A few years ago, I created a post on similar book covers. There are more trends I could add, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the “women’s backs to the viewer,” although there may be other objects in the background besides aircraft. I could spend days culling more book covers, but I think there’s enough in this post.

I do have one more to add that intrigued me, mainly because I hated the cover art. I saw the new novel, A Good Person, and realized I had seen this particular work of art on the cover of another novel, but couldn’t remember its name. A few weeks ago, I was wandering around Barnes and Noble, and there it was! Here is the new addition to this post, and if you missed the original, it is repeated below.

How many of you have browsed the shelves at the library (pre-quarantine, natch) and picked up a book only to discard it, thinking you had read it? Don’t be so quick to judge! Check out the inside flap before reshelving, as it’s entirely possible the title has a “copycat” jacket with the publisher using a similar font and graphics similar to another popular book. It’s more common than you might think, with some even using the same photograph, as seen in the article Why Do So Many Book Covers Look the Same? Blame Getty Images. Here’s a small sample of the image used for two very different books but check out the article for at least ten books that used the same graphic.

Another interesting article, 57 Books That Look Like Other Books, is worth reading to see the various cover trends over the past few years. Here’s a sample. Hmm, I wonder which book graphic was copied.

This trend has interested me for years, but it wasn’t until I read Lucy Foley’s The Guest List that I started collecting graphics of books with similar covers. Here is my collage of recent thrillers. [Update: this trend is still popular for suspense/psychological thrillers.]

Here’s another cover trend for books set in a world war (usually), featuring characters on the cover (mostly with their backs to the viewer) and planes (or a plane) in the sky.

So don’t think your mind is going south if you can’t remember if you’ve read a particular book; it’s most likely that you are picking up a book with a copycat cover!