Editions of Undead Girl Gang
Oftentimes, especially with publishers like Penguin Teen, the paperback edition undergoes a design change. Not only because the cover is attached directly to the block of paper that makes up the softcover book and physically will likely feel different, but also because it provides an opportunity for new readers to find the book with the new packaging.
This is the case with Lily Anderson’s Undead Girl Gang.
The cover previously examined was the paperback edition cover, and for comparison, the original hardcover dust jacket will be examined, as shown.
The original cover features a series of enamel pins with relevant images and symbols to the story—such as a zombie hand, or Wiccan-associated objects like cards—on a denim jacket, evoking the “girl gang” nature of the story. It doesn’t play on many symbols other than the ones mentioned due to the general homogeneity of the cover—being just a jean jacket, rather than something with more signals for readers.
In fact, one could argue that most of the signaling in the original Undead Girl Gang cover is a result of the title. Independently, the cover doesn’t signal very much about the story outside of the existence of a jean jacket and witchy/kind of paranormal elements with a lighter, seemingly contemporary twist on them. But in conjunction with the title on an enamel pin, it is a lot more telling as to the contents of the story.
In contrast, the paperback cover is able to communicate more information—in part due to it being a larger system than the original hardcover cover. Both editions of Undead Girl Gang feature a motif of the enamel pins that are on the denim jacket of the model on the paperback edition and are the entire cover of the hardcover edition.
The new edition has more signaling—from the way it more strongly features the paranormal mystery element with the shadows of the hands, to the further emphasis of the girl gang through the model’s stance and the suggestion of Latinx representation as previously described.
The covers take different approaches to how they market the book—which can be beneficial both for finding new readers who wouldn’t have picked up the book under one cover—as the original hardcover edition focuses only on the “girl gang” element of the story, but the paperback edition focuses more on a wider range of elements such as the confidence and pose of the protagonist, Mila.
The diversity of the protagonist is more explicit in the paperback cover—the original denim jacket cover doesn’t communicate it as apparently in the cover, but this is better communicated with the presence of a real model on the cover. Even the suggestion of diversity by this further highlights the Latinx identity of the protagonist.
Undead Girl Gang originally released in spring 2018, and the paperback edition released in 2019, again as a time when diversity was actively championed. This is another factor that may have contributed to the cover change—whether it was performative change on the publisher’s part does not alter the ultimate effect the change may have had on the book reaching readers.