Hi 🙂
I don’t usually have or see any Halloween-y tags, so I was thrilled to see this one pop up on my Reader a couple of weeks ago. This comes from For Books Sake‘s own blog and Quirinus of X (formerly Twitter – I still call it that by the way!) so I thank both of them for sharing this little gem to the world!
Quirinus actually created two versions of this tag. You have the same ole book tag like I’ve done for many years, but they also posted a This or That version and I liked it so much that I left it for my socials. And please link Quirinus in your posts because this does not belong to me.
What are your favorite spooky season genres?
I still feel like a newbie with anything to do with horror. This is actually my mom’s wheelhouse, but I have found over the last couple of years, I do enjoy physiological thrillers. I also like plotlines wrapped around getting revenge too. And apparently, I like having a bit of historical fiction mixed in there.
What titles do you recommend for Halloween reading?
I thought long and hard about this question, because I wanted to inspire others to explore their spooky side. So, these are my Top 5 books you may want to look up in the future.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
This was my first dip into horror, especially physiological thrillers. I had to read it as part of my Short Stories class in high school. Last year, I decided to reread it and create a proper review to spread the word about this hauntingly and beautifully story. So, if you’re interested in reading what I had to say, click here.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
After I read TYW, I wanted to continue that slightly ominous vibe and found the audiobook for Rebecca; the character as a whole was intriguing and every mention of her was addicting!
I highly recommend not reading Daphne’s My Cousin Rachel. I’ll be honest, I just wanted to read it so I could watch the film. I will not because I HATED the book, but your opinion could be completely different.
Holly by Stephen King
This was my first ever Stephen King book. I did not know it was brand-new when I began reading it, but I saw an opportunity and I took it. I did not know it was highly political, but I did realize it would be one mystery-thriller that would be all mine. My mom would not read it, because of the things Holly’s mother and Stephen’s thoughts about Donald Trump.
I truly enjoyed the story though. Even though the story focuses on Holly, I was obviously more into the baddies and their scheme, and there are things mentioned in the book that I cannot think differently about ever again.
Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them by Newt Scamander
In 2022, I finally managed to finish the entire Harry Potter series. and I wanted to celebrate that accomplishment with adding the other books J.K Rowling wrote to accompany the series and since this book is mentioned throughout the books and I love the films so much I decided to grab this book.
It was available on Kindle Unlimited and was a special edition that allowed the illustrations to basically come alive on my Kindle and this totally threw me for a loop in a good way. I did have some moments where I did lose interest, but overall, the book was highly entertaining and made me feel less like a Muggle.
Jack by Layla Fae
This is one of my most-recent reads, and again, I say it in the nicest way possible. For someone who has been exploring cleaner romances, this one nearly took me out. This is about a witch who conjures up a demon, perfect for this time of the year. He appears as half human and half sexy jack-o-lantern. And he tastes of pure pumpkin… 😉
It is very spicy, but also short and that was what I needed at the time. And don’t believe what others say, these types of books are perfectly acceptable as “cheat reads” to complete your yearly goal.
What are your most anticipated reads this month?
I don’t usually go out looking for spooky reads, but since it’s October, I try a little harder to incorporate some unique reads and I found a new book while strolling through the “new and notable” list on Kindle Unlimited (I’m seriously addicted!) and it is called The Witches of Santo Stefano by Wendy Webb. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but for once I looked at the blurb and saw that it included geneaology and magic and I decided to give it a go and fell completely in love with it.
To my surprise, I found it to be lacking on the thriller side. It definitely has a mysterious vibe to it, but I wasn’t totally terrified. I found it to be nice and unique as it screams like a great summer read because of the setting based in Italy, but you follow multiple generations of women and their relationships and the power of magic.
Have you had a paranormal experience or spooky coincidence?
Everyone in my family believes my nana and papaw’s house was haunted. The upstairs was always an odd and scary place. I loved to sit in the living room alone as long as I didn’t look or think too much about it. We never found anything that would make the house itself haunted, but it is a old house; built in 1901, so the strange noises could be the house of its age.
I’ve never had an actual experience with the paranormal, although i could be wrong. I was always a paranoid child and would cover my ears and side of my head with my blanket to block my eyes while in bed at night because I would overthink about seeing shadows. I might be in my early 30’s, but I still have my blanket up and over me while I sleep.
What are your spooky season film and TV favorites?
I still watch Halloweentown, Twitches, Scooby-Doo, and Casper, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve added a lot of creepy and new films onto my list, but I do enjoy slasher films. I recently watched the Scream films. This was a franchise that absolutely terrified me as a kid. Ghostface was my worst enemy, but my sister loved him. This was her first horror movie too, and she’s seen quite a lot of movies over the years and is very opinionated with each one.
I talked about my favorite films to watch this month a couple of years ago, and I’ve did three separate posts catering to your inner child, teenage and adult years. I hope this helps inspire you in the final days of October.
How do you celebrate Halloween?
I love to do fun crafts, like paint pumpkins. My nephew and I are really into it, and this year, we got to include my niece Kimber on the fun. My parents probably should have bought smaller pumpkins for the kids, because these pumpkins were big as Kimber! The most important thing about the whole thing is that they have fun, and they truly did.
Kimber used three colors on her pumpkin, while Nolan went for every paint color I had in my “art” drawer in my room. He made a cute ghost that resembles the one he created on my monthly calendar. He also tried to write out “October” but switched out the “C” for a “S”. and I went for a simpler approach and did white globs all over my pumpkin and added black eyes on each one, except for one as it represents Charlie Brown’s costume on The Great Pumpkin. It’s an easy design to do considering we were a feast for our mosquitos. Oh, and our cats were thrilled we were outside too. At one point my mom joined us and sat on the deck and our cat Grumpy thoroughly enjoyed having her close to him.
Well, I am officially done. I really enjoyed this tag, and I hope you did as well. If you decide to do this tag, please link me so I can see your answers. I’d really like to see what you do with it too!
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