Day 112: Misrepresentation of Characters on Book Covers

I finished a book, and it taught me that people can be ugly in books, but people can't be ugly in movies.

The whole time I was reading this book, I was told one thing from the text and told another thing from the cover.

Greg is on top. In the book, he's fat. He's short and fat and a little greasy. Of course this could be his own interpretation of himself, but seeing as the other two characters don't look like this picture to our left, I'm guessing nah.

Earl is in the middle. In the book, he's short. Like too short to work the counter at the Wendy's short. Is that kid short? No, he's not short. He's a normal size.

And finally the Dying Girl. Rachel. In the book, Dying Girl is frizzy-haired and buck-toothed. This gal is not buck-toothed, and she has Emma Watson hair, which is not Hermione hair. Hollywood, that is not frizzy hair! 

As someone who has frizzy hair, this is not the first time I've seen my kind misrepresented on a book cover or in a movie.

But at least it's just frizzy hair that's my kind. At least it's just frizzy hair and height and weight that is affected by the Hollywoods. It would be awful if ... let's say ... I was an African American reader and I really warmed up to a black heroine and all of a sudden the cover showed her a different race. I mean, that'd be crazy, wouldn't it?

I'm sure that's never happened before. Ever. I'm sure no one could comment with a cover of a book ... or multiple covers of books ... that misrepresent the physical attributes of their main characters, especially not so extreme as an alteration of race ... I'm sure that this isn't a larger problem at all ...

Feel free to comment.