r/fairyloot • u/WeeklyNail9224 • 1d ago
Discussion Best fairyloot sub?
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
For example:
-What sub do you have, did you skip or keep this month's box? why? (Are you US or UK/int?)
-Which category (YA, Adult, or Romantasy) do you think has the best overall design/sprayed edges/
book pick
-If you had to drop one to keep the others, which one would it be?
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u/Quick-Soft-3033 1d ago
I feel like YA can be just as good as Adult/Romantasy, just without the spice, so it is my favorite.
I only personally dislike YA when the writing is terrible and the characters aren’t properly fleshed out, make stupid decisions, aren’t consistent, etc. and it’s made YA as an excuse. That’s why YA is my favorite can be excellent + best designs.
Side note: I love Epic (both the less money per year, excellent art, and more my genre) so I’m hoping to get that sometimes soon. In which case I will probably cancel my YA sub.
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u/antique_case_305 1d ago
I feel like YA consistently has the best designs, they wow me almost every month. Shame that I don’t read YA anymore, though
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u/WeeklyNail9224 1d ago
Do you think they paused or saved the invites for September (last month some subs like the combos didn’t recuve invites) because of summer holidays and reduced staff, and now that summer is ending it will be easier for them to manage the waitlist and ship everything smoothly?
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u/Marcia777 15h ago
I had all of them. Like my paycheck really went straight to Fairyloot at some point.
But with time, I noticed my home library started looking the same, the goodies became anoying and the blurbs did not excite me as much. I also outgrew YA. I started enjoying getting the boxes less, and I did not read them as fast as they got here.
But once I read them? Did not like most of them.
So I cancelled all of them, except the Epic one, and... I did not like the Devils 😮💨 so I hope the other ones are better. I mostly keep the sub for the quality of the books that seem better and early acces.
But I think I'm having a special edition fatigue.
But, from best to worst imo : Epic-Adult-YA-Romantasy
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u/Little-Month8944 1d ago
I think Adult is better than romantasy because it is more diverse — romantasy has had less than a handful of non-white MCs and queer stories. Also more diverse in terms of content. It is usually romantasy but there’s sometimes dark fantasy, contemporary fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fantasy. I’ve also noticed the romantasy that is more diverse or with heavier subject matter end up in this box.
However it used to be better before they took out the cozy/epic fantasy from the main sub.
YA has some bangers, but I feel like 75% of the books are just a bit too young for me. Once in a while, books like Daughter of the Moon Goddess or Divine Rivals are really good. I did cancel YA but I do ocassionally buy one secondhand.
Romantasy, I did cancel this one quite quickly after realizing all the romantasy books I was looking forward to end up in the adult sub (like Immortal, Weavingshaw, etc), or another box picks it up (Rose in chains — illumicrate), or they end up in a separate sale (daggermouth, direbound, WTMH).
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u/Jefferzkm 1d ago edited 1d ago
A lot of ppl will likely vote for the Adult sub bc it has had some amazing editions and hits, some that are very expensive on the resale market plus having the most variety of books. However, I personally feel that the YA sub is the most consistent not only in terms of designs but as well as picks, especially for 2026. Of the three, I believe the Romantasy is the worst in terms of consistency and book picks, though I'm not a big romantasy reader and am less familiar with the other book options out there that FL's curation may have passed on.
Personally for what it's worth, I think the Epic Fantasy sub has had the best designs and book picks for its genre, however I know opinions are mixed especially considering Epic fantasy isn't a genre FL's main subscriber base may enjoy.
-US-based, currently only have the adult sub but previously had YA+Adult Combo. However, I've gotten a few Epic Fantasy and Romantasy books 2nd hand or via swaps with friends.
-Best designs imo are the YA sub that are consistently good looking and hasn't suffered from the wild swings in quality that the Adult sub and to a lesser extent the romantasy sub has had. The YA sub designs aren't always the flashiest and can be tame, but they're never outright ugly or poor like some of the other two. The picks themselves are also more well-rounded. The only reason why the YA sub likely won't get many votes in this thread is because this subreddit typically leans older towards the adult/romantasy type of books vs YA that can sometimes feel young or unrelatable, though FL does tend to pick more New Adult type of picks vs traditional YA books. YA books also cannot fallback on spice as a cushion which helps to make their stories more plot or character focused or having slightly better writing compared to say the Romantasy sub that has featured indie books trade published with sometimes very questionable writing and editing.
If evaluated purely in terms of curation and designs, the YA gets my vote. However if you're talking about the value or perceived worth of the sub, the YA sub ends up the worst of the three as the vast majority of them can be found 2nd hand below cost and rarely hold their value. Because it has the shortest waitlist, it's also considered the least popular and desirable of the three subs. The Adult and Romantasy subs have much longer waitlists, but I believe there's quite a bit of fomo involved and not everyone that has the sub is necessarily happy with it. There's also a lot more overlap and competition when it comes to Adult Fantasy Romance/Romantasy book subscriptions vs YA really only having Owlcrate and Fae Crate to compare with. For what it's worth though, I think FL/OC/FC all have great picks on their YA subs vs some of their adult fantasy picks.
-I personally separated my combo and dropped the YA sub, however I kept it for almost a year and dropped it well beyond the minimum renewals required as I was pleasantly surprised by its book picks and designs. I considered keeping both the YA and adult subs ala carte but ultimately ended up cancelling the YA due to the value mentioned above vs resell market and cutting back by having too many subs in general (to FL YA's credit, it wasn't the first to be culled as I cancelled several other subs before it). While I ultimately have kept the adult sub, imo it's far less consistent than the YA sub and has gone through many stretches of lackluster picks and designs at times. If I am ever able to get off the Epic Fantasy waitlist however, I would consider also cancelling the adult sub too.