Happy Hallow-eve, book lovers!! This post is a day later than I expected but that’s only because I was hit with a day-long migraine and couldn’t find the ability to properly think or type long enough to write this then.

As far as reading goes, this month was unfortunately, a bit of a fail.

October was a month of new things for me, and the first new thing ever that I started was doing my own BookTube (it is over at scrubsandbooks on YouTube as well if you want to check it out). Watching several BookTubers, however, also inspired me to join a read-a-thon and this month, I attempted to join my very first one, the Hocus Pocus Read-A-Thon!

That…. went as well as expected. 😐 I got absolutely very little done. As a matter of fact, I got a total of three books read this month and only one of them fell into the witchy category in the time-frame for the read-a-thon. I didn’t even get to the group book! Which left me disappointed in myself and thus inspired this week’s TTT: ten books I wish I had gotten to.

Check out the list below! Honestly, if I’m able to grab any of them later, I might still give them a shot, because who says you’re only allowed to read spooky books only one month per year??

1. Here There are Monsters by Amelinda Berube – this one tells the story of a missing sister who, up to the days before she disappears, acts suspiciously and tries to warn her older sister, Skye, of the dangers in the swampy woods. When she disappears, it’s up to Skye to find her. I am honestly a sucker for stories featuring sisterhood, and I’m hoping there’s more to it in the book than just the mystery and thriller.

2. Wilder Girls by Rory Power — a disease called Tox spreads across the Baxter school of girls, killing the teachers one at a time before infecting the students and mutating their bodies. The girls are all quarantined on an island till one goes missing and the Hetty, the main character, goes to any lengths necessary to get her back, even breaking quarantine. This is supposedly a queer rep book too, so I can’t wait to eventually read it.

3. The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring — South American representation, this one is a psychological thriller, drenched in Patagonian myth, and yet another story that takes place in an isolated school. Mavi is a teacher who starts to notice other staff and her students acting possessed, and she must solve the mystery of the spirits that might impact her own life. I have heard so many reviews, the trailer for this book was creepy too. I hope its enjoyable whenever I get to it.

4. Teeth In The Mist by Dawn Kurtagich — this one shifts gears to tell the story of present day Zoey and past-day Roan, and focuses on three separate storylines connected by the ruins of Mill House, and is a loose interpretation of Dr. Faustus. All the arcs join together to tell a story of the dangers the women in this book face in this setting. Blood curses, demons, black magic, murder, supposedly all of these are mentioned in the GR reviews, and I am hyped for it.

5. The Whisper Man by Alex North — now this one might end up being a last-minute October read since I only just found it today at the local library! Whisper Man is the nickname given to serial killer who was caught twenty years prior to the book’s setting, but when a boy in town disappears, and the son of main character, Tom Kennedy, starts acting suspicious, the new potential accomplice of the Whisper Man needs to be hunted down and the boy found.

6. The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones — I have not heard too much about this book although I had seen it in people’s IG posts, so I went digging. Haha, pun intended since the story talks about gravediggers. Ryn is the main character who is also a gravedigger and comes across a situation in which she must deal with the dead who don’t stay dead — also known as bone houses — as a result of an age-old curse. Ryn and an apprentice mapmaker, Ellis, have to work together to unravel the mystery behind the curse and learn a great deal about themselves as well.

7. Lock Every Door by Riley Sager — this would have been my first Riley Sager book but probably not the last one. Jules Larsen is an apartment sitter in a Manhattan high-profile building, and finds out there’s a dark past from fellow sitter, Ingrid. Ingrid ends up disappearing and Jules finds out there are a string of disappearances in the building and she may be next. To keep that from happening, she has to figure out the mystery, delve into the building’s dark history and discover the killer.

8. There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins — what is with me and books about creepy schools?? Makani has a past and she leaves Hawaii (why??) to live in Nebraska (again, why??), where she realizes her past followed her when a few students start dying in gruesome ways. That’s as far as I know about the book, and it seems miniscule but I’m still drawn in out of mostly complete curiosity.

9. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides — I don’t usually read psychological thrillers that are more geared toward mental health instead of straight-up demons and ghosts, but this one caught my interest. Alicia Berenson is a painter who lives a seemingly wonderful life until her husband comes home and she shoots him in the face five times and then she never speaks of it again. She’s put under psychiatric care and is visited by a criminal psychotherapist who is hellbent on breaking her silence and finding out her secrets, the obsession almost consuming him as well.

10. Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel by A. W. Jantha — and finally, the group book for the read-a-thon itself! The book’s story occurs twenty-five years after the events of the movie, in which Poppy, daughter of all-grown-up Max and Allison, ends up facing the Sanderson sisters, and having to save her family and her town from the witches’ recent plans.

♥ ♥ ♥

Any of these you think I should read before the other? Any particular criticism? Any other recommendations for spooky reads instead of these? Hit me up in the comments!

“Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.”