Gothic Life

Absolutely great tips and photography to match. Highly recommend for anyone looking to add more gothic style and living to their lifestyle

Gothic Life: The Essential Guide to Macabre Style is a fantastic book filled to the coffin lid with great decorating and entertaining ideas. I was enchanted by the author's dialogue. The craft, decor, and recipe instructions were easy to follow and I can't wait to try some of them out.

I'm not goth but I do have gothic tendencies. I'm a lover of everything and anything skull or skeleton. I have several box-store purchased skeletons hanging around the living room. One is a pirate, one is an angel, and one is just a skeleton. I also have bat and dragon skeletons. I have so many pieces of clothing with skulls and skeletons on them that there is rarely a day I don't wear skulls or skeletons in some way.

This book isn't just for the gothic or dark at heart. I can see creating some of the decoration ideas in different colors and schemes than provided in the book. The ideas are endless!

if you are someone who thinks that the Halloween lifestyle needs way more airtime, this is the book for you! Lovers of all things Gothic will certainly appreciate having this as a beautiful addition to their coffee tables!

Visually, this book is STUNNING! The author has a YouTube channel 'Gothic Homemaking', and this book encompasses all that wonderment in a delightful permanent record that can be revisited time and time again. With chapters/ sections including shopping, making your own gothic decor, and entertaining (imagine the best dressed gothic table, where attention to gothic detail is utterly on point!), sthis book cant fail to appeal to fans of this lifestyle.

Additional content includes spooky, yet scrumptious cocktail recipes (in addition to food that looks utterly gothic!). Ever wondered how to embrace the gothic in the brighter summer months? This is demystified with some fantastic ideas. Even Christmas is explored with a devilishly dark twist. We are even treated to a travel guide - no gothic stone is left unturned in this fantastic guide.

Some fabulously dark content that I couldn't fail to recommend, and personally look forward to exploring in more detail!

My (darkest) thanks to NetGalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an advance copy.

The book is very aesthetically pleasing! The cover and title were what drew me in. The fonts, photos, and colors work together cohesively with the topics covered in the book. Each section was well-explained and thoroughly detailed. The abundance of photos, especially for the DIY instructions and recipes, helps make this beginner friendly as well! Great informative book for those interested in any shape or form.

This is different than what I'm used to, but I'm dipping my toes into finding myself and this was perfect!

When I was about 12, I was obsessed by a comic book in my local library called Oh My Goth, by a mysterious author called Voltaire. This comic was funny and dark, and I think I was the only person who ever got it out of the library cos I used to renew it constantly. This was before I had easy access to the internet, and could learn more about this wonderful book and the world of the goth. As I've grown up, and kept being a tangential goth from my interested stemming from the 90s, I've kept up with Aurelio Voltaire's music, fantastic social media and Youtube precense about gothic life, and I was extremely excited for this book when I heard it was coming out.

This book does not disappoint - the photos are magical and the context of "goth" is exactly what I expect. The colours and font choices are perfect, written in Voltaire's humourous and clever style. I LOVE the instructions for making gothic homewares, I will absolutely be buying a physical copy of this book. I loved it and I am so grateful I got the chance to read it early.

This was such a fun time! I recommended it to all of my friends that live the gothic lifestyles and they also enjoyed it.

Okay, this is not a book that I would pick up if I had to pick only 5 books from the book store or library. If you have read my other reviews, you are probably familiar with my saying that I would not typically read a book about gothic/macabre lifestyle, but for my work and out of personal curiosity, I requested this book.

The decoration instructions (I would like to call them recipes), the pictures, the colour scheme and the insights of the author are awesome.

This is a 4-5 star book for those with a gothic lifestyle, especially newbies, and those who are looking into more inspiration and DIY, design, crafts and decorations.

Though, anyone in set and production design, art departments, or who are researching gothic art, lifestyles and/or writing gothic stories might find this book inspiring and useful.

So original and fun. How to examples on how to emphasize your gothicness in everyday life. Great pictures included.

I could definitely see myself buying this for a friend of mine. Partly as a humorous gift, but also because I think they really would enjoy all the dark themes and that would probably take A LOT of inspiration from everything in this book.

