Hey all! I’m here today with a To Buy or Not to Buy post for Faecrate’s exclusive edition of The Nichan Smile by C.J. Merwild (who also goes by Coco,) who’s a well known artist in the bookish community. Faecrate recently announced that they’re going to be doing an exclusive edition of the book, so keep reading to learn more and hear my thoughts!
Skip to the bottom of the post for a TL;DR Pros and Cons list if you’re in a hurry! As usual, make sure to do your own research and form your own opinions before making a purchase!
As usual, all of the opinions in this post are my own, so please take them with a grain of salt, and don’t be offended if my least favorite fandom is your favorite. We all have our own preferences. 🙂
The Box Details
Company: Faecrate
Month: N/A (but will ship in late June)
Information Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKe5bCig9ot/
Cost: $24.99 + shipping/tax
Included Book: The Nichan Smile by C.J. Merwild
Special Book Features: Exclusive emboss design by @Noverantale, stamped edges, inside dust jacket artwork by @merwildandco, a signed bookplate, a slipcase cover for the book, and full-color pages on the inside of the book with artwork by Merwild
My Thoughts
Faecrate has the amazing talent of tempting me (and a good chunk of the book community) into buying books that I’ve never heard of before. They sprinkle on the best customizations, support indie authors, and somehow manage to create intense hype and FOMO for their editions. Faecrate recently announced their special edition of The Nichan Smile by C.J. Merwild, and once again, I find myself tempted!
The book was written by a well-loved artist from the book community. I honestly don’t really know much about it beyond the Goodreads synopsis and the art/captions Merwild has posted on her Instagram. The synopsis is a bit poetic and cryptic and doesn’t necessarily tell me what it’s about, which is why I’m a bit confused. Hopefully a new synopsis or excerpt will be released soon enough. I’ll note right now that the book is Adult, not YA or NA. The following warning was posted in the Goodreads synopsis:
“Trigger Warning: this novel contains graphic violence, violence against children and animals, explicit sexual content (including sexual violence and underage sex), and explicit language. Reader discretion is advised.”
This book definitely won’t be for everyone, but I’m actually really glad that Faecrate decided to pick it up and show it some love. I feel like a lot of boxes won’t include the book because of the heavy content, the fact that it’s an Adult novel, and because it’s written by an indie author. Without Faecrate, it probably wouldn’t have gotten the chance to be featured and shown to a wider audience.
Faecrate’s exclusive features sound AMAZING. Noverantale will be designing an emboss design for it, and trust me, all of the past ones I’ve seen have been incredibly detailed and stunning. It will have stamped edges (which I think is the same as “stencil sprayed edges, so it’ll probably have a pattern of some sort.) Merwild, who already designed the cover, is creating the art for the inside dust jacket, and there will also be full-color pages of her artwork included inside the book. All of this will come wrapped up in a beautiful slipcase, which really makes this the ultimate collector’s edition, and it’s pretty affordable too!
I’m surprisingly interested in this book! I’ll definitely need to see a sample of Merwild’s writing first, and maybe a revised synopsis or summary of the book, but the customizations and affordable price make me pretty excited for this edition. I think that it’ll definitely be worth the cost. Boxes go on sale in mid-February, so I’ll try to decide by then!
Pros
- Really amazing exclusive edition! (See the details above)
- Supports an indie author
- Faecrate seems to be the only box that’s doing this book!
Cons
- I don’t really know much about the book
- Might arrive later than expected
- Book is Adult, with a lot of intense triggers (could be a turn-off for some people. Read at your own discretion.)
Thanks for reading my ramble! Are you considering getting this exclusive book? Let me know in the comments what you think!
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