#BookCon2018 Recap (ft. very specific descriptions & a fantastic book haul!!)

Do I have BookCon withdrawals? Yes.

IT WAS SO FUN COMPARED TO LAST YEAR. Last year was also fun, but I definitely didn’t accomplish as much as I wanted to. BUT I MET AUTHORS AND I GOT BOOKS AND I’M REALLY, REALLY HAPPY WITH MY EXPERIENCE.

(The only way that it could be improved would be that if there were Wildcard ARCs there that I got.)

I’m going to divide this post by recapping my days, and then showing my overall haul, and then giving a couple of tips/tricks because why not.

But in case you want to read how my BookCon last year was, click down below!

is anyone else cringing at my old featured image?

day one

⟶ 9-10 am Me and my family were driving to NYC and uhhh normally I would be sleeping during those long car rides but I stayed up the whole time?? Proof of how excited I was for BookCon. I mainly just highlighted some of the things that I wanted to focus on on my schedule, and ate a ton of bbq chips.

⟶ 10:00 am I got to the convention center around 10 minutes late and we ran inside after picking up our badges. Then my older sister arrived after me and my younger sister were in the show floor already.

So we left to find her, and we had to pick up the media badge which took way longer. (Did you know they ask you for your id? I forgot to bring mine so I had to show her my Instagram page and emails.)

⟶ 10:30 am Unfortunately, we missed the signing for Crazy Rich Asians but then we decided to go to wait for Escaping from Houdini’s line, which was at 11:30. They started lining up 15 minutes early I think??

So me and my sisters were waiting in line and apparently another publisher was also giving out tote bags, that if you had a ticket in them, you could get a free book. So my older sister got one and she got Blackwell.

And then I decided to go wait in line for HarperCollins booth (it was a plinko where you could get WHAT IF IT’S US) because obviously SO MANY people would be waiting. And… there was already an enormous line which I promptly joined.

⟶ 11:00 am I ran over to the Albert Whitman & Company booth to try and get a copy of Ignite the Stars, but apparently it was a ticketed signing, and the tickets were handed out at 10?

After, I went to the HarperCollins booth, and apparently they were only giving out tickets for that line at 11. AND I GOT ONE. WHICH WAS GREAT. I also was talking to Kav and we MET UP IN THE LINE.

We both got the tickets, and then I went with Kav to meet Sandhya Menon & Mary H.K. Choi!! It was great, and I got this really cute camera pin as well as an Emergency Contact pop socket. I also picked up some coffee for my older sister, and Kav almost left their camera there. It was great.

⟶ 11:30 am Kav and I headed back towards the HarperCollins booth and I met their mom! My older sister headed to try and pick up Blanca y Roja at the Owlcrate booth (which was at 1 pm), and my younger sister went to the Penguin booth to try and get Seafire (which was at 1:15 pm).

⟶ 12:30 am Kav and I finally reached the HarperCollins and both of us tried to get the “Winner’s Choice” option because literally three people in front of us got What if It’s Us in a row. However… both Kav and I got For A Muse of Fire. But it was okay for me, because I was actually pretty excited about that book.

I headed over to the Penguin booth to meet my younger sister, and my older sister was already second in line for the Blanca y Roja line.

My younger sister already got me a copy of We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices which is an anthology that I’m really excited about!

⟶ 12:45 am Another line was formed near the Penguin booth, so me and my younger sister joined it. We were waiting when an attendant came over and asked us what we thought the line was for. I had no idea, so I said “Seafire!”

The attendant told me that I was incorrect and that she would direct me to the correct line. So we were taken out of the line, but apparently the Seafire line was already closed– so the attendant said that we were allowed to rejoin the line we were in.

Apparently, the line we were in was for this Book It Teen Travel session, where they passed down cards with three options. I think the options were “Tropical Thrills”, something in the Desert, and something in the City?

⟶ 1:00 pm My older sister rejoined me and my younger sister (she had Blanca y Roja!!!), and we each had a boarding pass card, so we each marked a different answer.

As it turned out, the Tropical Thrills answer was for Seafire, the City/International option was for Darius the Great is Not Okay, and the Desert option was for The Brilliant Death!! So we actually got Seafire even though we missed the line.

⟶ 2:00 pm We were all tired, soooo we just decided the leave the convention. Four hours early. We walked to KoreaTown and went into this shop where my sister bought these cold noodles & ribs & fried shrimp!! I love cold noodles??? They’re one of my favorite kinds of noodles now??

