Middle Grade Madness! discussion

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, it’s not Christmas, it’s Halloween! The spooky season is my fave on this group and I always look forward to everyone’s awesome recommendations for our book list.

How it works:
- Recommend as many spooky books/graphic novels for our list as you want (read more about that below) OR you can just take part.
- There's no need to sign up to take part, just join in the conversation below.
- This readathon starts in October 2021 (countdown below).
- Create a new Goodreads shelf for the October Readathon so you can keep track of what you’ve read for it if you want!

- Recommendations for our list closes on 24th September.
- I will feed the books/graphic novels from our list into a random picker.
- Using the link below (not yet added), you can access the random picker, spin the wheel, and it’ll randomly pick a book/graphic novel from our lists for you to read.
- Read the book/graphic novel and let us know your thoughts on it below!
- Then spin the wheel of the random picker again and it’ll choose another book/graphic novel for you.
- Try to read what the random picker picks for you but if you don’t have access to that book/graphic novel yet or if it chooses something you’ve already read for the readathon or that you've already read before or that you don't want to read/have DNF'ed/aren't interested in, then spin it again and it’ll choose something different.
- Alternatively, you can just ignore the random picker and read anything on the list that you like, but the random picker makes it more fun and spontaneous!


IF YOU WANT TO RECOMMEND A BOOK/GRAPHIC NOVEL FOR THE LIST:
The Rules on Recommending:
- It can be a book or a graphic novel.
- It MUST be spooky! That means it can belong to horror, supernatural, thriller, drama or any other series as long as it has some eerie vibes. Bonus points if it’s the kind of book you read in the dark at the dead of night!
- The book or graphic novel must be in English or translated to English.
- They can be MG, YA, Adult or New Adult.
- If the book/graphic novel is part of a series please only recommend the first in the series.
- You can recommend as many books or graphic novels as you like to be added to our list.
- Please check our book lists from last year to give you an idea of the kind of spooky books we read for this event and also please try to recommend different books than those already recommended last year: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The Book List:
MG
The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire Legrand - Kadi
City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab - Hani
A World Below by Wesley King - Lynn
Scar Island by Dan Gemeinhart - Lynn
Cleo Porter and the Body Electric by Jake Burt - Lynn
The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud - Spencer
Scritch Scratch by Lindsay Currie - Spencer
Paola Santiago and the River of Tears by Tehlor Kay Mejia - Anita
Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon - Anita
Bone Jack by Sara Crowe - Anita
What Lives in the Woods by Lindsay Currie - Bella A
Ghost in the Headlights by Lindsey Duga - Bella A
Thirteens by Kate Alice Marshall - Deeksha
Small Spaces by Katherine Arden - Deeksha
The House on Hackman's Hill by Joan Lowery Nixon - Audrey
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy - Audrey
The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy - Eden
It Came from Beneath the Sink! by R.L. Stine - Arin
The Vampire's Photograph by Kevin Emerson - Abigael
The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane by Julia Nobel - Ilsen
*Over The Garden Wall, Vol. 1 by Jim Campbell - Abigael
*Sheets by Brenna Thummler - Abigael

YA
*The Decagon House Murders, Vol. 1 by Yukito Ayatsuji - Kadi
*Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell - Abigael
Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 1 by James Tynion IV - Jessica
Our Last Echoes by Kate Alice Marshall - Reign
Grimoire Noir by Vera Greentea - Arin
Out of Control by Sarah Alderson - Lynn
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson - Ilsen
Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite by Zoraida Córdova - Ilsen
Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco - Ilsen

Adult
Bag of Bones by Stephen King - Jessica
Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff - Jessica
Ghost Mortem by Jane Hinchey - Lynn

Names in italic are the recommenders.
* indicate graphic novels, comics or manga.

