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YALLfest 2025 Recap

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on November 23, 2025 | 0 Comments

YALLfest haul

Signed books

Books I brought

These are the books I already owned and brought with me to the festival to get signed!

If I Stay by Gayle Forman
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh (LitJoy)
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody & C.L. Herman
The Last Dragon of Mars by Scott Reintgen
Red City by Marie Lu
A Treachery of Swans by A.B. Poranek (Illumicrate)
Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek (Waterstones)
Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek
His Face is the Sun by Michelle Jabès Corpora
His Face is the Sun by Michelle Jabès Corpora (ARC)
The Floating World by Axie Oh (Fairyloot)
Renegades by Marissa Meyer
Wires & Nerve vol. 1 by Marissa Meyer
Wires & Nerve vol. 2 by Marissa Meyer
Heartless by Marissa Meyer
The Floating World by Axie Oh (ARC)

Bought at the festival

A Fate So Cold by Amanda Foody & C.L. Herman
YALLfest hoodie (not pictured, oops)
YALLfest shirt
YALLfest button
YALLfest poster

Freebies from the festival

Red Star Rebels by Amie Kaufman
The Ruins Beneath us by Sasha Sloan (SIGNED)
A Stage Set for Villains by Shannon Spann (SIGNED)
Call of the Dragon by Natasha Bower
The Celestial Seas by T.A. Chan
The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer & Tamara Moss
I Don’t Wish You Well by Jumata Emill
Aftermyth by Tracy Wolff
The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst
Stolen Midnights by Katharine Quinn
Carnaval Fantástico by Angela Montoya
She Knows All the Names by Michelle Jabès Corpora (SIGNED)
Devious Prey by Scott Reintgen
Reasons We Break by Jasmeen Kaur Deo (SIGNED)
Young World by Soman Chainani (SIGNED)
The Dragon and the Sun Lotus by Amelie Wen Zhao
Tons of swag! Including a couple totes, lots of buttons, countless prints and bookmarks

YALLfest recap

Yay for my 11th YALLfest! I flew solo again this year.

Friday

I learned from my mistakes last year, lol! I made sure to get a hotel Thursday night and arrive super early to the Friday events. My plan was to get merch first (it always sells out really fast), then drive over to the John L. Dart library for Fierce Friday, which I managed to snag tickets for. I arrived in the area around 11:20…and it’s a good thing I went way early, because the parking garage I literally ALWAYS park at was blocked off for some stupid ass reason. There was some event happening at the same time, so every. single. parking garage was full. I wasted a lot of time circling around looking for a place to park, until I finally gave up and just parked on the street somewhere that I’m pretty sure wasn’t legal, lmao. It was about 1/2 mile from Blue Bicycle Books so I had to walk, but it was fine. I grabbed the merch I wanted and my car was still there.

I drove to the library to wait in line for Fierce Friday, which was thankfully not very long yet. I got there a little after noon. I spent the two hour wait reading a little and chatting with random people. A little before the event started, they opened up the book tent to purchase books in exchange for priority tickets for signings. I bought A Fate So Cold to get one.

This was only my third time attending Fierce Friday, and it was by far the most stressful one I’ve been to. My first complaint is how fucking far away it was from the main square – two whole miles, which is not walkable in a decent time frame. I really wanted to see A.B. Poranek, who started at 2 pm, but I knew I’d need to get in line early at FF so I went there first. The second complaint is that even after getting tickets to the actual event, several of the authors also required their own separate tickets. It wasn’t like that before, they just capped the lines.

They came through to hand out tickets fairly early – I wanna say around 2:10-2:15 (it started at 2:30), and I probably should have gone to see Poranek as soon as I got the tickets I wanted. I was hoping to Uber over to see her and come back, but was stressed about when to do it. I stayed, hoping I could get through Axie Oh’s line quickly enough to go do that and come back in time for Marissa Meyer at 3:30. My friend Rahma joined me in line sometime in the hour before it started, so I had some company!

