-> Hello pookies and welcome to this Samhain reading! This reading is a little more on the spooky side, where I tried to rather more information in the "darker" side of you.
-> Be aware, there's some piles where it can be a little spooky so If you too sensitive to that, I would advise you not to read.
-> For personal readings : Yongie's Shop
-> Take a moment to breath and pick a image from the pile to discover what your unsettling spooky message:
𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩
Pile One
Welcome to your little unsettling message. Well, we have been starting out strong because I can tell you have been haunted by repetition. The same patterns, the same places, the same faces, all echoing like footsteps in a corridor that never ends. There's so many whispers around you, they feel like a loop that won’t break, almost as if your routine has become a ritual from how repetitive it is. Every time you repeat that certain act or words or decisions, without awareness, it grows stronger, hungrier.
The good things is that the illusions have begun to thin, maybe you’ve started seeing through the glamour of what once distracted you and noticed that whatever you are doing in your life currently, isn't working for you. But when one veil lifts, another presence tends to notice.
Be careful what you choose to look at directly, not everything wants to be seen.
I really feels like theres a watcher In your life (now this could be a spirit, a person or an energy/situation depending on every one who's reading). It's something old, something tethered to the seeds you’ve planted long ago. Every intention, every project, every promise you made under your breath, is still present somewhere. The things we invest in, even with our thoughts, grow roots in unseen soil. Depending on you this can mean that either a situation or an unconscious dark manifestation is going to happen, or someone is going to come back to your life, or this energy/spirt is feeding from what's going on in your head.
You might feel called toward something familiar, something that once gave you comfort but now only drains you. The message is clear: something from your past refuses to let go or maybe you’re the one refusing to release it. Either way, it’s restless. It wants closure, or perhaps, it wants company. Make the right decision.
You are being observed by the echoes of your own unfinished work. Spirits of past choices walk beside you, they are not malicious, but persistent. They linger where energy invites them. They whisper that it’s time to finish what you started, or else they’ll keep calling your name from the corners of your routine, waiting for recognition.
Listen closely: not every haunting comes from the dead. Some are born from what you’ve abandoned but never buried.
𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩
Pile Two
Hello there, welcome to the spooky message. Let's start by saying that there’s something calm about your energy but perhaps too calm, almost unnatural. You’ve learned to keep your emotions controlled, contained, but what happens to the things you never let surface? Sometimes, the stillness isn’t peace. Sometimes, it’s pressure.
There's evil eye sent to you that creeps in like movement behind a mirror.
There’s also a secret you’re holding or one being held from you. There's just this images that come to be about a quiet theft and hidden truths. Maybe you’ve been watched by someone or something. Maybe you’ve been the watcher yourself. Either way, there’s an awareness that doesn’t belong entirely to you.
In any case there's a need to crack open what was once tightly guarded. The door you swore to keep shut, the one behind which you store old feelings, regrets, names you no longer say, it’s beginning to open on its own. You’re losing your grip, but perhaps that’s the point. What’s been contained too long wants release, even if it doesn’t come out clean.
And the spread you got about all of this? it shows the transaction. Something wants balance. Most probably the energies around you. Something you took or gave (depending on everyone) was done unevenly. Debts, spiritual or emotional damages, always return to be settled. The energy exchange is due, and the collector never forgets.
The haunting around you is karmic. Someone’s emotional energy, maybe one you thought was long gone, still clings to you. They want acknowledgment. What was withheld must now be returned to the sender or to the world, truth for truth, feeling for feeling.
If you listen in the silence in the night, you’ll hear a voice echo saying “I only want what’s fair.”
𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩
Pile Three
God, you are quite the feisty energy.. well you have fought your way toward what you wanted. But there's energy around you that hums with conflict, this could be external, internal or spiritual depending on each one of you. It’s the sound of too many voices arguing inside your own head: ambition, doubt, guilt, hunger. You wanted to win, to rise, to have. And you will but at what cost?
There's this phrase that keeps coming out to me “Did you think we’d stay buried?” and this, again depending on each one of you will be different. This could be related to a feeling or a situation that you aren't able to escape, something from your past that keeps weighing you down even today. But for others this is about a figure, a person, who you went for a mourning period for that keeps trying to stay around in your energy.
The cards want you to focus on building that home that you wish for, that legacy, wealth, stability. You have to built abundance, but abundance can become an altar to what’s gone missing. Because let me tell you a harsh truth, currently you are building a mansion, but an empty one where no one will share any of your rooms. Think of that
Be careful what you manifest. Some dreams have teeth.
And some dreams you have been working for, are but illusions settled in happiness. Make sure you know what you are doing and what you are fighting for.
You are standing at the edge of your own fulfillment, but the spirits of your old desires are watching. They ask: “Are you sure this is what you wanted?” The universe gives freely, but every wish comes with a shadow or even a price. The haunting here isn’t loss, it’s overindulgence, the moment when “enough” turns into “too much.”
your satisfaction is sacred, but it can become sark and if you stare at it too long, it starts to stare back.
𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩
Pile Four
Happy Samhain to you and welcome to your message. Well, for you something flickers at the edge of your vision, have you noticed how sometimes you can see things In the corner of your eyes? and you don't always understand what they are and can even become scared of them? well those are definitely something.
The cards here are showing that inside of your head there's the start of a new ideas or even impulses in your energy (depending on everyone, but there's something you want to do or conclude), but it burns unevenly. In this spread we have the ace of wands that came out strong and here it's a match struck in a damp room: it wants to ignite, yet the air itself resists.
