Who Wore It Better - Skulduggery Pleasant

Book covers are one of the most important marketing aspects to getting a book out to it's readers. It has to work on hard on conveying the story inside and look appealing to the mass amount of people checking out it's good, or bad, looks. I'm a self-confessed cover lover, and with the help of Nitzan from Afterwords (coming soon!), Who Wore It Better plans to feature some of the best, the worst, the most unique and the never seen before covers of books you either know and love, or really should be reading.


I personally am a HUGE fan of Skulduggery Pleasant. In 2014, I reviewed every instalment of the series, and Derek Landy became an auto-read and auto-buy author of mine, something I don't usually have. The characters, the world, the premise and the action was magical, and I would without a doubt recommend it to readers of all ages - this series has it all, and with Landy's upcoming release of Demon Road, I felt it was appropriate for us to feature Skulduggery Pleasant today. My covers are as follows:

Best Cover

Worst Cover

Most Unique

Never Seen

Best Cover - International 2007 Edition

Out of all the various, often seen covers available for Skulduggery Pleasant, this edition is by far my favourite. Whether this is down to it being the first cover I ever saw of the book, the black and white feel with the spark of orange, or the cool childrens action filled adventure feel it has about it, it's definitely the cover I love the most, although I'm pretty much a fan of anything with Skulduggery's face on it.

Worst Cover - Czech Edition

What is this crazy worm-hole world we've just fallen into? This cover is bare far the most horrendous - at least, in my opinion anyway.. It's far too bright and cheerful, the colours and vibe feel all wrong, and the illustrations just feel so out of place with the story itself. I wouldn't be surprised if many Czech readers haven't even glanced in Skulduggery's direction with the shocking cover like that.. Ouch on the eyes.

Most Unique - US 2009 Edition

Although I like almost all of the covers because they're character focused, I'm a huge fan of the route US publishes went down when it came to publishing for the American kiddos. Reworking the title so it focuses on the plot and less on the characters is a great idea, and it follows the sword theme on covers which was pretty hottttttt back in the day. It works, and it looks adventure and action packed, so thumbs up indeed.

Never Seen Before - Leighton Johns Illustrated Edition

There's a reason this cover has never been seen by fans, and that's because it's not an official release cover - it's an illustrated cover designed by British freelance illustrator and storyboard writer Leighton Johns, and I thought it was so super duper awesome, I couldn't not share it. The whole style, the vibe, the worn out paper, the actual illustrations, they're breath-taking, and it is without a doubt my ultimate favourite I've seen, but because it's not officially in print, it can't be the best, which is a shame, because it's amazing.

What's Your Favourite Skulduggery Cover?