Play Book Tag discussion

Have you read a book that is spooky, Autumn related, Hispanic Heritage, Italian Heritage or other which relates to October?

Post it here!

The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware; 3.5


3.5. It was atmospheric and eerie. You can just feel the evil pouring of the house. Its as if the plot were not as intricate as the feels of the book. There is danger and darkness around every corner, sometimes even disguised as love and genuine care.

Poor Hal has been on her own. At 21, she is a tarot card reader on a pier, who owes money to sharks. When she receives word of a surprising inheritance, she thinks to go and see - maybe pay a few debts. But she is unwillingly involved in a web of supposed family, of secrets, lies, deceit, maybe even murder. A poor girl, who cannot even go to a place that was supposed to be home.

I liked it - was totally engaged. As I said, it was atmospheric and eerie. And you do want to root for this kid. See how it all plays out. There is an angel or two, but some horribly dark characters to go along with the house. Dysfunction breeds more trauma and more hate. What is a poor entangled alone 21 year old supposed to do? To read the cards, the fates, and try to survive.

October is Filipino American Heritage Month too!

Hoping to start something witchy soon.

I have the following books slated for this month:

Horrorstör
The Ex Hex
Hallowe'en Party
The Uninvited Guests

All of them fit various challenges I have and all are reasonable length - I'm crossing my fingers I will get to them all.

I'll just let everyone know - for those who help out by adding their own reads to the group shelf, there is a tag/shelf for "fall flurry of holidays 2023".

In honor of Banned Books week and the upcoming indigenous peoples day I read Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese.

This is a beautifully written, compelling and tragic story of the impact of the Indian residential schools. This is one of those books that you will think about long after you have finished reading it. My heart broke for Saul the boy, and then again for Saul the adult confronting his boyhood.

This book should never be banned, but rather required reading for pretty much everyone. There is a lot to be learned from this story.

Lyn wrote: "In honor of Banned Books week"

Oh that's a great idea for Fall Flurries. Turns out I have one of the top 13 banned books on my TBR, so I may try to get to it this week.

Did you see this Washington Post article that discovered that the majority of book bans nationwide were caused by the same 11 people?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/educat...

Bizarre

I read a banned book in August - Lolita - so unless one of the books I happen to be reading this month was included on a banned list, I'm not adding another. I think I read 3 or 4 other regularly banned books earlier in the year. I tend to ignore these 'official' acknowledgment weeks and months. However, I do like holiday seasonal reads - as you all know I think.😁

Theresa wrote: "I read a banned book in August - Lolita - so unless one of the books I happen to be reading this month was included on a banned list, I'm not adding another. I think I read 3 or 4 other..."

I read banned books all the time. I didn't pick Indian Horse specifically for this challenge. It's my book group book this month, and just happened to fit :)

Don't you love when that happens!

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix- 3 stars

Amy is barely managing, always behind in rent and not quite sure of her future. Her one immediate goal is to not get fired from her retail job at a knock-off Ikea store until she can transfer to a different location. When the floor manager asks her and another employee to work overnight for overtime pay, she is so happy to not be fired and have money for rent that she quickly agrees. However the investigation of what is happening at night in the store takes a horrific turn as their ghost loving colleagues awaken more than just the anger of the boss.

A good scary read for October that toes the line of too scary with humor. It is a real spoof on Ikea with the furniture descriptions from the catalogue taking a sinister turn as the night goes on. There was one scene in the middle that completely turned by stomach but overall engaging enough ghost story likening retail to prisons.

Trick or Treat Murder by Leslie Meier

2 stars

Lucy Stone lives in the small town of Tinker's Cove. The town has multiple historical buildings, but over the past few months there have been a number of fires related to them. Lucy wonders what is happening and tries to solve the mystery surrounding the arson.

To me the characters were stereotypical, but it helps that the story revolves around Halloween by bringing people together. The holiday also adds some fun to the situation. Lucy tries to figure out who is involved and what their motive could be. There are many suspects, but she is able to sort through them and unknowingly puts herself in harms way as she gets closer to the real culprit. The book is a quick read and captures the spirit and people of the town.