⟶ 3:00 pm We met up with our family and my older sister picked up some fried chicken for my younger brother. While me and my sister were at BookCon, the rest of the family had gone to Flushing to eat/shop.

So we headed home!!

day two

⟶ 9:50 am Me and my older sister got to the convention early, so we had to wait with this huge crowd for a while. But when they started letting us in, it was really easy to pass through so it didn’t take a while.

⟶ 10:00 am I basically ran to the NOVL/Hachette booth because I wanted a copy of Light Years, which was pitched as “The 100 meets something else” and my younger sister loved The 100. So. Obviously I had to get it for her.

Unfortunately, I did not get it for her. I popped into some random line, where I was given the choice to pick Empire of Sand or some other book. I actually had wanted to pick up Empire of Sand, so it worked out fine in my opinion.

⟶ 10:15 am My friend, who was coming instead of my younger sister, arrived. So I went outside to meet her, and it was really confusing because we were on different levels. But after we finally met up, we went to see my older sister, who was in line for a Knopf galley grab bag.

Me and my friend went to go check out this spinning wheel, which was obviously rigged because all of the spins landed on “Sorry!” But we picked up copies of Select Few, which was actually a sequel.

⟶ 10:30 am We finally reached the table where they were giving away tote bags and apparently all of the books offered were basically adult, which I didn’t regularly read. But me and my sister got a copy of Social Creature and A Long Way From Home. I have no idea if those are anticipated/popular tbh, but they sound pretty good?

⟶ 10:45 am Me and my friend headed to the HarperCollins booth to wait for the tickets, and my older sister went to the “Masks and Mirrors” event at Novl, which we thought was handing out The Wicked King & Muse of Nightmares ARCs. But they weren’t soooooo #misadvertising.

⟶ 11:30 am Me and my friend went to the Penguin booth to try and get Spinning Silver, but when they held up the sign I ran to try and join the line. However, apparently they were handing out tickets, and everyone was in a huge mob trying to grab the tickets out of the poor attendant’s hands.

Neither my friend or I got the tickets, so we headed back to the HarperCollins booth to wait for the plinko. One plus was that we found an extra HarperCollins ticket on the floor, so I just gave that to my older sister.

⟶ 12:00 am Although there weren’t any ARCs of Wicked King, my sister just jumped into a random line and got a signed copy of The Art of Losing!! Which I was also excited about!

When me, my sister, and my friend reached the plinko… it turned out that there weren’t even copies of What if It’s Us available, so it didn’t really matter to me what I got. I just put it in, and I got Cats Vs. Robots, which sounds…. interesting. My older sister actually got Winner’s Choice, so she chose Broken Things by Lauren Oliver!

My friend got a copy of This is Not An Epic Love Story!

⟶ 12:30 We went to the Scholastic booth to ask when the line for City of Ghosts would be starting, and apparently it was going to start at 1, while the V.E. Schwab would get there at 2!

So we decided to go to the Riveted alcove carnival raffle, where my sister got Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman, I got A Heart in the Body in the Mind, and my friend got Trail of Lightning. We still had time, so me and my friend revisited the line while my older sister went to check on the Scholastic booth.

While I was in that line, I got a notification from Penguin Teen to run to their booth and say a certain password, so I asked the person behind me to hold my place, while I basically sprinted to that booth and I said the password!

The second time around, they were offering the Wind booth, so I was able to get See All The Stars!

⟶ 1:00 Finally, me and my friend went to the Scholastic booth to meet up with my sister, and it was a really long line. Apparently there were over 400 copies of City of Ghosts available?

⟶ 1:30 Me and my friend headed to the line for HarperCollins to pick up the tickets for the plinko, and then rejoined my sister.

We just sat down and I started eating some organic hummus. I love hummus.

⟶ 2:00 We got to meet V. E. Schwab and I got a copy of her book!! It was so great, and it was really fun meeting V. E. Schwab.

⟶ 2:15 My friend went over to the HarperCollins booth to wait for the plinko, while me and my sister headed to the Penguin Booth to try and get the 2019 Secret ARC. There was a huge crowd in front of the table, and me and my sister were closest to the table because we got there early.

⟶ 3:00 When the line was announced, sooo many people ran to get into the line, and people were pushing me towards the back? But me and my sister were able to get spots in the line! So we got copies of Four Dead Queens, which I’m really excited about.

