hello gorgeous humans it's finally October which means it's officially spooky season and I for one
am very excited to trick-or-treat myself with all of the eerie spooky creepy Gothic books I can get
my hands on this video is going to come at you in two parts in the first part I want to recommend
a bunch of spooky books that I've read over the years and really enjoyed that I think are perfect
for this time of year and in the second part I want to share with you my excessively long TBR
of spooky books that I'm hoping to get to this month the list is ridiculously long so there's
no way I'll get to all of them this month but I'm a high achiever and I like to make
lists that will make me feel bad about myself when I can't complete them so I will share my
TBR with you as well as always if you have any recommendations this time specifically spooky
recommendations then leave those in the comments down below to give me and everyone else even more
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now let's hop in to the recommendations I want to start by recommending some spooky Classics I
don't know about you but in the Autumn I just love reading classics there's something about them that
feel perfect for this time of year and of course if you can read a spooky classic in October even
better so here are a few of my favorite spooky Classics first is Rebecca by Daphne du maurier
this is one of my favorite Classics of all time it has such an eerie atmosphere with tension that
continues to build through the entire novel and a mystery at its core a dead wife and our
unnamed protagonist trying to put all of the pieces together as she starts to fall into a
kind of obsession with Rebecca perfect for this time of year another favorite classic of mine
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde this is the story of greed narcissism vanity hatred
Obsession and extravagance a man condemned and the sins he's willing to commit to maintain his
beautiful veneer plus it's super short so you can get the dopamine hit of finishing it even faster
another one I really enjoyed was the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis
Stevenson this is also a super short read but it really delivers on the suspense and the horror and
it also explores the duality of man in a really interesting way another classic for this time
of year here Frankenstein by Mary Shelley this is one that is a little bit more in the middle
for me mostly because Dr Frankenstein and his monster are both insufferable but still this
book is so worth a read if only to compare to all of the typical pop culture references to
Frankenstein you've probably seen and it has beautiful descriptions of the landscape really
lovely prose and explores quite a few fascinating themes totally spooky monster fiction great for
October another super short recommendation a short story actually the yellow wallpaper by Charlotte
Perkins Gilman this is such a horrifying read it really pulls you in it's gripping it has so many
layers it explores really important subject matter in such a masterful way and it's exciting it's
suspenseful it's intense and it's only 30 pages long or something like that so definitely check
out the yellow wallpaper if you haven't read it yet moving into a couple Monster books for you I
don't tend to read a lot of monster fiction when I'm reading something spooky but I have her to
come couple good ones I wanted to recommend into the drowning Deep by Mira Grant killer mermaids
must I say anything more Devolution a first-hand account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max
Brooks killer Sasquatches killer Sasquatch killer Sasquatches I don't know what the plural of
Sasquatch is but again need I say more ring Shout by P jelly Clark this is an incredible incredible
book where members of the KKK are actually monsters literal monsters and it's horrifying
and terrifying and also so deeply layered with commentary and exploration of the deepest form
of human hatred Empire of Wild by Sherry demoline this is a story based on the metis legend of the
rugaroo a wolf man who stalks and kills people who have sinned in one way or another either consuming
them or turning them into a regrue themselves this is such a terrifying read but it also
explores colonialism and racism and the connection between a Christian church and the oppression of
indigenous people in Canada and it's a really interesting lens to use to look at that subject
matter and I think it was just so incredibly well done I don't tend to read a lot of witchy books
and often when I do I'm not necessarily a fan of how they've been done maybe I'm just not a witch
fan but one that I've read and really enjoyed is slew foot by Brahm this takes place in the
Middle Ages and explores a conflict between the pagans and the Puritans and our main character is
incredibly witchy I don't want to give away too much but it's quite quite good the inheritance
of Arcadia Davina by zareda Cordova this one has so many witchy Vibes it's a little Cozier
than some of the other ones it doesn't really have a horror undertone to it though it does
explore some darker issues does have a little bit of violence and body horror going on but it really
explores complex family Dynamics matriarchies the experience of being Latin American and finding
