This cover screams bestseller!—unfortunately, the bestseller it’s screaming about is The Hunger Games. The golden bird design immediately reminds us of the Mockingjay emblem, which is so iconic that we’re genuinely surprised the designers of The Nightingale went with something so similar. The resemblance is distracting, and right from the start, we’re turned off by how unoriginal this feels.

Even if we look past that, we’re still not loving this cover. It’s a bit of a mess, like it can’t decide what it wants to be. We’ve got the Eiffel Tower viewed through a rainy window, which suggests something somber, but then there’s this golden bird perched on a flowering plant. (It looks more like a hummingbird than a nightingale to us, but we’ll assume they did their research.) Do nightingales even hover over flowers in the rain? The whole thing feels conceptually muddled.

Beyond that, the cover tells us absolutely nothing about the book. Is it historical? Romantic? Suspenseful? We have no clue. The only thing we know for sure is that at least part of it takes place in Paris, and the weather isn’t great.

Based on the Cover, We Think This Book Is About…
A wistful story set in Paris, possibly about a lonely woman watching raindrops slide down a window as she reminisces about lost love. The nightingale could be a metaphor for hope or resilience—or maybe it’s just a bird.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ (1/5)