Weyward by Emilia Hart- 5 stars

A Five Star Read from me! This one hit every single note. Well written, three women in three generational timelines, all with similar struggles and a desire to reclaim their power, and who has a special relationship with the crows. Each of them wrongly accused and abused, fight to protect their loved ones, their line, and their power to survive, fight, and heal. Simply loved it through and through. Read it in practically one sitting, though my review is late.

A perfect October subtly witchy read!

I landed on a book of dark academia in the Subdue challenge. I don't read "scary" books but this one is extremely unsettling, and I think fits the season. I also plan on reading one for Hispanic Heritage.

Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko and Sergey Dyachenko - 4* - My Review

Set in Russia and written by Ukrainian authors Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, Vita Nostra is primarily a book of dark academia that also contains elements of fantasy, coming-of-age, gothic storytelling, and psychological manipulation. The tone is one of foreboding. As the story opens, teenage protagonist Alexandra "Sasha" Samokhina is a seventeen-year-old on vacation with her single parent mother before applying to university. During their vacation, she realizes she is being followed by a mysterious man. He eventually contacts her and asks her to perform an outlandish task. She balks – why would she do such a thing? He answers with a threat:

“You will, Sasha. You will. Because the world around you is very fragile. Every day people fall down, break their bones, die under the wheels of a car, drown, get hepatitis or tuberculosis. I really don’t want to tell you all this. But it is in your interests to simply do everything I ask of you. It’s not complicated.”

The man tells her she will attend university at the Institute of Special Technologies. No one knows of this school, which is located in a remote region reachable only by train. She is told she must take certain classes, one of which is “Special Technologies,” but neither she nor the reader is told what this entails. It turns out to be a school unlike any other, with bizarre requirements, eccentric and mostly unlikeable professors, students who have been coerced into attending and do not get along very well.

The narrative covers Sasha’s education from her first to third year. During this time, Sasha is transformed in frightening ways. She has special powers that mystify her, and the teachers will not tell her why she has them or what they mean. She is scared and confused, but also reluctantly intrigued by it all. Linguistics plays a key role in the story (which I won’t spoil), and I think a large part of what spurred my curiosity is finding out how the language connection gets resolved.

It may be frustrating to those who prefer straight-forward stories. It reminded me of the old computer game Myst, where the user is dropped into a world with no explanation of what to do, where to go, and how to achieve the goal (or even what the goal might be). I read it as a metaphor for the transition between childhood and adulthood, navigating difficult obstacles that one does not always understand and trying to avoid adverse consequences. It is a book that requires patience and the ability to endure Sasha’s experience of cognitive dissonance. The ending is one that can be interpreted in multiple ways.

Weyward

Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Vegetarian by Han Kang
4 stars
Tagged as Horror

This was not the first time I had picked up this book, and it was quite a challenge. The first time I didn't get very far through, although it is quite short, but it really was such a hard read that I had to wait a bit to give it another go.

If you can get passed the first part, narrated by Yeong-hye's husband, then it becomes a different novel, and is not as difficult, but this part is not fun. Yeong-hye's husband is quite a piece of work before she decides not to eat meat. In fact, she becomes vegan, as she gets rid of all animal based products from her life. I found it strange that this was such a critical thing for him and her family, I have spent time not eating meat, my daughter has been vegetarian for many years, and my mum was vegetarian for around 20 years, so in our lives this is not a big thing. I wonder if it is / was a cultural Korean things, as I am guessing the attitudes to women expressed were. For me, this was probably the most horrible part (although Yeong-hye's dreams are pretty graphic and horrific).

If you can get passed this point, there is beauty in the novel, even if it is not conventional, and there is certainly a lot of madness and mental ill health going on. The art work by Yeong-hye's brother-in -law sounds beautiful, but I wonder, like Jake the other artist does, if it really needed to be sexualized. However, I am somewhat sympathetic to the brother-in-law, who seems like he is also an outsider that no one seems to understand, including other artists, and don't find him as reprehensible as his wife comes to see him.

This is certainly not for everyone, the portrayal of Yeong-hye's decline into her mental illness is quite graphic and sad, so be very careful if choosing to read this.

I am definitely going to give Han Kang another try at some point down the track.

The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham
4 stars
MPG of horror

In some ways this is a little like The War of the Worlds, perhaps because it is in the UK, and the narration is like a reportage / story told after the climax of the even, although in this case there is no resolution, and the reportage is happening all along as our lead characters, Mike and Phyl Watson work in radio broadcasting, and get the chance to tag along on lots of interesting events in the uncovering of what the situation occuring is as the story develops.

