Hi Everyone! You might have noticed that I’ve gotten a bit hooked on Owlcrate over the last few months and so I thought that I would start to share my unboxings with you.
In case you haven’t see the adverts for this online, Owlcrate is a monthly subscription box for fans of Young Adult books. These boxes aren’t the cheapest to buy in the UK (with postage, it costs about $50.00 / £38.00), but I have been absolutely blown away by the quality of the collectables that they contain. Each box is guaranteed to include at least one new release, which is always a hard-backed book and is usually signed by the author and with an exclusive cover. It also contains 3-5 other items, all tied to a monthly theme.
Owlcrates tend to sell out very quickly, thought if you continue paying your monthly subscription they do guarantee that you will receive each box. The January theme was ‘Vengeance Will Be Mine’. Please read on to find out what I thought about the items that it contained, though be warned that this post does contain pictures and lots of spoilers if you’re still waiting for your box to arrive…
Okay, so lets take a look at each of these in turn. Sorry for the quality of the pictures. My other-half usually takes the blog photos but I did these ones myself. On an old throw rug. On the folding table in my reptile room. I’m such a professional…
Sorry, I’m getting off-topic. Here’s the first item:
It’s a box! Hooray! Actually, this is an item that does not entirely seem to match the theme, yet its inclusion is apparently a bit of an Owlcrate tradition. Every January, they have included an exclusive mug that inspired by a different Harry Potter book. This year, it is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Not my favourite book, as you may recall, but it’s hard not to fall in love with this beautiful product.
The art is by Cara Kozik and does a fantastic job of capturing some of the most memorable scenes of the book. Grimauld Place, the Thestrals, the Ministry of Magic and even Umbridge’s aggressively pink office feature in beautiful detail. Although I don’t think that vengeance is a particularly strong theme in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I do really love this item and it is an incredible collectable for any fan.
The next item out of the box was created by Out of Print and is themed around Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo.
I haven’t actually read this book so can’t judge how well it fits the theme, however these are some gorgeous socks. Socks are a bit of a weakness of mine – especially ones that are brightly coloured and have cool pictures. These ones are made of a nice thick material and are very soft. I also think it’s great to have a practical themed item like this, as I’m happy that I can still get some use out of it.
Moving swiftly along, the next item is an exclusive from Team Owlcrate itself.
It’s a compact mirror that has been inspired by Nevernight by Jay Kristoff. Unfortunately, this is actually one of my least favourite novels that I have reviewed on this blog. However, it certainly fits the theme of ‘Vengeance Shall Be Mine’ incredibly well and is, once again, an incredibly useful item to include. The compact is well made, with space to add your own preferred brand of makeup, and it comes in a handy little pouch to help keep it shiny.
The next item was one that I was actually quite excited about. It was created by In The Reads and is inspired by The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.
I must admit, this item was my biggest disappointment of the crate. While it does fit the theme (just), it’s a little small and there isn’t much I can do with it other than hang it on my wall. Still, it is at least nicely printed and is certainly easily recognisable for every Tolkien fan. However, the purpose of this banner is reportedly to give you a nice way to display this year’s collection of pin badges.
The pins are an Owlcrate staple, and each month they commission a different artist to create one that is themed around their choice of book. This month’s pin was designed by Forensics and Flowers and is incredibly eye-catching.
Knives, coins and cards. I am certainly curious to see how these will play into the story. Are you curious about what the book is yet? Unfortunately, there are still a couple of items left to go…
The last collectable in the box was a lovely candle made by A Court of Candles and is the only variable item in this crate.
Apparently, you were guaranteed to get one of five different scents. Mine was called ‘Seer’ and its scent is “Dragonfruit and Tropical Rainforest”. For a small candle, it has a very strong smell when lit. My living room now smells wonderfully fruity. I’m sad that this is apparently an Owlcrate exclusive, as I would really have liked to buy more of these!
We’re getting closer to the real meat of this crate now, so I guess that I should quickly just show you the papers that came with this box.
The first of these was a spoiler insert that explained what each of the items were and where Team Owlcrate sourced them from, which was really handy when putting together this post! The middle item is the monthly magazine which contained a couple of interesting interviews. Finally was a little note from the author of the book. That author is Tara Sim, author of Timekeeper (my favourite guilty pleasure). And I am so excited about her new book…
Scavenge the Stars is apparently inspired by The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, which is one of my favourite stories and certainly fits the theme of this crate. After all, The Count of Monte Cristo is probably the greatest revenge story every told! I really can’t wait to sink my teeth into this one and look forward to sharing my thoughts about it in a future review.
So, all in all, I am really happy with the contents of this Owlcrate. I really love the candle and socks in particular, and was pleased that most of the major items seem to fit this month’s theme. I’m also incredibly excited to read Scavenge the Stars as it’s a combination of an author I love and a brilliant theme. It’s win/win!
The final item in this crate is a mere teaser of what we can expect in the February crate. Tune in next month to find out if this crate also met my high expectations.
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