A Spooktastic Round-Up

Happy Halloween! It’s the last of our 13 days celebrating all things dark fantasy with Spooktastic Reads, and I thought it would be fun to look at some of the things everyone got up to! I didn’t end up posting nearly as much as I would have liked (one review, sigh) but loved seeing everyone else’s posts and that is certainly worth celebrating.

TBRs…

Out of my TBR, I actually only managed the two digital books I had, and didn’t touch the physical books I had lined up. In retrospect, I should have started on them a bit sooner, because this month has been pretty intense. But what did other people’s TBRs look like?

• Celeste of A Literary Escape hit things off early with her October TBR, and there is no shortage of vampires and other dark beings
• Annemieke of A Dance With Books, on the other hand, had more ghosts lined up as well as the graphic novel Monstress
• Imyril of There’s Always Room For One More featured an epic anthology on her TBR
• Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story decided to focus on audiobooks for this year’s event, but her post has plenty more on what she is reading, has read, and plans to read that features the supernatural

Reviews

Of course, we wouldn’t be book bloggers without a few reviews thrown in to the mix… as I mentioned, I only managed one review, which was for The Ghost Woods by CJ Cooke, but I’m quite happy with myself for getting that out at all!

• Heather of Based On A True Story appreciated Interview With a Dead Editor by Shanna Swendson and thought it was a great start to a cosy crime series with a ghostly twist. And her review of Witchful Thinking by Celestine Martin is absolutely delightful!
• Imyril highlighted the best of the anthology collection This Dreaming Isle, looking first at Tales from the County and then City and Coast. She also fully convinced me to add No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull to my TBR after this review of it. I also love the sound of The Dark Tome audio play and shall definitely be checking it out.
• The Bookforager reviewed Cold Storage by David Koepp and enjoyed it despite the ickiness, which is what this season is all about! And this showcase of Through the Woods by Emily Carroll gave me the shivers just like if I was reading it again!
• Laura Tisdall reviewed Babel by RF Kuang and I really, really need to read this book! Laura makes some very interesting criticisms which make me more keen to pick it up and see for myself.
• Annemieke speaks highly of Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

Book Tags

• I loved the 5-4-3-2-1 Tag that Annemieke did for Spooktastic Reads
• The Bookforager never fails to entertain me with her tags, and the Spooky Scary Book Tag was no exception, and I now have even more books added to my list. And then she used the Halloween Book Covers Tag to showcase books on her radar due to other bloggers. Am I biased because my review of Nettle and Bone was the first mentioned? Maybe!

Other Posts

• Celeste showcased two very different types of Creepy Cover for day 2 of the challenge
• Beware your TBRs because she also had some great recommendations for Dark Fantasy reads, which all sound ever so tempting!
• And I was particularly intrigued by Juniper and Thorn by Ava Reid which featured on this list of books with Monsters and Beasts.
• Lisa of Dear Geek Place and Jorie entertained us with a livetweet session of Hocus Pocus and Hocus Pocus 2
• Annemieke has a brilliant list of Creepy Novellas to keep you going when you want something short but haunting.
• Or were you looking for a book that centres around a specific creature/urban legend? Annemieke’s got a list for that too!
• Laura Tisdall gives a rundown of this month’s books, films, and series that made up October’s spooky vibes
• Annemieke put together a roundup of her posts from the Instagram Photo Challenge.

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I believe that’s everything! I put together this list based on what I saw during the event and also by going through the SpooktasticReads hashtag on twitter, so if I missed anything I am very sorry. Also, I am functioning on very little sleep so I apologise for any and all mistakes… I may not have had the chance to post much, but I’m glad I got the chance to catch up on everyone’s stuff and share it for anyone else looking back on the month! And now, on to November and all the SciFi and novel writing it entails!