Remember that this week, the veil thins. This not only makes you see and feel the spiritual world better but it also brings you a lot of confusion and half truths twist together. what should be intuition becomes static. You may feel that your own emotions are playing tricks on you, reflecting fears instead of guidance.
I feel like the energies around you are the reason why you feel like your joy feels staged, as if someone switched the daylight for dim light. You truly need to cleanse yourself and purify yourself of energies if you wish to get back to a positive path.
Because I also want to remind you that sometimes feeling edgy is nice and aesthetic and messing up with energies is oh soo groovy, but hey, do you know whats the cost of that false light? fatigue, depletion, caring for everything except yourself. Seeing things and feeling things you can't control.
Therefore you could become an easy target for low astrals.
Beware of burning energy for the sake of clarity. You don’t need to expose every shadow of you for people to love you. Some things grow best in the half light. let them breathe there until they’re ready to emerge.
𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩
Pile Five
Pile 5, welcome little pumpkin and let's get into your reading shall we?
Have you ever felt that imaginative voice whispers inside you sometimes saying curious things or even leaving you wide eyed? What I mean is that you are very influences by the energies around you and you need to protect yourself from it.
Your intuition is strong here, yet it’s easily drowned out by control. You have the capacity to be more present in the spiritual world, to se things others don't, do hear things others don't or even get stronger at divination if you put on the world for it.
Technically what are you so spooked about darling? Scared to see that shadow looking back at you?
That is stopping you from a full potential is the authority issues you have. There's rules that you aren't meant to follow, there's expectations from people that you don't own, and for some of you there's even inner discipline that have turned from guidance into restraint. You may be obeying structures that no longer serve your soul.
I have also a warning for you, and again there will be differences depending on everyone. As a whole it's a warning about working without harmony and turning collaboration into an echo chamber. What I mean is: If you are currently in need to work with other people for your project or work, be aware of their evil on you. If you work with spirts or deities in your magical practices, you might want to revisit some things you have been doing because they are wrong.
Do not enrage spirits.
You sense more than you’re allowed to express and that's a curse. Reclaim a little rebellion. Break a pattern, rewrite a rule. The uneasy feeling you have isn’t danger, it’s your own energy knocking to be let out.
𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩𝐻𝒜𝐿𝐿𝒪𝒲𝐸𝐸𝒩
Pile Six
And finally welcome to you pile 6! I hope you are ready to get spooked because this spread was wild.
The first thing I noticed was that a cycle in your life wants completion but keeps looping back. There's something in your life that is trying to reset before the ending. have you ever felt some weird déjà-vu? different places, same emotion, same outcome.. Yeah there's something going on here
I feel like your energy and your soul is trying to balance life and to restore whatever you have lost in your past, yet something within resists surrender. There's a huge necessity for you to work on your shadow self because your own negative energy is sometimes the reason why things aren't working well for you
There's so much impatience around you, like why do you keep trying to move before you’ve absorbed the lesson? you cannot fix them, you cannot change that situation, no what happened isn't your fault. the quicker you accept these hard trues, the quicker you can save your energy
Also this is a message that isn't for everyone but.. if you have lost someone to suicide, let me tell you that they have been very present in your life energetically. Their spirt roams around you a lot lately.
Be aware of emotions that surge when they’re ignored, sometimes your outbursts come from psychological burnout or evil eye pouring out energetically. also remember that empathy turns to exhaustion when you push too far.
You can’t rush closure. The haunting feeling in you isn’t punishment but it’s unfinished growth asking for patience. Stop forcing meaning for a while. When you finally release control, the circle will close itself.
Still time for spooky reads (like THE DEVIL IN THE WOODS!) for spooky month! 🎃
Here's a snippet from Vivian's POV as my lead up to Halloween! She has a method for debunking urban legends that tends to work out, except maybe not this time... I believe in you Vivian! There's gotta be a way to debunk this urban legend even though it's sort of kinda real...
Available now at itch, the 'zon, and most retailers! Find your copy below! ⬇️
🕯️ https://books.earlronove.com/thedevilinthewoods
Over the years, I've been trying to collect books good for reading around this time of year. I thought I'd make a masterlist of sorts. There will be categories, and books may be in several of them.
Each of these books I feel have something to offer in terms only that they fit what I feel is readings for the season within their vibes. Any YA books will be explicitly marked as such. Additionally, my actual opinion of the books will be marked with 1 through 5 asterisks (stars), and because I hate rating books, I'm going to preface by saying I'm being very loosey goosey with them XD
Autumn Vibes (weather)
Autumn at the Willow River Guesthouse by C.P. Ward**
Feelgood fall read. It makes efforts to evoke autumn, having a bike trip be a part of her work routine sometime between the months of late August to October. I don't know that I personally thought it succeeded, but it tries, and I'll give it that. It also has themes of shedding an old life. In her late 20s, Lily loses in the span of a couple days her job, her apartment, and her fiance. She leaves the city to go back to her country home to figure out what she wants to do with her life. The book has the bones for a good autumn read, but the execution didn't do it for me. Judge for yourself if this sounds interesting. (I probably should just give it one star because it doesn't even MENTION Halloween, but I did like that it spent so more time with Victoria than the love interest XD)
The Coldest Girl in Cold Town by Holly Black *****
YA. Vampires exist, and the world knows about it. The world is dealing with it as best they can. Barriers between overnight workers and the public, habits to close all windows every night, avoid evening events, and the conversion of large towns into prisons for vampires and those who wish to become them. Within this world, Tana is just trying to have a normal teen's life, but that all changes when a drunken night at a friends and a forgotten open window results in her waking up seemingly the only survivor of a vampire attack. That's enough for a teenager to have to deal with, but as it turns out, not all the vampires are gone. (The audiobook for this one is exceptionally creepy and good.)