The scenes of alien attacks are unlike any that I have seen considered before, even in all the sci-fi television I have watched over the years I don't think I have seen an alien that quite matches the ones in here in their appearance or ability. It is very strange, and I can imagine would have been a bit more frightening back in 1953. I didn't really feel this deserved the tagging of horror, but I guess I am looking at this from a later perspective where we make our horror a lot more gruesome.

Interestingly, although the cause of environmental change in the later part of the novel is extraterrestrial in its source, it did make me think about climate change and rising sea levels. There are many places in the world, including London, that will be impacted as sea levels rise, and I think there is a sense of hope at the end, despite the devastation behind them, that the human race will find a way to regroup and survive.

Honestly, this one was just two dark for me. Its wrapped up in grief and sorrow.

Narrated in part by a ghost, a grieving widow, who has always been alone, tries to piece together the sorrow that marked her husbands life. She uncovers more about the story of his sister, lost to the Holocaust. And in so doing rescues a lost story, and slowly opens herself up to healing.

The Ex Hex - Erin Sterling

2 1/2 stars

This was a fluffy romance I read for the Halloween season. It was OK, but I have read better fluffy romances. The characters seemed to have potential in the beginning, but then they all seemed to fade away. The plot did nothing but give the characters an excuse to be in the same place. This is not unusual for fluffy romances, but usually it is not so obvious. The Halloween/Fall Festival in the town also missed the mark. I have seen it done better in other fluffy romances. In short, if you want a fluffy romance with a lot of steamy scenes this will fit the bill, but I have read others that I have enjoyed a lot more. The first couple of chapters had a lot of potential, but once the characters came together all of that potential was wasted as the story shifted to one steamy scene after another.

The Diving Pool: Three Novellas – Yoko Ogawa (3 stars)

The three novellas translated here from the Japanese all have psychological gothic overtone.

In The Diving Pool we read about a girl fascinated by her foster brother’s body as she watches him practice diving every day. We also learn of her growing anger on being a misfit in her home, which is also an orphanage run by her parents. The anger manifests as actions toward one of the toddler orphans.

In Pregnancy Diary we read the entries entered by the sister of the pregnant woman. The excessive reaction of the woman and her sister to this process seem surreal.

In Dormitory a woman sets up her cousin in a cheap boarding house with a crippled Manager and a disappearing clientele. The woman becomes more and more suspicious of the goings on as the story progresses.

All truly eerie and tagged horror.

The Memory Police – Yoko Ogawa (3 stars)

The story is set on an island where gradually things disappear. As they disappear the people forget them, their look, smell, feel, etc. and then they are instructed to burn any that remain, since they no longer have any meaning.

People who have memories that don’t disappear with the objects are suspect and disappear by being taken by the Memory Police. Some say they are imprisoned and studied to see why they retain memories. In some cases, they die under suspicious circumstances.

The main character is a women who with the help of an old man creates a place to hide a man, her editor (she is a writer/novelist) who has a working memory. His memory keeps him whole but hidden as more vital things disappear that affect the woman and the old man.

I won’t say more than that. It is a complicated world view which left me with questions. Tagged Magical Realism and Horror

Small Spaces by Katherine Arden - 4 stars

I'm not a fan of horror, so when my co-workers proposed a Halloween buddy read and asked me to choose a book, I decided on this as Arden is a favorite author and I figured a children's book would be a quick read.

It did not disappoint! I loved this story, and wish I had more books like this as a child. Ollie is a great protagonist, and though the story is eerie and sinister, it's just the right amount of scary for kids. I would recommend this for both kids and the young-at-heart who love a good ghost story. And it's book 1 of 4, so I have more to look forward to!

Dead Voices by Katherine Arden - 4 stars

After their adventures in the first book, Ollie, Coco and Brian have become good friends. Along with Coco's mom and Ollie's dad, they are on a skiing trip to a newly opened mountain lodge. But the lodge turns out to be haunted, and the once again the trio are facing a new supernatural threat.

This was not as good as the first, but mostly because I thought it was too short, it could have been expanded a little and I felt the resolution came too quickly. But I like the new dynamic between the kids, and that Coco has a bigger part in this. I'm looking forward to the next book!