Countdown: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...
Link to Random Picker: https://www.online-stopwatch.com/rand...

man i love spooky season ☺️ time to go look for some things to add!
also, just as a side note, in the “create a new goodreads shelf” note, you have steampunk september, which i think was intended to be something for this october readathon lol 😊

@Jessica ahaha thanks for telling me. I always make at least one mistake on these events😂 I did copy paste it from our current readathon but then I edited it so that’s kind of even worse that I missed that!🤦🏻‍♀️

oooh this sounds very exciting! Looking forward to some spooky (but not too scary) recommendations, haha

@Sandra me too! It’s actually been a really long time since I last read something that genuinely scared me so maybe I’d like to read just one really creepy book during this readathon...

Suggestions:
👿Oliver Nocturne series (I gave this series 3.5🌟 as a result of August! Who knew I could enjoy a vampire book/series?!)
👻Sheets duology (Haven't read this yet, but it sounds very good!)
💐Over the Garden Wall series
👤Because you love to hate me (I haven't read this yet, and my interests align very closely to Aurora's, so I don't know if I recommend this, but one of my favourite BookTubers was involved)
👻Marvels / Brian Selznick.
🎃Pumpkin Heads Mystery (Boxcar Children)
🎃Pumpkinheads / Rainbow Rowell. (This book is 'clean' and DEFINITELY as good as a Rainbow book should be, and is actually the only Rainbow book I've ever read because I'm worried about what might be in her other books which are Y.A.)

I've already borrowed most of these from the library. I finished Oliver earlier this month and I read Pumpkinheads last year, so don't currently plan to read it this year.

Sheets is so good!! I read the duology just last month and flew through them. The first book is my favorite. Highly recommend! I would love to read Pumpkinheads because we need more graphic novels on this list!

Ilsen: OtGW (on my list) is a video mini-series as well as graphic novels; all Brian Selznick books have graphic novel elements, too.

@Abigael I love how you put emojis besides them all😂👏🏻 also ONLY 3.5 STARS FOR THE OLIVER NOCTURNE SERIES. It’s the second best vampire series I’ve ever read and would be the 1st if Department 19 wasn’t the most brilliantly fantastic series. Actually I should add the first book of that as one of my recommendations to the list.

I have Over the Garden Wall on my to watch list! I’ll probably not get around to it any time soon though. Things tend to sit on that list for a looong time.
I’ve never read any Rainbow Rowell books because I actively avoided the hype around her books back when I was a teen (5-6 years ago). I have a comic of hers (Marvel’s Runaways) sitting in my hoopla rn literally waiting for me to decide if I should read it or not (I’m not wasting a borrow, it’s from last month’s bonus borrows).

So from all those books/series you listed do you want me to add any of those to the book list as your recommendations or are they general talking point kind of recommendations? Our book list is growing everyday which is great so I could add 3-4 of them if you want me too

Kadi, if you could add Oliver, OtGW, Sheets, and Pumpkin Heads, I would appreciate it.

I just realised I don't see the link for the Countdown nor the Selector. Is anyone else not seeing them?

Also, could someone add my 4 titles from my comment above? Thank you!

@Abigael yep I’ll add them for you! I’m finally going to read the Over the Garden Wall comic now! Yay🎉 love your choices!

Also yeah it’s not just you, I haven’t added the links for the countdown or random picker yet because I got distracted when I was setting up the page discussion and then kind of stopped. I’ll add the countdown link today but the random picker link will be added same day as the book list is revealed (I do them together).

So sorry to keep going on about this, but when will we see the Countdown link?

Hey Abigael so when I tried to add it goodreads came up with an error message that said links to other websites had been blocked. I'd heard of this happening to one of my friends about a week ago but at the time my goodreads was fine. I don't know if it's temporary or an error or something. It's very strange and I wonder what that means for the random picker too. Hopefully whatever issue this is will resolve itself soon. I'll keep trying but if you don't see the link to the countdown appear above within the next few days then it'll probably be that the content block still won't let me.

In the meantime I'm working on the book list and I'm thinking I'll upload it earlier than originally planned so maybe tomorrow or even today if no one has any objections to that.

I still want to suggest some!! I’ll do it right now. I have just been swamped with school

@Ilsen aah sorry for rushing you! Hope your school is going well!
Tbh I was trying to remember who I was waiting for recs from and I was thinking it was either you or maybe Jessica and was just going to send a private message out.
I’ve finished compiling the list (bar your 3 newly added recs) and there are so many good books I’m genuinely interested in and I’m so looking forward to next month!