Doll Bones by Holly Black *****
Contemporary. YA. Kids try to keep the magic of youth alive by going on an adventure (running away) to a doll they want to believe is haunted to her grave site in early-ish autumn.
Cemetary Boys***
YA. Takes place during autumn, and much of the book is set outside, not infrequently in a cemetary no less. Pretty good for autumn vibes. It's been a while since I've read it, so it may be more just the general weather climate that's evoked than falling leaves and such, but still, definitely feels like fall and is a story about ghosts and witches, and blood rituals. How do you go wrong with that?
The Girl in the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGuire *****
Sometimes, living is the true thing of nightmares. Such is the case for the hitchhiking ghost Rose Marshall. She's hitched the ghost roads for decades longer than she's been alive and content with her undead existence despite being haunted still by the man who killed her, demon-pact and all. When he curses her, she finds that only by living again can she remove the curse. It was only supposed to last one evening, the only evening the dead can return to flesh: Halloween night. (This is a book 2)
In the Woods by Tana French ****
In his childhood, Adam Ryan was out with his friends when those friends went missing. It became a huge story, especially because when they found him, he was so traumatized, he had no memory of what took place. They never solved his mystery, but he became an investigator himself. He thought that was all behind him, except he is put on a case that has a mysterious link to that cold mystery. Ryan shouldn't be working this case, but no one has linked him to it yet, and he can't help but try and see if this new case will reveal anything about his own.
The Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo ***
Alex Stern is in the fall Semester at a college that deals in magic. Normally, an outsider like her wouldn't have been recruited to help keep order among the magic houses that operate out of the college, but there's something special about Alex: She can see ghosts, a rare gift. At least that's how she's seen. To Alex, it can be more of a curse. One she will have to use though if she is going to find the mentor who mysteriously disappeared earlier that semester under supernatural circumstances.
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth *****
Half historical, half contemporary. Chunks of the book occur during autumn months and lovely descriptions of the weather and orchards, and a repeating motif of apples.
The November Girl by Lydia Kang ****
YA. Hector is a runaway, and he has planned his time hidden away until his 18th birthday perfectly to escape being in his uncle's custody any longer. On the last day a tourist island on Lake Superior is open, just before the November storms are expected to come and batter the island, he boards the fairy there and remains in secret. The island is expected to be abandoned and dangerous. It does prove to be dangerous, but what it doesn't prove to be, is abandoned. There is a strange girl also still left upon the island, and the creeping cold and raging storms only seem to give her power. She doesn't seem fully human.
Tithe by Holly Black ****
YA. Halloween approaches, and Kaye finds that her world may just be more preternatural than she expected as suddenly she is encountering fairies. Her encounter does more than open her eyes to a new world, it seems to be changing her too, and the stakes will reach a peak Halloween night.
Horror Vibes
Alice Isn't Dead by Joseph Fink *****
When her wife goes missing and doesn't reappear, one woman gives up the life she knows to become a trucker. On the road, she expects to find herself... or her wife. What she finds are mystery and horror instead.
Dracula by Bram Stoker *****
Does anyone actually even need a summary? Look, if you like to read books for Halloween and haven't read this one, just do it. You're on Tumblr; make sure you know what all the Dracula Daily posts are going on about. They're excellent.
The Exorcist by William Blatty ****
What is more horrific than watching a beloved child deteriorate into self harm and bad health and getting no answers, having to trust to faith instead of anything you've trusted before. Or how about a believer faced with evil powers one never expected to truly come face to face with?
Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid ***
The witch daughter of a cruel wizard is persuaded by her two elder sisters to sneak out of their carefully controlled home to see a ballet. For her, this is out of character to disobey her father, but she finds the show changes everything. She is enraptured by the performance, and more specifically, the lead, who she chances upon meeting while going out to get some air. For once, she has found something worth coming out of her shell for, but should she have left home when there are dark rumors of a man-eating monster stalking the night and the tentative tranquility of their home, and their voracious father, is as risk? Contains explicit sexual content.
Mexican Gothic****
Noemí leaves her bustling city of Mexico City to go to London to visit her cousin who married into an old family. Her cousin seems sick, having sent for Noemí to rescue her. It is believed her cousin is suffering the effects of a mental illness. Once there, Noemi is struck by how isolated the home is, how run down and mildewy it is. It is not at all what she imagined, nor are the people there, or the family dynamics she could never have guessed at. All she wants to do is get out of there as soon as possible, but first she has to her cousin, and then, she finds she simply cannot leave.
The Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo ***
Alex Stern is in the fall Semester at a college that deals in magic. Normally, an outsider like her wouldn't have been recruited to help keep order among the magic houses that operate out of the college, but there's something special about Alex: She can see ghosts, a rare gift. At least that's how she's seen. To Alex, it can be more of a curse. One she will have to use though if she is going to find the mentor who mysteriously disappeared earlier that semester under supernatural circumstances.
The Girl with All the Gifts *****
I was so hooked starting this book with zero information about it other than it was a good spooky read, and since it was such an experience, I simply cannot get myself to say much about this. It follows a special child student, her teacher, and the head of the locked down school's security team as they navigate a dystopian world behind walls, and attempts to reach the outside world have proven unsuccessful so far.
