Unboxing: Review of LitJoy Crate September 2019

“Haunted Mansion”

The theme for LitJoy’s September box was “Haunted Mansion” — another book box perfectly celebrating this spooky time of year!

I always start with my favourite item … which was hard with this box because I really liked most of it! But I think the Ghostbusters patch has to take top prize. I used to love watching cartoons as a 90s kid and Ghostbusters, Darkwing Duck, Batman and Ninja Turtles were my favourites. I love the nostalgia of this patch!

Coraline set of three Scrunchies. I have long hair that is constantly up in a bun … these scrunchies, based on Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, will come in handy. Plus, who doesn’t like Neil Gaiman? Coraline is one of the spookiest books I’ve ever read, an excellent book to pick up this October.

Jack Skellington and Zero woodmark. This woodwork is a LitJoy exclusive with artwork by Briana Mora. I love that it is reversible, colourful and vibrant.

Haunted Mansion Scarf. This scarf is a really gorgeous purple ombre, made from a very soft, silky cotton. It is covered with decals based on the Disney Haunted Mansion ride. When I visited Disneyland at age 8, I unfortunately wasn’t allowed on the ride so I’m not familiar with the icons … but I still love it! The perfect October scarf.

Addams Family page flags. While I wasn’t the biggest Addams Family fan, I am always in need of page flags and this will be fun to use throughout October. They have a nice amount of stick … I hate page flags that won’t stick to the page!

Trading cards this month featured Ezra and Kady from the Illuminae Files and the book pick was A Treason of Thorns by Laura E. Weymouth (hello beautiful cover). The book came signed with a letter from Laura on a beautiful art print by Alexandra Curte. Alexandra also did the lovely reversible dust jacket artwork (shown on the booklet spread).

Overall Rating: A

• Ghostbusters Patch: 3/3

• Coraline Scrunchies: 3/3

• Nightmare Before Christmas Woodmark: 3/3

• Haunted Mansion Scarf: 4/3 (this is my favourite scarf I’ve gotten so far in book boxes! It is gorgeous).

• Addams Family Page Flags: 2.5/3 (just not a fandom I love … but they are cute, useful, and the quality is good).

This box was a big hit with me personally. I loved the items included and most of the fandoms. I always appreciate LitJoy’s take on bookish merch — it isn’t always dark and creepy but funny, bright and a bit “geeky glam”.

However this will be my last box for awhile from LitJoy Crate because the cost of shipping from this company is quite high for international customers (combined with extra charges at delivery from the shipping company they use). I find the value of the items in the box do not make up LitJoy’s higher costs and am quite frustrated by the company’s lack of interest in handling or addressing this matter.

Note on Rating: I rate each item out of 3 possible points: 1 for quality, 1 for usefulness, and 1 for if I personally liked the item/fandom. I then assign an overall letter rating for the whole box.