Dark Waters by Katherine Arden - 4 stars

Ollie, Coco and Brian are on a sailing trip on Lake Champlain, a tourist boat that takes people out to look for Champ, Vermont's version of the Loch Ness monster. Also on board is the captain's nephew, Phil, Brian's friend from school who used to tease Coco. But Phil has changed, haunted by the memory of being turned into a scarecrow in book 1.

As you might expect, they do encounter the lake monster. What I did not expect was that this would turn into a cliffhanger! Onto book 4!

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James 4 stars

Great haunted hotel story - perfect for a Halloween read.

In 1982, Viv Delaney arrives in small town Fell New York. She takes a job as a night clerk for the Sun Down Motel. After a series of strange occurrences in the hotel, Viv disappears. She's presumed dead, but since the body was never found, no one knows what really happened to her.

35 years later, Viv's niece Carly comes to Fell searching for the answers to her aunt's disappearance. She gets a room in the same apartment building, and then takes the job of night clerk in the same Sun Down Motel.

Predictably, Carly's experiences start to run parallel to Viv's. The hotel is haunted and beyond creepy.

Mystical Animals with Cultural Myths attached surely counts for the spooky eerie time of October....



You just don't mess with Mother Nature! Some mysteries of the Universe just are what they are. Years of cultural myths and passed down stories have shown us the intelligence and mystical qualities of several animals. We have learned, some of us, over time, to accept what is beyond us, and to respect it. This novel, in part, is about what happens when violence and trauma and greed and desire for power interfere with the natural order.

At the heart of the novel is a Rain Heron, a both silvery and colorful bird that emerges from the water and brings forth water. In fact, she controls all of the weather and temperature, that the needy farmers desperately need. She is fickle, and passes out her favor with vicissitude. But if you seek tyo control or abuse her power, you may have cause for regret.

The backdrop of the novel is that beyond the natural world, is the fallout from years of a politcal coup, and several individuals and familties marked by loss, violence, poverty, and trauma. Each desperately trying to both respect and control the environment. For some it is more about control than respect. One of our main characters is a woman whose early life is marked by trauma, but at the center of it, is how one literally sacrifices their own blood, to attract squid, and then somehow lovingly extract the black ink, sold to keep their trade alive. Similarly, the desire outsiders have to control the heron or the squid, quickly leads to downfall and violence.

The first half of the novel drew me in, despite the violence, and then there were many chapters where the violence and lawlessness was simply too chaotic and grief producing and hard to bear. But following that, the last part of the book drew me back in again, as some sense of meaning and order were slowly being restored. It is an easy book to appreciate and hard book to say one liked. It had more than its share of darkness, it did also have some light, but then again, that is Mother Nature as well, always keeping us in balance and leading us back to a natural order to help manage the fallout of the destruction, to see where new life can begin to grow again.

At First Bite – Ruth Ames – 3***
This is part of the Poison Apple series for middle-school-aged readers. In this episode, the focus is on vampires. It's a fun, fast read. And like other books in the series, the focus is more on the relationships between the characters than on the paranormal aspects.
LINK to my full review

Empty Smiles by Katherine Arden - 3 stars

While I enjoyed most of this book, I thought the ending fell short. It's a pity because I was so excited to find out how our intrepid heroes win in the end, but it could have been so much better, knowing how good this author is. Lovely setup, disappointing finish. I can only give this 3 stars.

3 stars
Colin Dickey gives you a good mixture of ghost story and history book. Just to name a few places he takes you to; houses, mansions, bars, brothels, asylums, parks, etc. that are found throughout the USA. Overall, I did not find the stories scary but a couple I did find to be a very creepy. Nice collection of haunted places and I would recommend to those who are into these types of books.

Hispanic Heritage:

The Barbarian Nurseries by Héctor Tobar - 4* - My Review

Undocumented Mexican immigrant Araceli Ramirez works as a live-in housekeeper and cook for the Torres-Thompson family – Scott Torres, Maureen Thompson, and their children. They live in a hillside gated community overlooking the Pacific Ocean in a suburb of Los Angeles. Due to an economic downturn, they have let go the children’s nanny and the gardener, so Araceli is now their only domestic staff. Scott and Maureen get into a serious argument over finances in which the two leave the house separately, each believing the other has their two young boys. Araceli has never been close to the boys, and after the couple does not return for several days, she decides to take them to their paternal grandfather, whose address she has found on the back of a photograph. This takes the three on a quest through the city of Los Angeles, a place these sheltered children had never before visited. It also leads to a series of events the result in Araceli being accused of child endangerment.

