A Spook-tacular Reading Challenge: 9 Horror Books I'm Reading this October

Even though I’ve been writing stories for children and love picture books, I also love a good, scary story! Ghosts, witches, monsters… I love them all and have since I was little.

The Grimm’s Brother’s Fairytales, Sesame Street’s There’s a Monster at the End of this Book, and of course, Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, were among my first favorite books.

Growing up, Halloween was big in my family and my neighborhood, and still is. We enjoy dressing up, trick-or-treating, and cozying up for a late-night scary movie marathon. Now that my children are older and off with their own plans and friends, I thought I’d try something I’ve never done before: a month-long scary novel marathon!

The goal: read 9 horror novels back-to-back in October.

I don’t think I’ve ever read that many novels in a single month, but since I know I typically finish reading most horror novels over a couple of days, I think, even if nine is a stretch, seven is attainable. With so many good ones on my TBR (to be read) list, lining up a few extras for a stretch goal was easy.

The plan: Here are the novels I’ll be reading in October.

1. House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland (2021): Iris and Vivi try to uncover what happened to them when they were children when their oldest sister, Grey, goes missing.
2. The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (2017): In a dystopian future, where Native Americans are captured and harvested for their ability are to dream, 15 year old, Frenchie must hide to survive and find a way to stop the thieves that hunt his people.
3. Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft (2021): A gothic romance about two enemies trapped inside an old mansion full of monsters. I’m not a big fan of the fall in love with your enemy troupe, but I’m a sucker for old mansions so I’ll give it a try.
4. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959): I have watched several versions and sequels of movies based on the book, but never read the movie. I don’t know how I missed this classic, but I plan on fixing that this month.
5. Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart (2021): Two witches come together to try and defeat a common enemy that threatens both their worlds.
6. Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell (2017): A romantic cabin getaway goes bad.
7. Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (2020): Four men from the Blackfeet Nation fight against an entity set on revenge from a hunting trip they took years before. This one is not for those that are squeamish about violence and animals, I’ve been warned.
8. The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab (2019): There’s no witch in the town of Near. She’s just an old story told to scare children, right?
9. Bitter Magic by Nancy Hayes Kilgore (2021): Inspired by the true story of Isobel Gowdie, who lived in Scotland and confessed to being a witch in 1662.

The results: Pending…
Can I finish them all without losing my mind? Will my hair turn white from fright? I'll be back by the end of the month to let you know. Until then, leave a comment and tell me what you're reading this month.