December marks the start of the holiday season and the return of one of our favorite year-end traditions: the annual best book cover tournament. Now in its fourth year, this contest is our way of recognizing and celebrating the talented designers behind the books. After all, the cover is the very first thing you see when you walk into a bookstore. These designs are more than just attractive; they help tell the story before the first page is even turned.

The contest unfolded through multiple rounds of voting on Instagram and X, with some unexpected twists along the way. Staff favorites like Crunch, Inconsolable Objects, and Mystery Lights were eliminated early on, while another staff favorite, Mouth, almost made it to the finals. The final two covers stood out for their originality and distinctiveness. One perfectly embodied the book’s title with innovative neon lettering, while the other intrigued with a pink mist enveloping the characters in a shroud of mystery, desire, and tragedy, every glance capturing a different mood and emotion. 

From 32 cover designs, here are the semi-finalists:

Above Us The Sea by Ania Card (design by Emma Ewbank) versus Mouth by Puloma Ghosh (design by Adriana Tonello, photograph by Suzanne Saroff).

The Manicurist’s Daughter by Susan Lieu (design by Julianna Lee) versus Ghostroots by Pemi Aguda (design by Sarahmay Wilkinson, art by Day Brierre).

From the Final Four, now we’re down to two crowd favorites:

The winner of Electric Lit’s 2024 Book Cover Tournament: The Manicurist’s Daughter by Susan Lieu, design by Julianna Lee.