The Lamb will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy****
Danielle is a hitchhiker headed to a socialist commune in Iowa that has largely been abandoned by government interests. The town takes care of itself, and they have a unique way of protecting their own against charismatic leaders who want to make this community their own. Danielle's friend had been living there before he comitted suicide, and so, she needs to know what has happened. A spirit of judgement and execution stalks the daylight hours, killing those with darkness in their hearts. But who doesn't have some amount of darkness inside of them?
The Mall of Cthulhu by Susan Cooper
Danielle "When Ted stumbles onto a gropu of Cthulhu cultists planning to awaken the Old Ones through mystic incantations culled from the fabled Necronomicon, calling forth eldritch horros into an unsuspecting world, eh and Laura must spring into action, traveling from Boston to the seemingly-peaceful suburbs of Providence and beyond, all the way to the sanity-shattering non-Euclidian alleyways and towers of dread R'lyeh itself, in order to prevent an innocent shopping center from turning into... The Mall of Cthulhu
The Motion of Puppets by Keith Donahue ***
When Eadweard's fiance Kay goes missing, the world thinks she got fickle and left him, but Eadweard can't come to believe this himself. He can't stop thinking about the last traces that were had of her as told to him by her coworkers at the circus. The route took her very close to that closed down store with the puppet in the window, the one he often found her obsessing over. Little does he know, she's been transformed into a puppet herself, her body gone and her limbs replaced by doll parts, her mind growing hazy on a life of being human. Can Eadweard find Kay in time to pull her out of an eternity as a doll?
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones ****
Most people experience the past coming back to haunt them in some way, shape, or form. But three men who grew up on a reservation feel like they are being haunted by more than the memories of the past. They don't talk about the incident much, not since they were banned from that part of the reservation, but they feel like perhaps they should as they find themselves fighting for their lives against the ramifications of that day.
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth *****
Half historical, half contemporary. A haunted swath of land, or a curse? The deaths may seem natural, but are they? And why do all these wasps keep showing up every which way?
Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims ***
The apartment complex must be haunted. What else explains the series of horror visitations that happen upon 13 different residents who live in the building? Each storey is unlike the other. Almost a series of short stories, except... they do seem to be connected. Everything seems to point in the direction of the apartment's landowner as each resident receives an unexpected inviation to a dinner at his top floor penthouse in too timely a manner with the unexpected.
Under the Pendulum Sun *
Gothic Horror. What happens if the fairy are real and known of during the Victorian era? Well, we must preach to them of course! But it may just be that within the strange land of fairy a brother and sister find themselves in for their purpose of the gospel, the lords and ladies of fairy are more interested in the sins at the heart of the people than their hope for their souls. Very Victorian Gothic. The prose was gorgeous, and an atmosphere of eerie unease was well painted; however, beyond the stunning prose, I did not find the stories or the characters' choices all that compelling. The plot/character work wasn't for me, but if one is in the mood for eerie, haunting prose, then this would be the perfect read.
A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons ****
Separated from his wife and broken up with by his lover, a professor returns to his home town in the Midwest in late November where the snow has already accumulated. He finds himself lingering over the death of a childhood friend and haunted by his past. Isolated in a small town with wanna be skinheads probably isn't the best time to suddenly feel like shadows are moving in, and he feels like the target.
Eerie Vibes (Horror Light)
Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu *****
Only a novella in length, Carmilla is a fascinating read. Follow a lonely girl outside of her country of origin come to have a visitor, Carmilla, stay at her estate under mysterious circumstances. She quickly finds herself enamored with Carmilla and quickly grows ill with her worry over unhappy events which seem to plague Carmilla overnight. Despite them however, Carmilla seems just as robust as ever despite her habit to sleep away the mornings. This book predates Dracula, and it strikes me that it lent much of its lore to Stoker's later novel.
Cemetary Boys****
YA "In an attempt to prove himself a true brujo and gain his family’s acceptance, Yadriel decides to summon his cousin’s ghost and help him cross to the afterlife. But things get complicated when he accidentally summons the ghost of his high school’s resident bad boy, Julian Diaz – and Julian won't go into death quietly. The two boys must work together if Yadriel is to move forward with his plan. But the more time Yadriel and Julian spend together, the harder it is to let each other go."
The Coldest Girl in Cold Town by Holly Black *****
YA. Vampires exist, and the world knows about it. The world is dealing with it as best they can. Barriers between overnight workers and the public, habits to close all windows every night, avoid evening events, and the conversion of large towns into prisons for vampires and those who wish to become them. Within this world, Tana is just trying to have a normal teen's life, but that all changes when a drunken night at a friends and a forgotten open window results in her waking up seemingly the only survivor of a vampire attack. That's enough for a teenager to have to deal with, but as it turns out, not all the vampires are gone. (The audiobook for this one is exceptionally creepy and good.)
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil ****
This entry brought to you by @linnielemon !! — Marìa is wild and wily, a Spanish widow by her own hand from 1532 with a hunger. Lottie is a lover, fiercely tender, seen shipped off to London due to her forbidden affections for her handmaiden in 1827. And Alice is halfway across the world from her home in Scotland, hungry for something other than her dreary college life at Harvard in 2019. When all of their lives intertwine, and they leave each other irreparably damaged — they have to decide whether they’d rather be the predator or the prey. — This book exists off 1000% vibes and 0.01% plot
Doll Bones by Holly Black *****
Contemporary. YA. A child's parent keeps an eerie doll locked up in a cabinet, and the children's playtime has turned her into a queen of sorts. Then suddenly one of the children has a dream; a girl was murdered and her ashes placed in the doll. Her soul is restless and wants to be laid to rest in her grave, and the kids — her subjects — must find it and take her to it.
