Happy New Year! I hope you’re keeping safe and well.
I just re-read the introduction to my 2024 YA post and it says pretty much everything I was going to say about young adult covers this time around too, which is a bit annoying! There are still plenty of great covers this year, but trends sometimes move slowly, and it does make me worry that these posts are getting a little stale and predictable.
As with the previous couple of years, almost all of my 2025 selections are illustrated. Looking at original cover art and discovering new illustrators is definitely one of the joys of collating these post. It does make me wonder though, if the illustrations are thing, should I broaden the scope of the posts to include other categories to freshen things up?
I can see both sides.
YA cover designers and illustrators do not get a lot of attention despite all the cover reveals and special deluxe editions (not to mention book sales). I have been doing YA specific lists because no one else has been.
That said, the lines between categories and age-groups are blurred. I actually had to delete a couple of covers from this post because they were for SFF novels that were not strictly YA. I couldn’t tell from the covers. I only realized when I looked up the details. It happened last year too. Including other age groups would allow me to include illustrated science fiction, fantasy, and romance covers that also tend to get overlooked outside of their fan communities. But it would probably mean a bit less YA.
What to do?
Thanks again for all your support over the past year. I hope your still enjoying the posts, but please let me know if you have thoughts or additional design credits. I’d love to hear from you.
After Life by Gayle Forman; design by Laura Mock; illustration by Agata Wierzbicka (Quill Tree Books / January 2025)
Always Be My Bibi by Priyanka Taslim; design by Sarah Creech; illustration by Shazleen Khan (Salaam Reads / June 2025)
And the River Drags Her Down by Jihyn Yun; design by Trisha Previte; cover art by Yejin Park (Knopf BYR / October 2025)
Beasts by Ingvild Bjerkeland, translated by Rosie Hedger; design by John Gall (Levine Querido / April 2025)
Before I realized that Beasts was actually a young adult novel, I included this in my round-up of last year’s adult covers. Now that I know that it’s a book for teens, I think it’s only appropriate to include here too in its proper context. It’s a great cover that stands out in both lists.
Break Wide the Sea by Sara Holland; design by Kerri Resnick and Anto Marr; illustration by Zach Meyer (Wednesday Books / November 2025)
The Corruption of Hollis Brown by K. Ancrum; design by Corina Lupp; art by Mishko (HarperCollins / April 2025)
A Feast for the Eyes by Alex Crespo; design by Lily Steele; cover art by Riotbones (Peachtree Teen / October 2025)
The Floating World by Axie Oh; design by Rich Deas; art by Guweiz (Feiwel & Friends / April 2025)
A Girl Walks into the Forest by Madeleine Roux; design by David Curtis; art by Alex Eckman-Lawn (Quill Tree Books / June 2025)
The Girl You Know by Elle Gonzalez Rose; design by Amanda Hudson / Faceout Studio (Bloomsbury YA / February 2025)
Goodbye, My Princess by Fei Wo Si Cun, translated by Tianshu; design by Laurent Linn; illustration by Zijing (Simon & Schuster BYR / June 2025)
Grave Flowers by Autumn Krause; cover art by Welder Wings (Peachtree Teen / September 2025)
Hazelthorn by CG Drews; design by Meg Sayre; illustration by Jana Heidersdorf (Feiwel & Friends / October 2025)
The cover of Don’t Let the Forest In by CG Drews from the same creative pair was on last year’s list.
I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang; design by Alex Niit; cover art by Kim Myatt (HarperCollins / January 2025)
I Am the Swarm by Hayley Chewins; design by Sophie Erb; cover art by Aykut Aydoğdu (Viking BYR / March 2025)
I Can’t Even Think Straight by Dean Atta; design by Jenna Stempel-Lobell; illustration by Adriana Bellet (Quill Tree Books / May 2025)
If We Survive This by Racquel Marie; design by Abby Granata; illustration by Nicole Rifkin (Feiwel & Friends / June 2025)
In Case You Read This by Edward Underhill; design by David DeWitt; illustration by Jeff Östberg (Quill Tree Books / May 2025)
Kill Creatures by Rory Power; illustration by Kei-Ella Loewe; art direction by Liz Dresner (Delacorte Press / June 2025)
The cover of Wilder Girls by Rorie Power, designed by Regina Flath with art by Aykut Aydoğdu, was on my notable list way back in 2019.
Knucklehead by Tony Keith Jr.; design David Curtis (Quill Tree Books / February 2025)
Leave it on the Track by Margot Fisher cover art by Beatriz Ramo (Dutton BYR / November 2025)
Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue by Kate Pearsall; design by Jessica Jenkins; illustration by Imogen Oh (G.P. Putnam’s Sons BYR / January 2025)
This goes very nicely with their cover from a couple of year’s ago for Bittersweet in the Hollow by Kate Pearsall.
Mercy by Patricia Ward; design by Catherine Lee (HarperCollins / October 2025)
Messy by Tanya Boteju; design by David DeWitt; illustration by Jeff Östberg (Quill Tree Books / April 2025)
The Moss by Lisa Lueddecke; design by Sarah Creech; art by Yorgos Cotronis (Simon & Schuster BYR / September 2025)
Night Swimming by Aaron Starmer; cover art by Dana Lédl (Penguin Workshop / April 2025)
Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzales; design and illustration by Jenifer Prince (Wednesday Books / June 2025)
One of the Boys by Victoria Zeller; design by Casey Moses; cover art by Jon Stich (Levine Querido / May 2025)
Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven; cover art by Kelly Chong (Penguin / February 2025)
This is the UK cover. The cover of the US edition published by Wednesday Books was designed by Olga Grlic.
The Payback Girls by Alex Travis; design by Aarushi Menon (Sourcebooks Fire / April 2025)
Season of Fear by Emily Cooper; design Jenny Kimura; illustration by Chris Mrozik (Christy Ottaviano Books / September 2025)
Shiny Happy People by Clay McLeod Chapman; design by Casey Moses; illustration by Elena Masci (Delacorte Press / November 2025)
Show Stopper by Lily Anderson; design and illustration by Keith Vlahakis (Henry Holt & Co. BYR / September 2025)
Summer Girls by Jennifer Dugan; design by Kelley Brady; illustration by Jeff Östberg (G.P. Putnam’s Sons BYR / May 2025)
I think this is the third Jennifer Dugan novel with Jeff Östberg‘s art on the cover?
They Bloom At Night by Trang Thanh Tran; design by John Candell; art by Elena Masci (Bloomsbury YA / March 2025)
The cover of She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran, which also features art by Elena Masci, was included in my list in 2023.
The Wildest Things by Andrea Hannah; design by Olga Grlic; art by Marcela Boliva (Wednesday Books / February 2025)
Wish You Were Her by Elle McNicoll; design by Kerri Resnick; illustration by Marianna Tomaselli (Wednesday Books / August 2025)
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Leguin; design by Joe Merkel; art by Fred Fordham (Clarion Books / March 2025)
Woven From Clay by Jenny Birch; design by Kerri Resnick; art by Jorge Mascarenhas (Wednesday Books / August 2025)
You’ve Found Oliver by Dustin Thao; design by Theresa Evangelista; illustration by Zipcy (Dutton BYR / September 2025)
I believe this is third Dustin Thao novel with a cover illustration by Zipcy, although I think the previous two were designed by Kerri Resnick for Wednesday Books.