When they let us in, we stopped by the goodies table (I got a Grisha pencil case and tote, and THE BLOODY AND THE DAMNED!! Ahhh!! I was so freakin’ stoked because it’s my second most anticipated 2026 release and was my #1 drop I wanted of the whole weekend!) and then I went straight to Axie’s line. There was only one person in the regular line, so I decided to save my priority pass for Marissa. I knew Scott Reintgen was at 4 and wanted to get through Marissa’s line quickly so I could go see him. As we were standing there, people started piling into the priority pass line. I asked one of the volunteers if ALL of the priority pass people would be let in before us, and she said yes. (I am STILL fucking salty about this.) So I started to panic that I wouldn’t have enough time and went to the end of the priority line. I was kicking myself for not just getting into it first, but also didn’t want to waste my priority pass. And you know what? You know fucking what? They were NOT letting everyone in the priority line go first, they were alternating one from the regular line and then one from the priority line. I would have been next if I’d stayed where I was in the regular line. I was so fucking pissed, ya’ll. I went back about 15 people in line because of that. And I ended up not being able to leave for Poranek because the line took so long. When I realized I wasn’t going to make it to see her, I decided to just go back to the regular line (it was about the same length as the priority line) and save the pass for Marissa. I ended up being one of the last people through Axie’s line and got bitched at because I had her sign 3 books and my tote, and she was about to sign a TGWFBtS print for me when the attendant came and cut me off. So I didn’t get that print or my poster signed.

On my way out I hit up Amanda Foody & C.L. Herman. By the time I got back in line for the 3:30 authors, I was WAAAAY at the end.

When I got in, Marissa’s priority line actually looked longer than the regular line, so I took my chances in the regular line. Aka the priority pass was a total waste of money. Oh well, at least I got a pretty book that I was able to get signed. So there’s my third complaint: “priority passes” were a complete fucking scam and a waste of money. They sold so many of them that there were probably more people with those than there were in the regular line, so it actually ended up taking longer with a priority pass. I will not be buying one next year.

While I was in line, I noticed that Axie was standing around nearby chatting with Marie Lu, so I was able to run over and get my poster signed after all! Marissa’s line took forever and I didn’t get out of it until 4:40. I was in a bit of a panic because Scott had been signing for 40 minutes and they don’t usually go past an hour. I got an Uber to Off Track Ice Cream (3 miles away because it was on the far end) because I figured it’d be faster. It took 20 minutes to get there because traffic was so awful, and my Uber driver was stressing me out because he was honking at people at lights – like, where tf are they gonna go?! They can’t go anywhere! I made it right at 5:00, and by some miracle he was still there and I was able to get my book signed.

I grabbed ice cream while I was there because I was starving – I got Pumpkin Chess Pie and it was pretty good, but not spectacular or anything. I walked for a bit in the direction of the library while I finished my ice cream, but my Maps was saying it was a 40 minute walk and I was exhausted, so I just got an Uber back to my car.

I learned from my mistake last year (in which I decided to save money on DoorDash and go get my own food, wasting an hour and a half of my life to go to a restaurant that was only 8 miles away) and just splurged on DoorDash to the hotel. I got a birria sampler, elote, and churros from Poseidon’s Playground and it was delicious!

Saturday

7 am

Last year I showed up way late and regretted it, so I planned to arrive early this year. I wanted to be parked and in line at 7 am, but I didn’t get up early enough and was dragging ass. I ended up running into the same problem as I did Friday – my usual parking was still blocked off. This has never happened before. I ended up having to park in a garage on the other end of everything, which was really inconvenient. My usual garage is a central location. The whole reason I wanted to go early was because I wanted to get in line for the Twinkling Tomes event, which was my #1 of the day. I drove past around 7:10 and the line was already really long. By the time I got over there at nearly 7:30, it was easily 20 people past the cap (50 people). I gave up on that line and headed over to the Wednesday line, which was my #2 pick. However, the ticket I wanted most was the multi book drop, and I was so far back that I knew it’d be gone by the time I got up there. Those multi book ones are the first to go. So I also gave up on that line. I ended up going over to the Underlined line instead for Cirque du Story tickets, which was high up on my list for the day. I was planning to go to the second drop for that at 11, but it worked out that I got them early because it freed up time for me later.