your place belonging both out on your own and within a complicated nothing but blackened teeth
by Cassandra Kaw this one seems to be really controversial people seem to either love it or
hate it I really enjoyed it I had a good time I thought it was spooky paranormal ghost Vibes I
liked it the silent companions by Laura Purcell this is another favorite of mine horror with
spooky witchy and paranormal Vibes takes place in a Gothic manner in two different time periods and
it is so scary deeply unsettling I scared myself while I was reading so many times because my brain
started creating sound effects as if I was in the book to scare me so I kept quickly turning to look
behind me because I thought that the baddies of the book were real it's so immersive and very
scary moving into General horror books I want to start with Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer this
is sci-fi horror but it has such a great Eerie Vibe it is very creepy trance-like prose that
will lead you deeper and deeper into area X where nothing and no one is as it seems so good Moon of
the crested snow by wab geshig rice this is the story of an isolated Northern anishinabe tribe
who have been trapped in a harsh winter with no power and no incoming resources what it takes to
survive and who deserves to House of leaves by Mark Zed danielwski this is one of my favorite
books of all time of any genre let alone one of my favorite horror novels this is mind-bending
Horror in a house that's bigger on the inside an ever-changing Labyrinth with a monster at
the center but you never quite know if the Monster is real or if it's just in the people's minds as
they slowly start to lose them trapped inside this book has so many layers it is ridiculously complex
the formatting is incredibly unique and it really adds to the storytelling it takes a lot of effort
to read but I highly recommend it I think it is so worth it the perfect read for this time of year
the murders of Molly southbourne by Tay Thompson this is a creepy and creative horror Novella that
left me queasy and Incredibly unsettled Lakewood by Megan Giddings this is an exploration of the
exploitation of marginalized people for medical experimentation based in the historic reality
of the use of black people and black slaves for medical experimentation in America it is stomach
turning and just absolutely horrifying Tender Is the flesh by Augustina besterica this book is very
heavy in the body horror so I would not recommend for people who are queasy but this explores the
concept that in an undetermined amount of time in the future we no longer have enough animals to use
for livestock for human consumption so we start to eat humans and to raise breed and butcher them as
if they were non-human animals and what that looks like and the moral quandries that come with that
horrifying but also fascinating a house at the bottom of a lake by Josh malerman this one was
horrifying for me if you're afraid of water like I am this one will scare you in the best possible
way but like really scare you two teenagers go on a date and they discover a house an entire house
at the bottom of a lake and they decide to explore it and that may have been a really bad decision
the last house on needless Street by catriona Ward this one is deeply unsettling another big trigger
warning for harm towards children it's intense it's scary you don't really know what's happening
it really tricks you into thinking that something different is happening than what really is and to
get the POV of a talking cat which sounds healthy but actually wasn't I really enjoyed that books
with General Eerie Vibes that I don't feel like fit into any other category her body and other
Parties by Carmen Maria Machado this is a short story collection that draws upon fairy tales and
urban legends to explore women's issues through a queer lens and all of the stories have a really
eerie uncomfortable feeling to them there's this tension there is Darkness around the edges
the stories have that sort of Paranormal horror element to them but they also have so much to give
thematically the memory police by Yoko agawa this book is so hard to describe but it has just such
an impeccable Eerie atmosphere as people try to live their regular lives while entire categories
of objects like scissors books and people slowly start to disappear and the people who remain
forget that they ever existed so creepy there's a story within a story that's even creepier than the
main story the whole thing is just a master class in Eerie spooky atmosphere The Lottery by Shirley
Jackson if you're looking for another short story Lottery is a classic for a reason it's so good
and so terrifying with so few words Shirley Jackson is a master another Shirley Jackson
we have always lived in a castle this is one of my favorite books of all time again impeccable
Eerie atmosphere so creepy so unsettling with so many undertones and fascinating themes woven
throughout as Jackson loves to do this book is a 10 out of 10 and I highly recommend especially
during spooky season if you like a crumbling house in the middle of nowhere with a family who have
really strange Dynamics between them and you don't really know what's going on some witchy Vibes it's
