Quiz: Are You a YA Cover Expert?

For a while, I thought I was an expert at recognising by the cover alone if a book was a young adult novel or a novel for adults. Then, one day, I picked up an audiobook I was absolutely convinced was YA, but got to such steamy scenes, that I had to stop in my tracks to reevaluate everything I thought I knew about book covers. I learned my lesson.

Of course, while all this sounds like a mere lack of attention on my part – an assumption that all YA covers look one way while adult novel covers look another – it is interesting to note that I, like many others, often have a tendency to associate illustrated covers with YA, or with romance novels.

Our editor Kelly has written an excellent analysis on the illustrated cover trend in romance, and what that says about women’s interests, so you may want to read it as a thought-provoking addition to this quiz.

But onto the quiz! Because, after my steamy scene incident (which I consider a happy accident), I started to pay more attention to covers and learned to assume less and look for signs more. And I’ve been seeing some progress in my game of spotting YA vs Adult based on the cover alone.

Are you willing to test your own detecting senses?

The rules of this quiz are simple: each slide features two book covers, one YA novel and one not, and you have to spot (or guess) the YA one! AND… there’s one tricky question in the middle too, to test your senses.

You have your results, but you’re still eager to find out which covers are YA or not? Check the titles below (and because this quiz is all about covers, I’ve added the cover designers I was able to find)!

Adult Novels

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

Dominicana by Angie Cruz

The House In The Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley, cover design by Michael Morris

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, cover design by Tiffany Estreicher

Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers

When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole

Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

A Girl Called Rumi by Ari Honarvar, cover design by Ari Honarvar

Young Adult Novels

Home Is Not A Country by Safia Elhillo, cover design by Shaylin Wallace

Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

The House Of The Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott, cover design Lisa Perrin

Yolk by Mary H. K. Choi, cover design by ohgigue

White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson

The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante

Our Last Echoes by Kate Alice Marshall

Enjoyed this quiz? Book Riot has a bunch of cover-related quizzes for you, like this AI-generated covers, and even a cover-recognition expert edition.