While in line for that drop, I met a really cool new friend – Cloe! She was home from college and at the festival with her mom. I whiled away the hour and a half wait chatting with her. I was happy for her company, because the wait went much faster! Her and her mom ended up adopting me for the day and we tag teamed standing in lines and holding places for each other. I’m so grateful to them for helping me out, it’s very hard to be at YALLfest solo and not have line buddies! (Thanks Cloe and mom, you guys rock!)

8 am

While we were in line, someone came over with a wristband for the flower crown crafting event, which was already being given away over at the museum quad. They said there were plenty, so we ran over to grab one. It was pretty funny, because Cloe was in track and I was trying to keep up with her sprint over to the quad, and I am NOT a runner lmao. I thought I was going to die!

9 am

As soon as we got our Cirque du Story tickets, we circled right back into the Underlined line for the 9:30 ‘what’s your aesthetic?’ drop. The drop was pretty cool – they had mood boards for each book, and you were given a marble to drop in the jar at the mood board of your choice. I chose the space aesthetic and snagged a copy of Red Star Rebels!

When we were grabbing our books, one of the gals at the Underlined booth said something about a dragon book and asking her to talk about it (?? I have no idea what was going on, but I wanted to know about dragons! Haha) so we went over to ask and she handed us copies of Call of the Dragon, which looks freaking awesome!

10 am

After that drop, we went to get in line at the museum quad with Cloe’s mom (I’m embarrassed that I didn’t get her name!), who was first in line for the flower crown crafting. We spent the next hour doing that and listening to Sasha Sloan chat about her new book, The Ruins Beneath Us. She was SO nervous, it was adorable! She talked about getting the book deal and how excited she was (she thought when they emailed her about the book deal that they were playing a prank on her, lol). Then she came around to meet everyone and sign the copies. Cloe had an amazing idea to ask for a quote from the book and Sasha picked “nothing happens for nothing.” I thought it was a great idea and was going to have Sasha add it to mine, too, but she had already moved on and they were running out of time for the event. I was told she’d be at the Hyperion tent later, so I planned to circle back. Flower crown crafting was fun!

11 am

After leaving the flower crown event, I had just enough time to get in line at the Simon booth for tickets to the Aftermyth & Girl of Lore drop at noon (Simon tickets dropped an hour before each giveaway). The line wasn’t too long so I was through it quickly. That gave me time to run over to the Hyperion tent to see Sasha again and get that quote in my ARC as well as get my poster signed, which I’d forgotten as well.

I went directly from Sasha’s line back to the museum quad area to wait for Gayle Forman. She was super friendly! I’ve been trying to get her for a few years now to get my copy of If I Stay signed, and somehow always miss her. It was great to finally meet her!

After meeting Gayle, I went over to the line for Cirque du Story to stand with Cloe and her mom, who were in the front of the line again.

12 pm

Cirque du Story was so fun!! There were 4 books available, and you had to play games to win them:
The Dragon and the Sun Lotus: Bingo – you got a card with things like “an audiobook addict” or “will use anything as a bookmark” and you had to go find people that fit each category to get a bingo
The Faraway Inn / Stolen Midnight: Plinko – where your piece fell on the plinko board determined which book you got
Carnival Fantastico + tarot cards: Pin the feather on the peacock
Wings of Starlight tote: Ring toss

I did bingo first because Sun Lotus was my most wanted drop, then played plinko and got Stolen Midnight. While standing in line for pin the feather, they announced that once everyone had played plinko, you could play again to try for a different book. I was going to do that, but Cloe’s mom ended up playing again and getting a copy of Faraway Inn for me because she’s freakin awesome! I wasn’t going to get a tote, but I ended up going for it anyway.

After leaving Cirque du Story, I booked it way over to Lit Alley (about 1/2 mile away, near Blue Bicycle Books) to see A.B. Poranek, since I’d missed her Friday. Her dress was so cute!!