The setting in Orange County California, and the multiple ethnicities in Los Angeles, form the core of the narrative, and the descriptions capture the multi-cultural landscape of the region. It is a contemporary novel that confronts the current immigration debate by portraying complexities rather than stereotypes. The characters are from a wide variety of backgrounds and situations. Araceli is a strong person who feels misunderstood. She formerly attended art school at a university in Mexico City but is working in domestic service, which comes with its own baggage in the form of assumptions made by others, so no one really sees her for who she is. Maureen and Scott do not want people to judge their parenting skills as deficient, so they veer just a tad from the truth, which unintentionally puts Araceli in the position of “bad guy” from a social media perspective. The situation is just so realistic and believable. It is about communication problems, and the typical way many people want to find a scapegoat for societal issues that are truly much more complicated than can be summarized in a media “sound bite.”

It is well-written with a detailed setting and believable characters. It contains a number of non-translated Spanish phrases. For me, this added to the feeling of immersion, but if you are not a Spanish speaker, you may want to keep a translation tool handy. There are a few contrivances that seem a bit far-fetched from a plot perspective but were needed to encompass the diversity of social classes and races present in this part of California. It tackles a serious topic, but actually contains a good bit of humor. It is an artful work that tells a socially relevant story in an interesting way.

4.5

I read this in a day. It was actually charming and adorable. I gather there is more in the series, but I think I can just be one and done here. No literary awards here. Just a little fun October Witchy pleasure.

Chili Cauldron Curse(Kitchen Witch Mysteries, #0.5) – Lynn Cahoon (3 stars) 10/22/23 [83]

Novella that sets up the world for the Kitchen Witch series. Mia Malone, chef/caterer, has left Boise, ID for a week to help her grandmother, Grans, and her Grans' friend set up and organize a Food Pantry before a chili-cook-off fundraiser. Mia and her Grans are also Kitchen Witches in a town that has a large witch population. There is a murder, quickly solved, an antagonistic cop, and a young girl (sister of Mia's boyfriend) in need of guidance. Ends with a potential for a series to follow. Nice start.



One Poison Pie(Kitchen Witch Mysteries, #1) – Lynn Cahoon (3 stars) 10/23/23 [274]

Mia Malone has bought an old school building to fix up for a catering business and home delivered meal service. Her first catering client is a woman with many enemies who is murdered on the day of the event. The antagonistic cop harasses her and Cristina, her young helper. There are run ins with Mia's ex (Cristina's brother) and a new love interest introduced. I like that he is not a cop or a detective. He is actually the local grocery store owner. A fun new series.

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology


An impressive collection of stories of things that go bump in the night. I loved seeing so many familiar names as well as reading new to me authors. As in any collection I enjoyed some more than others. There is a wide variety of style and darkness but all center the Indigenous voice. While some stories stick to paranormal horror, others delve into the dark history of colonizer treatment and continued abuse of the Indigenous communities.

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez - 4 stars


The story of Gaspar, the heir to a powerful and rich family in Argentina who also founded a dark Order using black magic, but also starts as a small boy who has just lost his mother and on a road trip with his sickly father. We learn about Gaspar from all perspectives, his father trying to protect him from the dark family, his mother's story in meeting his father and trying her best for her son, as well as Gaspar trying to piece together his own life after a somewhat traumatic childhood but with amazing best friends and those looking out for him. Somehow Argentine history and social unrest is also interwoven throughout the story. The breadth and rich layering of stories are really done well.

Some of story was difficult to read, there is definite dark magic and a different understanding of protection with the end justifying the means. It is also a great study of human nature. I love the uncle. I really appreciate how it all tied together and the world building tied into the story that is often just about living and relationships. Long but worthwhile.

The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker - 3 stars


Six sisters, all with flower names, living in a wedding cake house in Connecticut built off of a gun empire. The girls are fairly secluded and desperate to find a way out of the house and their own adventures and love. When the first sister is engaged to be married, there somewhat reclusive and quirky mother foretells doom on her wedding night and tries her best to stop the marriage enlisting the second youngest who is her mother's only true believer. Unexplained tragedy and possible ghosts ensue with the youngest trying outlive a family curse.