I’m excited too! And it’s ok. I managed to do it very quickly. I’ve been thinking about them for a while! I’m excited to try to read some spooky books since I haven’t been reading anything lately

@Ilsen literally same! I keep doing this thing where I start books and then quickly lose steam and never finish them. I’m kinda worried about it actually but it seems I’m becoming more interesting in watching anime or reading manga or comics and I don’t want to lose my will to read books. Because I’m really interested in a lot of the books on this list I’m hoping it can revitalise my love and focus on reading.

I just haven’t been reading because I’m reading so much for school that when the weekend comes, I’m fried. Also, I hope you don’t mind, I put four options instead of three because I saw someone put four and it was hard to narrow down XD

@Ilsen what kind of stuff do you have to read for school?
Also that’s totally fine! We have a great mix of recs so what’s one more, amirite👏🏻

Kadi wrote: "@Ilsen what kind of stuff do you have to read for school?
Also that’s totally fine! We have a great mix of recs so what’s one more, amirite👏🏻"

I am reading Pride and Prejudice for my Jane Austen and the Bronte Sisters class and I am reading a classic called The Aeneid for my Exile in Literature class. Next, I have to read a retelling of Pride and Prejudice called Longbourn so it's stuff like that. I also have other long articles to read relating to the class.

Ilsen wrote: "Kadi wrote: "@Ilsen what kind of stuff do you have to read for school?
Also that’s totally fine! We have a great mix of recs so what’s one more, amirite👏🏻"

I am reading Pride and Prejudice for my ..."

i hope you're at least enjoying pride and prejudice! i know it's not for everyone, but it was one of the few i actually enjoyed reading for class

@Ilsen oh wow! I could never read those books despite how much I love studying English. I really don't like classics and find them super boring. But I relate on reading long articles, my uni is starting next week and I'm not looking forward to having to get back into reading convoluted law articles!

Also good news! Links are working once again so I've posted the countdown link above and will be doing so with the random picker link soon too👏🏻

jessica wrote: "Ilsen wrote: "Kadi wrote: "@Ilsen what kind of stuff do you have to read for school?
Also that’s totally fine! We have a great mix of recs so what’s one more, amirite👏🏻"

I am reading Pride and Pre..."

I am loving Pride and Prejudice! Definitely glad that I read it finally. Also Kadi, I used to not like classics either but I appreciate certain ones now such as Dracula and Frankenstein. Pride and Prejudice is definitely on that list now. It is definitely something I wouldn't have loved if I was younger but it is a good read. I totally recommend the 2005 Pride and Prejudice film because they basically keep the same vibe as the book and changed only small things.

Yes, I like that film.

Aaand the book list is out! Check it out here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

You can roll the random picker and find out your first read for the https://www.online-stopwatch.com/rand...

my first pick is vampires never get old!

i'm joining the readathon!
unfortunately, some of the books the random picker has picked for me are borrowed by someone else in the library and i will need to wait for a few weeks before they're available.
katherine arden's small spaces has been sitting on my tbr since it was released so i think i will just read that one while it's available ^^

Oooh I got Small Spaces!! I’ve been wanting to read that one for so long! Requesting it now!

So my first roll of the random picker got me Scar Island but I haven’t been able to find a copy yet so I spun it again and got Pumpkinheads which I also haven’t been able to find a copy of. For some reason it’s not on hoopla even though that’s where I always go to read graphic novels.

Anyway then I figured there’s no point rolling again and I might as well pick something from the list that I’ve already managed to get a copy of. So I’ll be starting off with Cleo Porter and the Body Electric which, ever since Lynn reminded me of it’s existence by adding it to the list, I have been really really wanting to read it.

@Arin @Ilsen I’m interested in seeing what you think of Small Spaces. It’s also on my TBR but for some reason I don’t feel very enthusiastic towards it so I’m not sure if I’ll make the time to get round to it next month.