I got through her line in time to run past the car and do a quick book dump and grab a snack. Then I headed straight back to the museum for the 1 pm ticket drop for the 2 pm Devious Prey giveaway.

1 pm

There wasn’t a line for the ticket drop, and I was a little early. I asked at the booth and they said to just come by at 1, so I went and stood in line for the Penguin pin drop instead.

After snagging the Penguin pins and a ticket for Devious Prey, I went all the way back to Lit Alley to see Michelle Jabes Corpora. Her line was pretty short despite it being pretty close to 1. When I was in line, I noticed that people had ARCs of A Stage Set for Villains in the line next to me. I asked where they got them (it was a drop I really, really wanted!), and it was apparently a drop only at the ticketed signing, which I didn’t know about. The tickets dropped with the other ticketed authors a couple weeks before the event, so I had missed it entirely. I was pretty bummed. I tried to ask if there’d be another drop anywhere else, but no one knew.

Michelle was wonderful, and she was giving away ARCs of She Knows All the Names (which I didn’t know about) – I got the LAST ONE!! I was so excited!! She signed it for me, too, which made me happy because now I’ve come full circle since I got an ARC of His Face is the Sun last year at YALLfest. She had a bomb ass necklace and earrings, which you can’t really see in the pic, sadly.

2 pm

I made it back over to the publisher square around 1:30 and got in line for the 2:30 ‘escape into another world’ Penguin drop. When 2 pm hit, I ran over to the Simon booth to pick up my copy of Devious Prey.

While in the Penguin line, there was a line next to us for Young World (which they were promoting the shit out of, by the way). The line was INSANELY long so I didn’t bother trying to have someone hold my spot. However, when it got to the very end I got a wild hair and went over to see if there’d be any copies left. And you know what? There was ONE left after all the ticketed people went through, so I was able to get it! It was pretty freakin’ rad! Lady Luck came through for me a second time! Soman Chainani was standing at the booth so I was able to snag a pic (the books were already signed).

I’m pretty sure I got a wristband for the Meet Mayhem event at some point during this line, too.

For the Penguin drop they were using taglines for each book – space (Celestial Seas), maybe romance?? (I forget this one, but it was for Gods & Comics), and tiger (Prodigal Tiger). I really wanted Celestial Seas so that’s what I picked, and thankfully there were still copies left!

3 pm

I didn’t have anything else to do until the Mayhem event, so I decided to get in line for the Duck, Duck, Murder drop at Underlined. I stood in that line for a while, and there was a line forming next to us for Penguin. I asked someone in the line what it was for, and apparently it was for Marissa Meyer’s new book, the Escape Game. The line was surprisingly short. The girl I asked said they were handing out tickets soon, so I decided to leave my stuff in line and hop over to that line. Well, they didn’t hand tickets out soon. I was splitting lines and it actually really stressed me out and I will not be doing it ever again lmao! I did not make friends in the Underlined line (where I left my stuff), so I was paranoid about leaving it for so long. They handed out tickets in that line first, so I ended up having to run over and grab a ticket then go back to the Penguin line to get a ticket there. The guy behind me in that line was really nice about saving my spot, thankfully.

While I was standing in the Penguin line, I overheard one of the ladies in front of me talking about her book. I was curious and asked what her book was called (it’s Princess Knight and sounds cool af), and she was nice enough to give me a couple of prints for it! She ran off at some point to hide her book somewhere for someone to find. When she came back I asked if it was a contest or something, or open to anyone, and she was like ‘you can totally go try to find it, I just left it on the museum stairs.’ So I SPRINTED over there to look for it. Sadly, it was gone already. When I got back to the line, she checked Insta and found the story of the person who’d found it, and I guess they’d picked it up almost immediately. Womp, womp.

So, here’s where it got even more stressful. Both drops were at 3:30 and the Duck, Duck, Murder line started moving first. I went back to that line because it was moving. But because of the nature of the drop – you had to pick a “murder duck” out of a mini pool and the color on the duck told you what book you’d get – it was moving SUPER slow. The Escape Game line was moving much faster while I was stuck in the other line. I was worried about losing out on that one, so I ran over real quick and grabbed a copy. I came back to the Duck line in the same spot I was at, and was like “is it ok if I come back?” to the chick that was behind me. I don’t think she was happy about it honestly, ope. Like I said, I won’t be doing that again! Only if I make friends that are cool about holding my spot. Going alone is really hard.