The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould ****
YA. Why is it that the worst of humankind can flourish so proliferous in the most beautiful of places? The small town of Snake Bite is littered with shadows and mystery, and it seems to be targeting the town's teens. First, Ashley's long time boyfriend goes missing, and then newcomer and outcast Logan's new friendly acquaintance is found dead. The town might hate Logan, and Ashley might come from the most prominent family in the town, but the two girls can't help but investigate the odd happenings that disappeared Ashley's boyfriend and implicated one of Logan's dads in that disappearance. The town believes he killed him, Logan is determined to prove him innocent, and Ashley still believes he's alive. She can feel his presence still all around.
The Best of Edgar Allan Poe
I have never read an author that, in so little time of story, manages to dredge up so much feeling of dread. If you want to set a dark and dreary mood, Poe's your man. In today's age, I don't know that his stories come off nearly as spooky as they once did, but they certainly evoke a sort of low mood spooky stories often aim for. It's like the counter of a thriller which often evokes high, frantic energy instead of the low, desolate mood of Poe's work.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley ****
For current readers, I don't know if this quite works as horror, but there is definitely something to the carelessness of men who create without considering their creations.
The Girl in the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGuire *****
Sometimes, living is the true thing of nightmares. Such is the case for the hitchhiking ghost Rose Marshall. She's hitched the ghost roads for decades longer than she's been alive and content with her undead existence despite being haunted still by the man who killed her, demon-pact and all. When he curses her, she finds that only by living again can she remove the curse. It was only supposed to last one evening, the only evening the dead can return to flesh: Halloween night. (This is a book 2)
The Lamb will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy****
Danielle is a hitchhiker headed to a socialist commune in Iowa that has largely been abandoned by government interests. The town takes care of itself, and they have a unique way of protecting their own against charismatic leaders who want to make this community their own. Danielle's friend had been living there before he comitted suicide, and so, she needs to know what has happened. A spirit of judgement and execution stalks the daylight hours, killing those with darkness in their hearts. But who doesn't have some amount of darkness inside of them?
Mexican Gothic****
Noemí leaves her bustling city of Mexico City to go to London to visit her cousin who married into an old family. Her cousin seems sick, having sent for Noemí to rescue her. It is believed her cousin is suffering the effects of a mental illness. Once there, Noemi is struck by how isolated the home is, how run down and mildewy it is. It is not at all what she imagined, nor are the people there, or the family dynamics she could never have guessed at. All she wants to do is get out of there as soon as possible, but first she has to her cousin, and then, she finds she simply cannot leave
The Motion of Puppets by Keith Donahue ***
When Eadweard's fiance Kay goes missing, the world thinks she got fickle and left him, but Eadweard can't come to believe this himself. He can't stop thinking about the last traces that were had of her as told to him by her coworkers at the circus. The route took her very close to that closed down store with the puppet in the window, the one he often found her obsessing over. Little does he know, she's been transformed into a puppet herself, her body gone and her limbs replaced by doll parts, her mind growing hazy on a life of being human. Can Eadweard find Kay in time to pull her out of an eternity as a doll?
Our Wives Under the Sea****
Miri's wife returns after having been missing on a submarine dive deep into the depths of the ocean, and she must contend with the fact that her home now feels a host to a stranger. She feels lonelier as ever as Leah slowly seems to turn farther away from the woman Miri knew into something completely Other.
Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire *****
Follow a hitchhiking ghost over the breadth of the continental US. She was run off the Sparrow Hill Road in 1952 on her way to prom and never made it there. Instead she haunts the highways of the US, hitchhiking her way from roadside diner to roadside diner. She finds a calling in spending time with someone before their last moments, fated to die on the road. Sometimes though, she gets to alter that fate. But there is one out there who has an unpleasant fate in mind for her, and he haunts the roads in his immortal demon car, determined to get the prey who escaped him in the early 1950s.
Sorrowland by Rivers Soloman****
Vern escapes the cult she was brought into pregnant with twins. Her escape only extends to the forest surrounding the commune though. A single young woman shouldn't be able to survive with two children alone like this, and yet Vern does with ease. Something is different about her. Her body starts to become foreign in parts, to change, and she realizes something was done to her. Something that haunts her and alters her. It helps her protect her children, but can will she survive it?
True Irish Ghost Stories by St. John Seymour & Harry Neligan***
Interested in 'true' ghost stories? Well find here collected stories Seymour and Neligan sought out from real people in Ireland who vouched to the veracity of their accounts. The stories are disjointed and with no real beginning or end, but read much like tales told around the campfire in the dark of night.
The Vampyre; A Tale by John Polidori**
Vern "A short work of prose fiction written in 1819" "often viewed as the progenitor of the romantic vampire genre of fantasy fiction." Our protagonist becomes fascinating by an intriguing gentleman and takes up with him only to begin to suspect a dark explanation of the man's behaviors.
Dark Stories
A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson ****
A letter from one vampire to her maker whom she has murdered. The story is their story, the one of living under a man she thought a savior, who turned her into a monster, and showed her an initial love that hid a vindictive, controlling menace amidst the monotonousness of his vampirism. Explicit sexual content.
