Headbone Brood X Cicada Notebook Review: A Charming Pocket Notebook Set

Introduction

Every 17 years, Brood X cicadas emerge across parts of the United States, and the Headbone Brood X Cicada Notebook set is a small paper tribute to that event. You get three stapled pocket notebooks for $12.95, each covered in crisp cicada artwork, with the option to bundle a set of matching skull-themed stickers.

Notebooks this size do not have many parts to dissect, so the real question is simple: is the paper any good, and who is it for? We spent time writing with fountain pens, rollerballs, gels, and ballpoints to find out.

Design and Build Quality

The Brood X notebook is a field-notes-sized notebook measuring 3.5 by 5.5 inches, stapled at the spine. Inside, the paper is a pleasant cream tone rather than a stark chlorine white, which gives it a softer, more classic look. The cover art is genuinely nice: the cicada illustration is sharp and well executed, and the inside of the cover carries an extensive written description of the Brood X emergence itself.

The interior is dot grid, though the wrapper art can be confusing since it resembles a full grid. The dots appear to sit at roughly 5 millimeter spacing. Page count is modest: counting both sides of each sheet, you get around 24 usable writing pages per notebook. We could not find a stated paper weight listed anywhere, so treat that as an unknown.

Ink Testing: How the Paper Handles Pens

No explicit fountain-pen-friendly claims are made for this notebook, so expectations were calibrated accordingly. Testing used a range of nibs and inks, including a fine nib with an ink known for feathering, a medium nib, a broad nib, and a double broad nib.

With finer and medium nibs, the results were largely positive. There were microscopic, barely noticeable traces of feathering on some letters, and heavier purple-leaning inks showed a bit more, but nothing pronounced. On genuinely wet flex writing, feathering and some bleed-through did appear, which is about what you would expect at this price point.

Overall, bleed-through and ghosting stayed mostly in show-through territory with occasional minor bleed-through on the wettest inks and nibs. Ballpoints, rollerballs, and gel pens had no issues at all.

Who Should Buy It

At $12.95 for three notebooks, the value proposition is solid, and performance feels comparable to what you would expect from similar pocket notebook brands. If your daily writers are ballpoints, rollerballs, gel pens, or pencils, this set is an easy recommendation. Fountain pen users are not entirely excluded, but finer nibs and well-behaved inks will give the best results; very wet flex writing will fight the paper.

If you have any interest in entomology or just enjoy a well-designed cover, the Brood X theme is a fun bonus for a notebook you can actually use rather than shelve.

Buying Advice

Pick this set up if you want pocketable notebooks for quick notes, lists, and sketches with everyday pens, and you appreciate a clever commemorative design. If wet fountain pen writing is your primary use case, look elsewhere or stick to finer nibs.

Conclusion

The Headbone Brood X Cicada Notebook is a small, charming product that does what it promises. The cream paper is pleasant, the artwork is crisp, and the price is fair for a three-pack. It is not a fountain pen showcase paper, but for everyday writing instruments it performs well and looks good doing it.