Owlcrate Unboxing October 2016

Not Paid or Sponsored | Not a Collaboration

Hi!

This is now my fourth Owlcrate - it's a subscription box from America that ships monthly, and contains a hardback YA (Young Adult) book plus a ton of other bookish gifts. It's expensive, but after my first three month subscription ran out, I had no qualms in cancelling all my other subs (bar Netflix) to keep this one.

The theme this month was Once Upon a Dream. 

I have to admit, I wasn't as impressed with this box as I have been with other months. I think the main thing that took the shine off it was that I already have the book - I requested it as an ARC a few months ago after reading a sample chapter in one of the Buzz Books collections. I hadn't read it - but it was still just a little bit "oh" when I saw it.

I really like that there's a signed bookplate included every month, and a letter from the author. It makes the experience that little bit more special, I always stick the bookplates inside the front covers so they're like signed copies. There was also a tattoo this month. This particular book is a modern day fairytale set in Brooklyn, based on a Russian folktale (Vassalissa the Beautiful). It's about a young girl named Vassa who has to break a curse with the help of her talking wooden doll...

Next up this month were two wearable items - an oversized beanie hat from Whosits & Whatsits. The red feather represents Peter Pan, which I thought was pretty clever. I'm not a hat person at all, because I find them restrictive, so oversized is great and I will probably wear this walking. The bracelet is by The Geeky Cauldron (amazing name) and is based on Sleeping Beauty, with the little spinning wheel. I won't wear this, but it's a cute item and it's exclusive to this box.

Finally, we had a bookmark promoting a dystopian series, a fabric paperclip bookmark by My Heart My Tribe, an Owlcrate badge, and a "Passport to Oz" mini travel notebook by The Unemployed Philosopher's Guild.

That was it! I don't know, I think we were so spoiled last month, it was always going to be hard to live up to that epic September box.

The theme for November was revealed via a beautifully illustrated spoiler card:

I really dislike Alice in Wonderland and everything related to it. It gives me the creeps. I actually considered putting my subscription on hold and skipping the November box (for all of about ten seconds), but I know that the people at Owlcrate are really creative with their themes, so it's unlikely that it will be a complete Alice tribute box. Hopefully!

If you'd like to sign up to Owlcrate you can use the code WELCOME15 for 15% off.