really good comfort me with apples by Catherine M Valente this one's another really short one
a play on the story of Adam and Eve with a really horrifying Center weird unsettling I loved it our
wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield this is one that I just finished so I haven't had a long time
to really process my thoughts but this one has a really creepy slow-paced feeling to it atmospheric
we have the modern day and then we also go back in the past to see what led to where we are and
the past timeline takes place in a submarine in a really deep part of the ocean so again if
you're scared of underwater things this one is a great one very lyrical it has more of a literary
fiction feeling to it the centers around a married couple and one of the wives has come back from a
mission and is not the same and her wife is trying to figure out what happened to her and if she can
save her very creepy I also wanted to share a few Y.A recommendations I'm keeping them separate just
because I know some people don't prefer to read y a so I just wanted to make it clear that these are
y a but they fit into a bunch of these different categories the first one is the saw kill Girls
by Claire Legrand this one I read quite a while ago so I'm just clinging to an impression of it
being quite slow paced and spooky and unsettling as teenage girls start to go missing one by one
with some elements of fantasy and the Paranormal and there's feminism woven throughout it's a
really interesting read from what I remember the companion by Katie allender this one I also read
a while ago but I remember it being so creepy the gothic atmosphere was Top Notch it takes
place in a huge manner our protagonist is brought to be a companion for a girl around her age who
has a mysterious illness and she starts to find unsettling notes and messages around the manner
and tries to figure out what's going on a lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee another y a book
with really intense Gothic Vibes it's mysterious there's dark Academia Vibes I really enjoyed it
Watch Over Me by Nina lacour another y a this one has paranormal Vibes takes place on a coastline so
it's gray and Misty and Atmospheric don't make a drinking game out of how many times they say
atmospheric or atmosphere in this video because you will be blackout drunk but this book has
such an impeccable atmosphere it has really deep character development that I deeply appreciated
and it has that paranormal element that I don't typically read but I really enjoyed in this book
the dead in the dark by Courtney Gould and other y a that is quite terrifying I found myself scared
in real life while reading this one which doesn't always happen quite unsettling for all of these
of course check out trigger and content warnings to make sure there's something that you can read
safely but this one just Beware Of Violence toward children death of children is a big part of this
story I feel like I'm forgetting something so if I have a pop-up even more recommendations here on
the screen so that you can grab them hopefully at least a couple of these have piqued your interest
and you can pick them up this spooky season I also wanted to make sure to share with all of
you my well-read purse which they gifted to me a couple months ago I've already shared it on
all my other social media and just raved about it but I wanted to share it here too for any of you
who don't follow me on Instagram and Tick Tock well read makes these beautiful vegan leather
purses and they look like books on the outside but can hold all your Essentials inside and I
am absolutely obsessed I picked A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare for my
first well-read purse but if you know me this may be the first but it won't be the last I'm
absolutely obsessed with it it's so well made all the stitching is perfect the quality feels super
nice and I just feel like Belle in real life when I use it as my purse so I wanted to share it with
all of you and encourage you to check out their website site because they keep adding new designs
and they're all amazing now that I've shared my recommendations with you it's time to info dump
my TBR so I'm gonna pop up on the screen all of the books that I'm hoping to read in October or
maybe next October and the October after that all the spooky books that are on my TBR right now I'll
start with the ones that I either already have in physical form or are closer to the top of my list
and then after that it'll just be other books that I've heard are spooky that have piqued my
interest so many books to read and so little time let me know in the comments if you've read any of
the books I talked about in this video or any of the books that I'm thinking of reading let
me know your thoughts are they worth my time are they truly spooky or would they fit better
as just a general Autumn read or do they not fit at all let me know don't forget to find out how
you can get three months of expressvpn for free by visiting expressvpn.com plant-based Pride
or by clicking the link in the description box below thank you again so much to expressvpn for
sponsoring this video and thank you for hanging hanging out with me thank you as always to my
patrons for your support I adore you all I'll see you really soon in my next one bye friends