After that drop, I headed over to the museum quad to get in line for the Mayhem event.

4 pm

In the meet Mayhem line I was right behind Ansley, the wife of my YALLfest buddy Chris that I’ve mentioned in past recaps, so I got to hang out with her a bit! She’s cool AF too! I enjoyed hanging out with her and her friend Parker in line and chatting. Chris had invited me to go with them to see Atreyu at a venue called the Music Farm that is literally RIGHT there (like, HOW did I not know it was there when it’s literally nextdoor to the parking garage I always use?!), but I declined because I’d spent so much on vacation and had to leave to come home super early the next morning. Ansley mentioned it again and I was even more on the fence and told her I was considering going.

The Meet Mayhem event was literally just friendship bracelet making. I wasn’t in the mood to do so – it was tiny beads and therefore tedious af. Elise Kova and Shannon Spann were both present to sign posters, but there were no books involved, sadly. I really only wanted to attend the event because I knew Shannon would be there and was desperately hoping they’d have another drop for A Stage Set for Villains.

I saw a friend I’d made in a previous line standing in line for the posters (I feel terrible but I forget her name!! We never exchanged numbers), so I went and hopped in line with her instead of working on my bracelet. She said she was going to ditch as soon as she got the posters signed to see if she could get in line for the magic 8 ball drop at Sourcebooks, so I decided to go with her. When we got up to the table, I said hi to Shannon and told her that I had seen her earlier and was sad that I missed out on getting a ticket for her signing. She was like, “you got a copy of the book though, right?” and I told her no. AND YA’LL, SHE PULLED A COPY OUT OF HER BAG AND HANDED ONE TO ME!!!! *sobs* She was like “shhh, don’t tell anyone, I only have a couple left.” It made my whole fucking day, I felt sooo special! And on top of that, she even signed it for me T.T

I think that might just be one of the best things that’s ever happened to me at YALLfest in all the years I’ve been going. THANK YOU SO MUCH SHANNON, you rock!!!

After that I packed my stuff up and told Ansley I was going to the 8 ball line and followed my other friend over there, where her husband was in line. We both jumped into that line and I was feeling pretty weird about it because we probably pushed people past the cap. Ansley ended up coming over to stand with us, too. When we were closer to the tent, we saw a line next to ours and one person had a book with a really cool cover. I asked about it so I could add it to my TBR and she was like, “oh the author is here signing and she’s got 25 copies available. There were only 18 people in the line, so Ansley and I decided to jump over to that line instead and just ditch the magic 8 ball line. I was starting to feel bad about cutting anyway, lol. So I got to meet Jasmeen Kaur Deo and get an ARC of Reasons We Break signed.

I had ditched my poster because I didn’t think I’d see any more authors after Michelle Jabes Corpora, so I was feeling a little salty about that. I didn’t get Shannon to sign it, either. Sad face.

After we did that, there was pretty much nothing left. All the publishers were packing up, so we went our separate ways.

I did end up deciding to go see Atreyu with Chris and Ansley, and Rahma came with me too! I’m so glad I went, because they were AMAZING!! Finally got to cross them off my band bucket list.

In conclusion

Here’s what it looked like in the past:

2013: saw 8 authors (missed 2) // brought 20 books
2014: saw 5 authors (missed 8) // brought 34 books
2015: saw 7 authors (missed 4) // brought 21 books
2016: saw 11 authors (missed 1) // brought 28 books
2017: saw 16 authors (missed 0) // brought 25 books
2018: saw 16 authors (missed 0) // brought 42 books
2019: saw 9 authors (missed 2) // brought 18 books
2022: saw 3 authors (missed 2) // brought 16 books
2023: saw 6 authors (missed 0) // brought 5 books
2024: saw 4 authors (missed 1) // brought 10 books