Book Box Review!
In this blog post, I will be discussing and reviewing four of the main book boxes: Illumicrate, Fairyloot, Owlcrate, and The Bookish Box.
TLDR: I think Fairyloot and Illumicrate are the best book boxes. Check out their past books to see which one aligns best with your taste.
To give a brief explanation of how the companies work, they each have a namesake box, which is “The Fairyloot YA Box” or “The Illumicrate Box” and they also all have a book only namesake box “The Owlcrate Book Only.” Each company I discuss also has specialty boxes. A specialty box is a box labeled outside their main “namesake” box, and it is curated to a certain genre like dark romance, Sci-Fi, etc. Depending on the book box, the specialty boxes can have access to different sales from the namesake box. Here is a list of each company and their boxes:
Illumicrate
Illumicrate Full Box
Illumicrate Book Only
Afterlight Romance Book Only (Specialty)
Everynight Horror Book Only (Specialty)
Starbright Science Fiction Book Only – Coming Soon (Specialty)
Fairyloot
YA Full Box
Adult Book Only
YA Book Only
Romantasy Book Only (Specialty)
OwlCrate
YA Full Box
YA Book Only
Adult Fantasy Book Only (Specialty)
Bookish Box
The Bookish Full Box
The Bookish Full Box + T-Shirt
The Bookish Book Only
The Darkly Full Box (Specialty)
The Darkly Full Box + T-Shirt (Specialty)
The Darkly Book Only (Specialty)
All the companies also have combo boxes where you can get multiple book boxes from the same company for a small discount, and usually fewer packages.
Below is the pricing of the namesake boxes, including shipping, at the time of publication.
To start, I want to share what book boxes I have had and when I subscribed to them.
I subscribed to the Bookish Box full YA book box from April 2022 – August 2022.
I then had an Illumicrate Afterlight subscription from July 2022 – October 2023.
I currently have a subscription to the Ilumicrate full box from August 2022 – current.
I tried the Fairyloot full box from October 2022 – April 2023 when I canceled it, I am now on the waitlist to get it again.
I had the OwlCrate adult book box from July 2023 – August 2023.
I have Fairyloot Romantasy Box from April 2024 – current.
The first book box I purchased was the Bookish Box Full Box, and I subscribed to it for 5 months. I ended up canceling because the company was shipping multiple months behind. I believe I received my August box from them in January of the next year. I had subscribed to Illumicrate Afterlight by then, and at the time Afterlight was a full box subscription. I enjoyed it a lot more because the box came in the same month I paid for it, and it had better quality control. Bookish Box was, and still is, known for sending incomplete books, books printed upside down, missing pages, and even books with the wrong book number on them. They had a lot of quality control issues, and that coupled with how late the boxes were coming is what caused me to cancel. I will say though, that I occasionally see what they are putting out now and they get great book deals, have great customizations on the books, and send out some cool goodies. I also see they are still shipping behind and having quality issues with their book printing. I don’t want a book box I need to constantly be in contact with due to quality and delay issues.
Next, I had the Illumicrate Afterlight Romance Box. This box was my favorite for a long time, mostly because I enjoyed the goodies and the beautiful books. I subscribed to it for over a year before I ended up canceling when they announced it was becoming a book only box. I decided I didn't want the box without the goodies, and I felt that romance paperbacks are more my speed.
During that time, I also had Illumicrate’s full box as well. I love Illumicrate's box and don’t have plans to give it up anytime soon. The books Illumicrate makes are consistently the most beautiful books I have ever seen.
Recent Illumicrate Book
Illumicrate also really delivers in the goodies. Some recent ones have been a super fun 1000-piece puzzle, a gorgeous Forth Wing mug, and a Once Upon a Broken Heart bullet journal. They also send art prints with most books, and they have made beautiful bookmark collections and collectible ceramic books.
While I was subscribed to Illumicrate I decided to try out Fairyloot’s YA Box as well. I had it for a couple of months but wasn’t as blown away by the book designs themselves and ended up canceling when I felt I had too many books. Recently, however, I have regretted that choice as Fairyloot's full box game is amazing. They have come out with A Court of Thorns and Roses book ends, Once Upon a Broken Heart Tea Tin, and an amazing art-filled desk calendar. As I have grown in the last two years, I also find that Fairyloot is putting every book on my TBR in their boxes, and I am so sad I can't get them. Fairyloot’s one large drawback is the current year-long waitlist for the U.S. I urge you to jump on the waitlist now, even if you are unsure because the wait is so long you have plenty of time to decide.
Fairyloot is also the cheapest, though marginally, of the namesake book boxes.
While I am discussing Fairyloot I want to bring up one of my current subscriptions, their romantasy box. So far, while not as stunning as Illumicrate’s books, they are beautiful and have stenciled edges and deluxe endpapers. I enjoy their book choices so far as well, though they are mostly the first books in the series. I will probably cancel this subscription when I get off the waitlist for the YA full box, but I am enjoying it.
Recent Fairyloot Romantasy Book
After I cancelled Fairyloot (RIP) I decided to try out OwlCrate’s adult fantasy box. I received the first two books they did but was very disappointed in the customizations. Both books I received, Masters of Death and Immortal Longings, had no real change to the dust jackets, minimal foiling, and single-color sprayed edges. While these are still great customizations, for the price and what I was used to, it felt like a large letdown. I do believe their YA box features better customizations and sprayed edges. While I have never had an OwlCrate full box, I have watched many unboxings and have received some of their items second-hand.
Overall, I find OwlCrate lacking. Their goodies are mostly home focused. Some examples that come to mind are a plastic leaf soap dish with a quote on it and a lot of fabric hanger organizers. If you decide to go with OwlCrate I strongly suggest watching some unboxings to see if the goodies are something you could use in your home. I don’t need a book-themed umbrella or a reusable snack bag, but that doesn’t mean they're bad goodies. They just aren’t as book centric as I prefer.
Something to keep in mind is that all the book boxes also do sales of books not included in their book boxes. Both Fairyloot and Illumicrate recently came out with special editions of Crescent City, and Fairyloot currently has a deal for the whole Throne of Glass series. Being a subscriber to their box is how you get first access to their sales. I don’t believe it matters what box in the company you subscribe to, you get first access to the sale. The exception is Illumicrate, they are rolling out a new plan where books are possibly categorized as a specialty box exclusive, and then subscribers to that specific box get first dibs, then other subscribers, and finally the public. Not all sales make it to the public, so that’s why it is important to subscribe to the boxes you think come out with the best special editions.
For OwlCrate it’s a pass for me, because I just feel that Fairyloot and Illumicrate have better goodies, and OwlCrate picks a lot of the same books as them as well. Bookish Box is my least favorite due to the disorganization and constant issues with their books.
Overall, I think Illumicrate has the prettiest books and amazing goodies, and I think Fairyloot has the best book picks and amazing goodies. These are the two book boxes I would recommend. To pick between the two I recommend going through their past book choices and picking the one that most aligns with your book taste.
Accurate to August 6, 2024