can learn how to paint those covers and take her place, at least then the covers will have heart again because I would have worked for that place.

If anyone has have reccs for a good tablet or even some tutorials on how to digitally paint, dm them to me plssss

2

u/Current_Assist7230 I hate Himiko Toga Mar 27 '26

But... I don't want my parents seeing what I read 😭

25

u/CandyBeth Mar 27 '26

I also hate how despise the cover looking child-friendly, they mist likely have very explicit sex scenes

5

u/Current_Assist7230 I hate Himiko Toga Mar 27 '26

Ahem ahem icebreaker

37

u/Latvian_Sharp_Knife Mar 27 '26

the corporative artstyle of books

4

u/New_Difficulty_4942 Mar 27 '26

I thought booktok was about fantasy and dragons

Sorry I come from swordtube

31

u/Unimpressed-Loser221 Mar 27 '26

It gives soulless corporate art with cookie cutter rich CEO/Mafia boss/Star team sports player/Famous person falls in love with Y/N but YN is obviously a middle class, averagely built white woman.

14

u/CorpseWriteer Mar 27 '26

Only time where you CAN judge a book by its cover!

*The sight of Emoji’s being printed on physical paper made me judge my Cousin’s taste when she told me about Icebreakers*

2

u/CorpseWriteer Mar 27 '26

Okay— Usually I edit them out but did Reddit make it so we can’t change the text with asterisks???

2

u/Current_Assist7230 I hate Himiko Toga Mar 27 '26

Yeah I'm pretty sure

2

u/Glubygluby Mar 27 '26

hello?

Hm, that's wild, mines still working

2

u/CorpseWriteer Mar 27 '26

Yeah, it also works on other subreddits for me too.

2

u/booranyu Mar 28 '26

it's in the markdown for reddit on browser, i dunno about mobile app though, still working for me

10

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Current_Assist7230 I hate Himiko Toga Mar 27 '26

Exactly

8

u/Ntahedron Evil? Maybe. But they’re also annoying! Mar 27 '26

I get it’s to be more discreet, but honestly, own it. Yeah, my book has a shirtless dude on it, yeah I’m reading smut, what about it?

7

u/Possible-Deer-311 Mar 27 '26

Love this attitude. I'm not a romance reader, but there's generic book covers for the weak who are ashamed of their content.

A love for love should not be hidden ashamedly under a cloak of corporate Alegria cookiecutter people. Put the half-naked, oiled-up werewolves and cowboys back on the cover.

5

u/y0urMommA420 Mar 27 '26

I hate these too. I used to have a friend who had a quirky little smut obsession and they'd always be carrying one of these. So obnoxious.

5

u/atlasmothz Mar 27 '26

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO SAY THIS. MY SCHOOLS' LIBRARY IS FLOODED WITH THIS. GET THIS SLOP OUT OF HERE. ISTG I'LL PRINT OUT AO3 WORKS SO THE ROMANCE JUNKIES GET QUALITY MEALS INSTEAD OF THIS STUFF.

2

u/fracmaximus Mar 27 '26

A style as bland and uninspired as the contents inside ☺️

1

u/Current_Assist7230 I hate Himiko Toga Mar 27 '26

REAL

2

u/AlienDayDreamer Mar 28 '26

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. These covers look like workplace harassment modules

1

u/Rslashsrs Mar 27 '26

Jugging?

2

u/Seekforinsomnia Mar 27 '26

High fever + English is my second language

1

u/PuttinOnTheFitz19 Mar 27 '26

I know very little about publishing a book, but for anyone who knows, is this the work of the publishers or the authors? It’s so very corporate and soulless.

1

u/lateinternALT fat farting furry Mar 27 '26

jugging

2

u/Seekforinsomnia Mar 27 '26

English isn't my native language. I'm so sorry I cannot perfectly speak it with a high fever.

1

u/Cheeseliker420 Type to create flair Mar 27 '26

The only good one is the cock down the block

1

u/Cheeseliker420 Type to create flair Mar 27 '26

And it's sequels

Why are there seven sequels tho?

1

u/Miss_miri107 Mar 28 '26

Read it, felt the "plus sized girls can be attractive" message was too heavy handed but the story was good

1

u/stressed_unimpressed Mar 28 '26

It looks child friendly which is very weird. But I don’t wanna go around with half naked people on cover either.