(Some people around us were telling this story about this girl who caught her hair on this security guard’s badge/coat, so he felt really bad and let her stay where she was in the line.)

After that, me and my sister went to meet up with my friend in the line for HarperCollins.

⟶ 3:30 I just gave my ticket to my sister, because she’s magical and a goddess, so that she could use the plinko. And she got winner’s choice!! So I was able to get a copy of What if It’s Us! Unfortunately, my friend got Pride, not What if It’s Us.

⟶ 4:00 Me and my friend started walking around while my sister just sat down near the Librarian Lounge, resting her legs. And I saw a tweet from Jimmy Patterson, so me and my friend sprinted to the Little, Brown booth to say the password.

Both of us were able to get copies of Girls of Paper and Fire (I already had one from Emma) so I gave my spare copy to my friend, since she was trading hers for a copy of What if It’s US.

book haul

This isn’t my entire book haul, but it’s like, 95% of it. I got a couple of middle-grade books for my younger brother, and a couple of more discreet novels that I probably won’t mention!! The full list is down below.

Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte

• The line for this was so intense and hopefully it’s as good as it was hyped up to be!! It looks good and also I predict that four queens will be dead.

Dry by Neal Shusterman & Jarrod Shusterman

• The only Neal Shusterman book I’ve read so far is Unwind (which was soooo good!!) and it was creepy and I have a feeling that this one will be creepy too. Also everyone loves Scythe by Neal Shusterman soooo?

What if It’s Us by Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera

• I’M PREPARED FOR THE TEARS AND THE LAUGHTER BECAUSE BECKY AND ADAM ARE BASICALLY A POWER FRIENDSHIP. (Also can you all believe I got this? My sister is a G.O.D.D.E.S.S.)

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

• I honestly didn’t enjoy my first two Schwab books, I thought they had a nice world but the writing didn’t really work out for me, but I heard that her writing’s more fast-paced in her young adult novels?

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri

• THIS LOOKS AMAZING AND ALSO I SCREAMED ABOUT IT IN MY “Asian-Inspired Fantasy” POST AND IT JUST LOOKS GOOD.

Seafire by Natalie C. Parker [★★★★★]

• This was actually fantastic and I loved the setting of course (it’s the sea!!! and a ship!!!) and the only downside was that I expected a lot more gayness. Nonetheless, it was a good read!

Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

• My friend Syd died from this book so I’m guessing that it’s good? But this is an ownvoices coming-of-age contemporary I think this deserves more hype let’s be real!!!

The Brilliant Death by Amy Rose Capetta

• Genderfluid tutor. I love it. And also mafia families!!!

Broken Things by Lauren Oliver

• I enjoyed Lauren Oliver’s last series (although I read them probably over five years ago) (and also out of order) so hopefully I’ll like this one? It sounds interesting, sooo.

Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore

• I can’t believe I have a copy of this. The cover is amazing and so nice and it makes me want to cry from happiness. Also I haven’t read any of the author’s other books but I have Wild Beauty!!! I might read them in tandem.

For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig

• I’m buddy reading this with Elise and I just want to note how the author is… problematic in many ways but I still have high hopes for this book? It sounds really interesting and it’s also Asian-inspired and ownvoices.

Escaping from Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco

• I’m honestly screaming even though I haven’t read the author’s first two books. But they sound so good and everyone loves them!!

See All the Stars by Kit Frick

• I feel like this is kind of under the radar but I heard it’s similar to E. Lockhart’s books (I loved Genuine Fraud) and I like the cover?

The Art of Losing by Lizzy Mason

• I do not like this cover, but the premise is really interesting and I’m curious to see how it turns out. This sounds like a really painful read and I love those!

A Heart in the Body in the World by Deb Caletti

• I saw a poster for this at BookCon so obviously. If it’s great enough to have a poster. I’ll read it. I think this is about running and exercise? no but I’ll still read it.

Cats vs. Robots by Margaret Stohl

• This sounds like the most adorable thing and I think it’s funny how it’s young adult when it seems like it would be middle-grade and honestly I probably won’t end up reading this, but if I need an extremely fluffy and random read I’ll read it!

Were you able to go to BookCon or BookExpo this year? How was it? Have you ever been to a convention? Are you good at visiting conventions? Do you have tips on visiting conventions?