Unboxing: Review of OwlCrate October 2019

“Dawn of a New World”

The theme for OwlCrate’s October box was “Dawn Of A New World” and we received two new, signed, exclusive hardcovers this month!

This month unfortunately had some mishaps – due to a manufacturing error the “kitchen item” designed by LittleInklingsDesign was not included and neither was the monthly magazine.

Here is what was included in October’s box:

My favourite item has to be this gorgeous crescent moon necklace designed by Iron and Ink Designs, inspired by The Lunar Chronicles. It comes on a very long chain, which unfortunately isn’t my preferred style, but it does look nice with sweaters. You can also snip the chain and put the pendant on a shorter necklace if desired.

Book tin designed by Stella Bookish Art featuring quotes from Illuminae Files. While book tins aren’t my favourite item to get, this is a nice tin and I really liked the design and quotes included.

Craftedvan magnetic bookmarks. These little bookmarks feature characters from the Saga comic series. I’m not familiar with this series, (although I know it is popular), for me these were unfortunately a miss.

Last item before the books is a holographic sticker featuring the quote “Everything is science fiction until it is science fact” from Marie Lu’s Warcross and was designed by Blanca Montiel. I have a hard time classifying a sticker as an item … but I do like getting stickers to put in my planner and this one is nice and sparkly!

The book picks for October included Crier’s War by Nina Verala and I Hope You Get This Message by Farah Naz. Both books came signed, with exclusive covers and author letters. Also included this month were two enamel pins, each based on one of the books.

Overall Rating: B+

• Pendant Necklace: 2.5/3 (It may be me being picky, but that chain is quite long)!

• Book Tin: 2/3 (Just not my favourite item to get in a book box).

• Magnetic Bookmarks: 1.5/3 (Not a fandom I like, nor do I really like the design/colour scheme … maybe if I read the comic series I’d appreciate it more. But as it stands this was a dud item for me).

• Sticker: 2/3 (It’s nice, but a sticker really isn’t a high value item in a book box that costs over $50 Cdn).

I know it seems odd to complain about a box that included TWO new hardcovers, but the items around them were a bit of a miss. I also don’t like how the missing item was handled – rather than sending it out to us when it is available, it will just be put in some future box. I feel like if you did buy this box, the customer is owed that item when it becomes available. You were able to opt out for a refund however, so I guess there is that.

Overall not the box for me, with quite a few mishaps along the way … hopefully the books are great reads!

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.