First spin: The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane, but I've already read that one.
Second spin: The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane - what are the odds?
Third spin: Scar Island

@Lynn there are like 30 books on that wheel. What are the odds of you getting the same book twice in a row😂 there’s actually a little remove button in the corner so when your pick comes up you can remove it and roll again so that you won’t get the same one. And the removal isn’t permanent either (it’ll revert to normal when you reload the page) and doesn’t effect anyone else’s use of the wheel so feel free to do that in the future if you like!

Ooh so Scar Island! That was your recommendation so have you not already read that one? Or did you add it to create a chance to read it?

For my first spin I got Vampires Never Get Old, and for my second spin I got City of Ghosts! I just requested both from my library. Really excited for these!

Kadi wrote: "@Lynn there are like 30 books on that wheel. What are the odds of you getting the same book twice in a row😂 there’s actually a little remove button in the corner so when your pick comes up you can ..."

I haven't read it. I didn't know about the remove button.

@Lynn yeah I didn’t notice the remove button either till my second spin and then on the third spin I got the same pick as my first spin😂 it’s quite hidden in the corner.

@Grace ooh that means you and Jessica will both be reading it! There’s not many vampire books on our list this time. I’m not really into short story collections so I probably won’t read it but I definitely want to hear what you guys think of it afterwards!

so, my third spin was Lovecraft Country, but my copy is due annoyingly on september 30 and someone’s got a hold on it so i can’t renew it (and if i place a hold i won’t get it til after october is over) so I’m gonna get a slight head start and read it before i lose it lol😂😅

@Jessica go for it! I was considering starting The Decagon House Murders, Volume 1 before October started because I think my ARC of it is going to expire but then I'm reading stuff for our Steampunk September readathon so that's keeping me too busy to start anything new.

Well, feel free to share your thoughts on here as you read it or when you've finished it!😊

Aaand October is here!!🎉

I’m kicking off this readathon with a good old spooky murder mystery set on a deserted island: The Decagon House Murders, Volume 1!

If you’re interested in reading this manga too you’ll be happy to learn that vol 2 is already out and The Decagon House Murders, Vol. 3 comes out on the 19th so you won’t have to wait long to keep reading the series.

Yes! It's finally spooky season! I'm super excited for this challenge. I have a lot of the books on the list at my library, but lucky me, someone has already borrowed them! I'm going to wait until they're available to start the challenge. I wish you all luck!

Kadi wrote: "
The Book List:

MG
The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire Legrand - Kadi
City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab - Hani
[book..."

Just an FYI - Even though the cover of Ghost Mortem makes it look like it is a middle grade book, it is actually adult.

@Lynn aah rookie mistake on my part! Never judge a book by its cover! To be honest I think I actually did know it wasn’t mg because the genre tags on its goodreads entry don’t list it as mg but I must’ve overlooked that when rearranging the list and then I just kept all your recommendations together. I’ll move it down to adult now!
Despite the cover I’m actually quite interested in reading Ghost Mortem! It sounds from the synopsis like a chill, cozy read for a quiet night.

Kadi wrote: "@Lynn aah rookie mistake on my part! Never judge a book by its cover! To be honest I think I actually did know it wasn’t mg because the genre tags on its goodreads entry don’t list it as mg but I m..."

Actually, I thought it was a middle grade book when I bought it and then for a long time after, so I understand the confusion. I didn't discover it was an adult book until I was preparing for the August readathon and was sorting my middle grade books. I just wanted to make sure what nobody started to read it and was surprised by the content.

@Bella aah that's a bit of a pain that none of the books you want to read for the readathon are available in your library yet. I feel like maybe I should start posting readathon lists earlier in the month before we start so that people have more time to request books from the library. I did it quite late for this readathon so sorry about that😔

@Lynn I bet you found that super confusing. It's always really weird when you go into a book expecting something when it's completely different from that. But now that you've given a warning I feel like we'll all be a bit better prepared to face that!

Aahh I overbooked myself with buddy reads this month, but I'm gonna try my best to read 1 or 2 for this readathon!!