Fledgling by Octavia Butler****
What if vampires were born and not made? And how fun would it be to have a book that's a thriller, complete with a justice system, but all made up of vampires and their symbiotic humans? If that sounds appealing, it might be for you. Just check the trigger warnings if you are one who benefits from that!
The Girl with All the Gifts *****
I was so hooked starting this book with zero information about it other than it was a good spooky read, and since it was such an experience, I simply cannot get myself to say much about this. It follows a special child student, her teacher, and the head of the locked down school's security team as they navigate a dystopian world behind walls, and attempts to reach the outside world have proven unsuccessful so far.
Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid ***
The witch daughter of a cruel wizard is persuaded by her two elder sisters to sneak out of their carefully controlled home to see a ballet. For her, this is out of character to disobey her father, but she finds the show changes everything. She is enraptured by the performance, and more specifically, the lead, who she chances upon meeting while going out to get some air. For once, she has found something worth coming out of her shell for, but should she have left home when there are dark rumors of a man-eating monster stalking the night and the tentative tranquility of their home, and their voracious father, is as risk? Contains explicit sexual content.
King of Battle and Blood by Scarlett St. Clair **
The princess and heir to a kingdom besieged by a vampire army finds herself preparing for her father's surrender to the Vampire King. An unexpected and unpleasant stipulation of the treaty of surrender is the princess's hand in marriage. For her people, she agrees, but her people expect her to assassinate her new husband despite his immortal durability. Fairytale elements. Intrusive thoughts. Contains smut.
The Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo ***
Alex Stern is in the fall Semester at a college that deals in magic. Normally, an outsider like her wouldn't have been recruited to help keep order among the magic houses that operate out of the college, but there's something special about Alex: She can see ghosts, a rare gift. At least that's how she's seen. To Alex, it can be more of a curse. One she will have to use though if she is going to find the mentor who mysteriously disappeared earlier that semester under supernatural circumstances.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones ****
Most people experience the past coming back to haunt them in some way, shape, or form. But three men who grew up on a reservation feel like they are being haunted by more than the memories of the past. They don't talk about the incident much, not since they were banned from that part of the reservation, but they feel like perhaps they should as they find themselves fighting for their lives against the ramifications of that day.
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin***
Talk about a book that feels like horror for me in particular! You can tell that this is an older book, but for those who knew what it was like for a married woman then, that adds all the more to the horror. This is a slow and quiet horror for the most part but very poignant. I anticipated that after all the buildup, the ending wouldn't be able to live up, but I actually quite liked it. Though don't let that allow you to suspect a peachy resolution XD
Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims ***
The apartment complex must be haunted. What else explains the series of horror visitations that happen upon 13 different residents who live in the building? Each storey is unlike the other. Almost a series of short stories, except... they do seem to be connected. Everything seems to point in the direction of the apartment's landowner as each resident receives an unexpected inviation to a dinner at his top floor penthouse in too timely a manner with the unexpected.
Mystery
The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould ****
YA. Why is it that the worst of humankind can flourish so proliferous in the most beautiful of places? The small town of Snake Bite is littered with shadows and mystery, and it seems to be targeting the town's teens. First, Ashley's long time boyfriend goes missing, and then newcomer and outcast Logan's new friendly acquaintance is found dead. The town might hate Logan, and Ashley might come from the most prominent family in the town, but the two girls can't help but investigate the odd happenings that disappeared Ashley's boyfriend and implicated one of Logan's dads in that disappearance. The town believes he killed him, Logan is determined to prove him innocent, and Ashley still believes he's alive. She can feel his presence still all around.
Fledgling by Octavia Butler****
What if vampires were born and not made? And how fun would it be to have a book that's a thriller, complete with a justice system, but all made up of vampires and their symbiotic humans? If that sounds appealing, it might be for you. Just check the trigger warnings if you are one who benefits from that!
In the Woods by Tana French ****
In his childhood, Adam Ryan was out with his friends when those friends went missing. It became a huge story, especially because when they found him, he was so traumatized, he had no memory of what took place. They never solved his mystery, but he became an investigator himself. He thought that was all behind him, except he is put on a case that has a mysterious link to that cold mystery. Ryan shouldn't be working this case, but no one has linked him to it yet, and he can't help but try and see if this new case will reveal anything about his own.
Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin ****
Under the rule of King Henry II, within Cambridge, there is amongst the people a deranged serial killer targeting children. The people point the blame at the local Jewish population, but after a raid sequesters them within the castle walls and the killings don't stop, a woman of the station of what we might call today coroner is summoned from out of the country to learn from the dead children what she may to uncover the identity of a serial killer eager to target those who would try to track them down. Historical fiction. Some explicit sexual content.
The Witch Elm*****
Toby experiences a series of devastating events, the first of which is a break in and assault that leaves him with literal brain trauma, hazy memories, and a sense that he is no longer himself and will never be so again. So when a corpse shows up in the old summer home he and his cousins stayed at and it turns out to be an old pal from school, he is left absolutely untethered from all he understands in his world, and every attempt to make it makes sense seems to send him down the wrong path. The later part of the book does take place in the autumn months, but I didn't really get the sense that this took up a whole lot of the story
Classic Halloween Elements
The Coldest Girl in Cold Town by Holly Black *****
YA. Vampires exist, and the world knows about it. The world is dealing with it as best they can. Barriers between overnight workers and the public, habits to close all windows every night, avoid evening events, and the conversion of large towns into prisons for vampires and those who wish to become them. Within this world, Tana is just trying to have a normal teen's life, but that all changes when a drunken night at a friends and a forgotten open window results in her waking up seemingly the only survivor of a vampire attack. That's enough for a teenager to have to deal with, but as it turns out, not all the vampires are gone. (The audiobook for this one is exceptionally creepy and good.)
Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu *****
Only a novella in length, Carmilla is a fascinating read. Follow a lonely girl outside of her country of origin come to have a visitor, Carmilla, stay at her estate under mysterious circumstances. She quickly finds herself enamored with Carmilla and quickly grows ill with her worry over unhappy events which seem to plague Carmilla overnight. Despite them however, Carmilla seems just as robust as ever despite her habit to sleep away the mornings. This book predates Dracula, and it strikes me that it lent much of its lore to Stoker's later novel.
Cemetary Boys****
YA, Featuring ghosts and witches and blood rituals. What is more Halloweeny?
"In an attempt to prove himself a true brujo and gain his family’s acceptance, Yadriel decides to summon his cousin’s ghost and help him cross to the afterlife. But things get complicated when he accidentally summons the ghost of his high school’s resident bad boy, Julian Diaz – and Julian won't go into death quietly. The two boys must work together if Yadriel is to move forward with his plan. But the more time Yadriel and Julian spend together, the harder it is to let each other go."
Dracula by Bram Stoker *****
Does anyone actually even need a summary? Look, if you like to read books for Halloween and haven't read this one, just do it. You're on Tumblr; make sure you know what all the Dracula Daily posts are going on about. They're excelle
The Best of Edgar Allan Poe
I have never read an author that, in so little time of story, manages to dredge up so much feeling of dread. If you want to set a dark and dreary mood, Poe's your man. In today's age, I don't know that his stories come off nearly as spooky as they once did, but they certainly evoke a sort of low mood spooky stories often aim for. It's like the counter of a thriller which often evokes high, frantic energy instead of the low, desolate mood of Poe's work.
The Exorcist by William Blatty ****
What is more horrific than watching a beloved child deteriorate into self harm and bad health and getting no answers, having to trust to faith instead of anything you've trusted before. Or how about a believer faced with evil powers one never expected to truly come face to face with?
Fledgling by Octavia Butler****
What if vampires were born and not made? And how fun would it be to have a book that's a thriller, complete with a justice system, but all made up of vampires and their symbiotic humans? If that sounds appealing, it might be for you. Just check the trigger warnings if you are one who benefits from that!!
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley ****
What can have more than classic Halloween elements than a classic horror tale??
The Gilda Stories***
Vampires always fit this season. Follow a girl willing to kill to obtain freedom as she merges into life as a vampire and seeks out her people and a place to call home. 200 years of finding places for herself allow for a nice exploration of what it means for a vampire to live for a very, very long time.
The Girl in the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGuire *****
Sometimes, living is the true thing of nightmares. Such is the case for the hitchhiking ghost Rose Marshall. She's hitched the ghost roads for decades longer than she's been alive and content with her undead existence despite being haunted still by the man who killed her, demon-pact and all. When he curses her, she finds that only by living again can she remove the curse. It was only supposed to last one evening, the only evening the dead can return to flesh: Halloween night. (This is a book 2)
The Girl with All the Gifts *****
I was so hooked starting this book with zero information about it other than it was a good spooky read, and since it was such an experience, I simply cannot get myself to say much about this. It follows a special child student, her teacher, and the head of the locked down school's security team as they navigate a dystopian world behind walls, and attempts to reach the outside world have proven unsuccessful so far.
The Mall of Cthulhu by Susan Cooper
Danielle "When Ted stumbles onto a gropu of Cthulhu cultists planning to awaken the Old Ones through mystic incantations culled from the fabled Necronomicon, calling forth eldritch horros into an unsuspecting world, eh and Laura must spring into action, traveling from Boston to the seemingly-peaceful suburbs of Providence and beyond, all the way to the sanity-shattering non-Euclidian alleyways and towers of dread R'lyeh itself, in order to prevent an innocent shopping center from turning into... The Mall of Cth
Mexican Gothic****
Noemí leaves her bustling city of Mexico City to go to London to visit her cousin who married into an old family. Her cousin seems sick, having sent for Noemí to rescue her. It is believed her cousin is suffering the effects of a mental illness. Once there, Noemi is struck by how isolated the home is, how run down and mildewy it is. It is not at all what she imagined, nor are the people there, or the family dynamics she could never have guessed at. All she wants to do is get out of there as soon as possible, but first she has to her cousin, and then, she finds she simply cannot lea
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin***
Talk about a book that feels like horror for me in particular! And though a lot of the book has a veneer of the mundane, don't be deceived. There are witches and blood rituals and demonic entities tipping the scales. Perfect for those who love the spooky elements of Halloween! Also, I anticipated that after all the buildup, the ending wouldn't be able to live up, but I actually quite liked it. Though don't let that allow you to suspect a peachy resolution XD
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson***
One of the classic horror books has to go among classic Halloween! You think you know this story, but if you haven't read it, you likely know less than you think! This is the perfect time of year to check out the original.
Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire *****
Follow a hitchhiking ghost over the breadth of the continental US. She was run off the Sparrow Hill Road in 1952 on her way to prom and never made it there. Instead she haunts the highways of the US, hitchhiking her way from roadside diner to roadside diner. She finds a calling in spending time with someone before their last moments, fated to die on the road. Sometimes though, she gets to alter that fate. But there is one out there who has an unpleasant fate in mind for her, and he haunts the roads in his immortal demon car, determined to get the prey who escaped him in the early 1950s.
Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims ***
The apartment complex must be haunted. What else explains the series of horror visitations that happen upon 13 different residents who live in the building? Each storey is unlike the other. Almost a series of short stories, except... they do seem to be connected. Everything seems to point in the direction of the apartment's landowner as each resident receives an unexpected inviation to a dinner at his top floor penthouse in too timely a manner with the unexpected.
True Irish Ghost Stories by St. John Seymour & Harry Neligan***
Interested in 'true' ghost stories? Well find here collected stories Seymour and Neligan sought out from real people in Ireland who vouched to the veracity of their accounts. The stories are disjointed and with no real beginning or end, but read much like tales told around the campfire in the dark of night. I mean what is more classic than ghosts, poltergeists, banshees, and the like?
The Vampyre; A Tale by John Polidori**
Vern "A short work of prose fiction written in 1819" "often viewed as the progenitor of the romantic vampire genre of fantasy fiction." Our protagonist becomes fascinating by an intriguing gentleman and takes up with him only to begin to suspect a dark explanation of the man's behaviors.
Nonfiction
From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty*****
Is the west too disconnected from death thanks to a 20 billion dollar industry that makes loved ones disappear nearly the moment they leave the world of the living and their bodies corpses? What if we returned to a not so distant practice of taking part in death rituals, to have a purpose, be a link, in a loved one's passing from this world and the next? Doughty explores those rituals and more from cultures across the world and asks us to imagine a more fulfilling grieving process that included the body of those who've passed on.
Haunted Wisconsin by Michael Norman, Beth Scott****
Collected from around Wisconsin, this book contains tales of an "assortment of ghosts, apparitions and other supernatural occurrences."
I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara***
"A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade—from Michelle McNamara, the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case."
Penguin Book of Hell by Scott Bruce **
Let's talk about hell. That's what this book is all about, from the ghostly afterlife of the Greeks to the hell we force on others. This follows in a pretty straight line from the Greek/Roman concepts thru the Christian concepts, to attitudes about endless punishment held today.
Radium Girls by Kate Moore ****
A very real life horror story took place in factories across America from roughly (pulling from memory) 1918 to the 1930s. Hopeful young women on the cusp of their adulthoods took up paint brushes to make sure soldiers could see their watches at night by use of radium. Their employers instructed them on how to best use the brushes—put the tip of the brush after each use between their lips and pull the bristles back to a point for accuracy. While those running the company knew this was poorly advised, attempts to mitigate it by offering other techniques for handling the brushes used up too much of their precious radium, so they continued to insist it was a harmless practice. Yes, even after worker after worker went to dentists for teeth rotting out of their moths only to have the decay spread to their jaws and throughout the joints in their bodies. Many of these women tried to bring suits and raise the alarm and save other women their horrors and get their medical costs reduced, but the company that employed them fought them at every turn. The monster of industry whipping it's destructive tail. The accounts of what happened to these girls are both horrifying in it's ruin of their lives but also in the gritty details of what happened to their bodies from radiation poisoning.
True Irish Ghost Stories by St. John Seymour & Harry Neligan***
Interested in 'true' ghost stories? Well find here collected stories Seymour and Neligan sought out from real people in Ireland who vouched to the veracity of their accounts. The stories are disjointed and with no real beginning or end, but read much like tales told around the campfire in the dark of night. I mean what is more classic than ghosts, poltergeists, banshees, and the like?
Vampire Forensics: Uncovering the Origins of an Enduring Legend by Mark Collins Jenkins*****
An "engrossing history draws on the latest science, anthropological and archaeological research to explore the origins of vampire stories, providing gripping historic and folkloric context for the concept of immortal beings who defy death by feeding on the lifeblood of others. From the earliest whispers of eternal evil in ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, vampire tales flourished through the centuries and around the globe, fueled by superstition, sexual mystery, fear of disease and death, and the nagging anxiety that demons lurk everywhere."
The World of Lore Books by Aaron Mahnke ****
These contain the books Dreadful Places, Wicked Mortals, and Monstrous Creatures. I haven't actually read Wicked Mortals yet, but the other two were perfect for the season and am confident so too Wicked Mortals will be too. Follow Mahnke as he explores the history of these folk tales and spoopy histories! They also work as great audio listens.
It's October, so get ready to see this even more! I still have books I want to add to it that are pending, and more will be added as I read. But I'm always looking for more books to queue up for some spoopy time (and/OR Autumn reading), and when I find there's something I wish there was more of out in the world, I find it helps to put out into it what we'd like to see.
That is to say, please feel free to add to this! I will excitedly look forward to more spoopy recs.
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. I read The Deep earlier this year and absolutely loved it! I saw so many people recommending this one so I am very excited, already loving it. Their writing is incredible.
Also yes, the mug says Squad Ghouls 🤣🎃 I got it at the grocery store for $6.
THE DEVIL IN THE WOODS, my teen paranormal horror novella, is perfect reading for October! It takes place during October, it's a little spooky, and it ends on Halloween. So I thought, why not post snippets every week leading up to Halloween to give you a little taste of the book to entice you to maybe checking it out?
So, here's the first one! Since Felix is the first pov and basically, the main character, we'll start with a passage from his POV!
Felix is trying his best to help Charlie and Vivian debunk and urban legend (too bad it's real though...)!
Find more about THE DEVIL IN THE WOODS below! (and, if you want a copy but can't afford one right now, check my itch.io! I have free community copies available for you to download!)
