I'm both a stationery fan and a goth, so you can understand: when I saw this notebook in my recommended page, I HAD to buy it. This is actually a Pyramid International brand notebook: the page info is wrong on that one. I own several of their notebooks, they are known to produce these as merch, and they have met my expectations (and then some) yet again. Pros ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The notebook actually looks better than in the picture: the grey-ish white-ish parts on the cover are a metallic silver: I’m an absolute sucker for anything metallic, so that definitely was a pleasant surprise. It has some cute doodles on the inner cover and in the back, the presence of a pen loop is nice, and it has a convenient pocket in the back of the notebook. Gotta love a notebook with a pocket: it's well-hidden, though, because I nearly missed that it was there in the first place. And as always with the Pyramid brand, the cover feels like it's quite high-quality: they sure still know how to design pretty notebooks, and that's coming from an artist. Also, the writing on the bottom of the page is actually on every page in the notebook: I figured that it would only be on the first few pages, so this was yet another pleasant surprise. The packaging on the front said that it has 240 pages, so this notebook will definitely last you a while. The paper itself feels decent enough for the price: as of typing this review, I haven't actively written in it yet, but I will update this when I have. Cons --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The notebook sadly lacks lay-flat binding, and it lacks some spooky stickers in that pocket: the latter is a complaint from my roommate and fellow stationery geek when I showed this to her, and I can't help but agree with her on that one. So maybe do yourself a favor, and include those nice sticker in your order. But the fact that the notebook won't lay flat is definitely not a dealbreaker for me, though: most of my cheaper notebooks don't have that, and this can easily can be mitigated with a quick, makeshift paperweight. Also, I’ve done some research into the exact type of paper in the notebook, as it wasn't mentioned anywhere on the Amazon page: it’s likely only 80GSM. This seems to be the Pyramid standard kind of paper, but I didn't really expect fancy paper at this price point. So maybe don’t use any alcohol markers or other bleed-sensitive inks in this one if you want to avoid ruining it. For example: I have these nice metallic Faber-Castell metallic highlighters, and they have somehow managed to even bleed through some 120GSM Scribbles That Matter paper on my weekly planner, with me barely touching the page. So I frankly wouldn’t even let those highlighters anywhere NEAR this 80GSM notebook! So maybe just play it safe for this one, and stick to using ballpoint and rollerball pens in this one. I prefer those anyways so it’s not a big deal for me, but gel pen and fountain pen enthusiasts might want to sit this one out. Conclusion ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All in all, this notebook is very much worth its price: you get what you pay for. If you’re a fan of either the Nightmare Before Christmas or Tim Burton movies in general, it's worth the money. Can’t expect fancy paper for this kind of price, after all, and it’s just a useful and fun little notebook either way.