A very cute and fun look into spooky/Gothic home making. I think it has a place on yourself if you are gothy but you like little craft books and darkly inclined positivity.
Every page is richly decorated and well formated. It gives a warm nostalgia for early to mid 2000s goth. It makes me want to run not walk to the craft store to make some of these tutorials.
I only wish there was more! I have always looked up to Voltaire its nice to have another medium he has worked with to put on the shelf.

The beauty of the mysterious and macabre aesthetic has now reached the mainstream and I am here for it! This is such a cool book. There are a lot of DIY crafts for Halloween, as well as, tips for when you really want to design your home with this vibe.

When I saw that Voltaire was releasing a book on gothic home decorating, I just had to read it ASAP.

My love for Voltaire (Aurelio, not François-Marie Arouet) started with the song “When You’re Evil”, which was used as the background for a fan-made Hetalia music video on YouTube in the 2010s and continued from there with his album Almost Human (2000). I am dying to see Voltaire live, but alas, I've missed his appearances thus far.

Fans of humor-filled banter, puns, and trips down the gothic historical lane will enjoy Voltaire’s Gothic Life (coming out Tuesday August 20th, 2024), the ultimate guide to all things spoopy when it comes to decorating and entertaining guests. Not only are there plenty of pictures to take inspiration from, but Voltaire provides a multitude of concrete examples to try, including his own personal examples on how to save money when purchasing for a goth setup. Providing his own examples gives the reader the sense that he legitimately uses the money-saving techniques he promotes and isn’t just lecturing the masses. I loved how the book takes into consideration how expensive decorating can be and that not all of us have much space to do it in, nor the right to do things like paint a wall or hammer in a nail (apartment living, am I right?).

I also appreciated that Voltaire takes a deep dive into terms like “goth” and “gothic”, although I was left wondering which sources he used as the basis for his historical tidbits.

Overall, I found this book very digestible. Voltaire is exuberant and big on the idea that there’s no one way to goth. I actually used this book as inspiration for my Bookstagram aesthetic when I was trying to decide on a color scheme and just couldn’t choose. So, clearly it can be used for more than just gothic homemaking.

I would definitely recommend Gothic Life by Aurelio Voltaire to anyone looking to add a bit of spoopy to their life!

(officially 4.5)

A darkly whimsical ride. I actually found myself stalling in the last 20 or so pages because I legitimately didn't want this experience to end. Gothic Life is a fang-tastically charming look into the darker side - and all the joy that embracing and exploring it can bring.

Aurelio Voltaire has a flair for living his entire life in a gothic manner, from his music to DYI channel on Youtube he has a passion for encouraging others to embrace the darker side of life that flows through everything he does. This book is no exception and is a beautiful showcase to both his passion and the gothy, dark, macabre, bits of life he loves.

Gothic Life starts with a wonderfully in-depth yet shorter dive into what Goth is and the subculture built around music, literature, and style. He showcases some of the most famous goths in history, but also some individuals that always seem to be forgotten yet Goth could not exist without. After this intro, both to himself and Goth subculture, he dives right into the DIY parts of the book.

Each DIY section includes an intro going over some of the concepts for that topic, with the topics ranging from Travel, to Hosting, to Holidays, to Decorating. Then once you have an overview of the topic he digs into the DIY projects with some being long time favorites from his Youtube and a few being new ones for the book. The projects themselves are a nice range from extremely entry level, to more moderate, with a couple on the more advanced side. Most were done with easy to find or buy items, with many being common in most households, and all being affordable. The instructions were easy to read and understand, in line with the writing in the entire book.

I would recommend this book for those:
- Who already like Aurelio Voltaire's DIY guides or music
- Those looking to up there Goth game
- Those interested in DIY but of a darker style
- Those who want to have the best Halloween Parties

Overall a lovely book, with a lot of heart and soul going into it.

I received an advance review copy of this book, and I am leaving this review voluntarily and all thoughts and opinions are wholly my own and unbiased.

This book is filled with stories, ideas, and amazing photographs for the Gothic at heart. The author takes you through his own personal space and ideas to help you imagine your own.

Thank you for letting me read and review #GothicLife

#NetGalley