Hi, okay, so first, I want to tell you that I drafted this post IN JULY.

July, guys. Not only that, but I’ve been compiling my October reads since somewhere around May. Am I a little over the top when it comes to Halloween? YES.

You know what else I should start doing in July? Buying clothes for October. BLACK ALL MONTH LONG, WITCHES!

Okay, anyway. Autumn is, obviously, my favorite season, and Halloween is probably actually my favorite holiday. I always used to say it was Christmas, but that’s kind of fallen away over the past few years, and my witchy self is basking in the glow of flickering candles and black cats and Tim Burton.

Am I listening to the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack, right now in July? MAYBE, WHATEVER.

This post is supposed to be about books. It’s getting away from me, so let’s reel it back in. I’ve been slowly curating spooky books and hoarding them off to the side, refusing to read them until the absolute perfect atmosphere, which is, of course, going to lead to an entire month of spooky reads. I’m going to set a TBR, which is going to be much longer than usual because I took all of September off to catch up on preorders and read whatever I wanted so I could focus on spooky books for October, but there may be extra spooky books, or there may be just extra books in general, we’ll see! Anything could happen! This is also separate from my wrap-up because it’s special and fun, and I am too excited.

Without further ado, or rambling, here is my Spooky TBR for October!

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Starting off this insanely long TBR the absolute best way! Yes, I AM reading an Austen for Halloween! Everywhere I’ve looked, Northanger Abbey is considered the “spookiest” of her novels. It’s a satire for the Gothic novel, too, so this feels perfect.

There is nothing in the world that could stop me from reading this book immediately upon release, and thankfully, it sounds pretty spooky, so it fits the atmosphere perfectly! Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo is, hands down, one of my most anticipated releases for this year. I can’t wait to not only read something not set into the Grishaverse, but also not young adult. This is going to be so exciting, I might cry!

All I saw was “accidentally resurrects,” and I was like, yup sounds good to me! Plus The Bone Witch is such a good title that I was already leaning toward buying it before I even read the summary.

It’s happening! This will be my second Stephen King novel ever, and the first one was one I begrudgingly read in high school. King scares the bejeezus out of me, and while I’ve seen a few of his films, I’ve never delved any deeper into his novels. A friend recommended that I start with Carrie, and hopefully, this’ll be the start of something wonderful.

Not to be upstaged, I’ll also be reading TWO Joe Hill’s this month! Full Throttle releases on the first, so I’m planning on starting it right away since we have one of my most anticipated releases of this year coming out the week following. And though I don’t talk about it a lot, I’m a pretty big Joe Hill fan, so these novellas have got me all in a tizzy.

NOS4A2 is the last Hill I have to read, which I’m really sad about, BUT we’re being blessed with the above release right at the beginning of the month, so I’m a little less sad. Particularly because Locke & Key is officially in the works, so keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that that gets released on Netflix soon, too! I’m hoping to read both of these in the first week of October since I’ll be attending Hill’s signing in NH the second week!

The best part about Asylum by Madeleine Roux is that I bought it specifically for this TBR. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before? I knew that I wanted to read this series, but I waited until closer to October to finally grab it. My plan is to at least read the first, but who knows, now that I own all of them, anything is possible this month.

Okay, it’s a little possible that I might be reading three Roux books this month. Salvaged releases right in the middle of the month, and it’s space mixed with horror, which is just the ultimate genre. However, I have got a lot of other books on this TBR, as well as two other very highly anticipated reads, so I’m not promising that I’ll get to this.

Do you know how much I have had to convince myself not to read Tomb of Ancients by Madeleine Roux? I read the second book in the series during the summer, and I have been dying (ha) to know what happens ever since. I can’t wait to finally finish this spooky series! The first two took place in a mansion where murderers were drawn (and then killed), but Louisa has left the mansion behind for a world I was never expecting, but one that promises to be weird.

Scythe by Neal Shusterman just feels like the perfect read for October. I mean, the first line of the summary is Thou shalt kill. I’ve been eyeing this for a while, too, so I’m really happy to finally be getting around to it.

Admittedly, reading the summary leads me to believe that this isn’t exactly going to be a spooky read, but that cover? Beneath the Citadel has got a pretty damn spooky aesthetic, so I’m keeping it on here. Also, doing a fast skim through reviews, I saw someone mention an executioner, so sure, that counts as spooky!

Now, I know what you’re thinking. But it looks so pretty! An Affair of Poisons is literally about the poisoning of King Louis XIV and a Shadow Society (???), so yup, sounds about right.

I have had Deadfall by Stephen Wallenfels on my TBR for so long. I read Bad Call in one sitting and felt like I’d been hit by a train, so I’m hoping the exact same thing happens with this one. When two brothers, who are already on the run, see a crashed car on the side of the road, they go to see if anyone needs help, but it looks abandoned. Or does it? Are those thumping sounds coming from the trunk?

I wanted at least one real life witchy book on here, and Becoming Dangerous feels like the perfect pick. I think the summary says it perfectly: “collection of deeply personal essays by marginalized people operating at the intersection of feminism, witchcraft, and resistance about summoning power and becoming fearsome in a world that would prefer them to be afraid.”

And lastly, The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey! The protagonist studies monsters and seems to get tangled up with a grave robber, and though I bought this sometime in 2018, I’ve been setting it aside. Somehow, I’ve never read anything else by Yancey, so I have no expectations going in, which will be lovely.

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Great, I’m going to read 15 books this month! Eegads. Obviously, this TBR is not set in stone. I’d love to read all 15 of these, but I’m not going to stress out if I don’t. These are simply all of the spooky books I’ve been saving for Halloween. There are a few other October releases that are not on this list because they’re not spooky, but I honestly might just save them for November because it seems like I’m going to be very busy.

What are you reading for the best holiday of the year?

(oh my god should I reread Coraline? PROBABLY)

wait okay I can’t believe I’m about to do this, but I’m going to also try to reread Coraline and The Phantom of the Opera why do I do this to myself