An interesting book with an unexplained horror but also a look at a woman's role in the era, mental health and the gaslighting of women voices. Men much prefer to retell the story to fit their needs. The story is overly long with a lot of lead up but an interesting one. It is told a remembering for a memoir of older artist who has been found out.

For Hispanic Heritage month...


Velvet Was the Night – Silvia Moreno-Garcia – 4****
This is the third book by Moreno-Garcia that I’ve read and by far my favorite. In this work she does NOT include paranormal, horror, or magical realism elements. Rather she writes a wonderful noir crime novel based on historical events in Mexico, with interesting characters, multiple twists and turns in the plot and an unlikely partnership that I’d love to see again.
LINK to my full review

The Bonus Room by Ben H. Winters - 3 stars

A young couple move into an apartment, which seems like a dream home at first, until strange little things start happening.

This reads like it has ambitions of being turned into a horror movie. Towards the end, the writing is deliberately for maximum terror and gross effect, which I found to be just eye-rolling. I didn't really like any of the characters, and I guessed who the baddie was pretty early.

If you like horror, this will be right up your alley. For me I'd say this is just meh.

I read Good Night, Irene for National Hispanic Heritage Month.

Here is my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Murdered on Halloween

Review:

There are two things which Murdered on Halloween has going for it and they are it is seasonally appropriate and it is short.

Cute couple goes Jane and Kennedy go to a big celebrity costume ball on Halloween and guess what happens.

This is a short little novella which needs more polish and sophistication to hook me into reading further into a series.

Feelings: A Story in Seasons – Manjit Thapp – 4****
What a lovely and remarkable graphic novel! Thapp explores one young woman’s feelings over the course of a year, from the highs of a sunny summer day to the doldrums of a gray winter. The artwork is beautiful and evocative. The text is spare and poetic.
LINK to my full review

Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie

4.5 stars

Excellent reread and I was surprised at how much of the parallel murder mystery I had forgotten. The girl drowned in the bobbing for apples tub, and the family dynamic there I remembered. It's a late Poirot, published in 1969, and Christie stuck to the familiar, did not try to incorporate current events, which I think made this work just fine. Besides, I love mysteries with an inheritance theme lurking somewhere. The ending drama was a tad over-the-top and unrealistic, but a minor complaint.

Listened to the audio read by Hugh Fraser. Superbly done, and his portrayal of Poirot's friend Mrs. Oliver is such fun!

Read for Halloween - I am a lightweight when it comes to "scary" and this one was perfect for me. Others may find it not scary enough, but may enjoy searching for the classic gothic literary references (like Easter eggs):

This House Is Haunted by John Boyne - 4* - My Review

Set in England in the autumn of 1867, Eliza Caine is forced to leave her home after the death of her father. She applies for a job as a governess, is hired, and moves from London to a Norfolk mansion to care for two children. Puzzled by the absence of the children’s parents, she soon realizes all is not well. Strange events occur daily, and an otherworldly presence tries to harm her. After talking with the solicitor in charge, Mr. Raisin, she finds out she is one of long line of recent governesses, most of whom have met untimely deaths. She sets out to uncover the many mysteries associated with the house and its occupants.

This book is intentionally filled with everything one expects in a gothic tale – a dilapidated Victorian mansion haunted by a horrific tragedy, standoffish villagers, mysterious deaths, peculiar children, ghostly presences, servants harboring secrets, hidden passageways, and atmospheric descriptions. It is John Boyne’s homage to the gothic classics. It reads like an extended ghost story. I loved all the embedded references to classic gothic literature. For example, there are characters whose last names are Mr. Cratchett and Miss Bennet. Charles Dickens makes an appearance. I caught other allusions to Rebecca, Jane Eyre, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and even A Series of Unfortunate Events. It is the type of ghost story I enjoy – not too scary, but creepy enough to fit the Halloween season.

Joy D wrote: "Read for Halloween - I am a lightweight when it comes to "scary" and this one was perfect for me. Others may find it not scary enough, but may enjoy searching for the classic gothic literary refere..."

I also enjoyed this one ... though I didn't read it for Fall Flurries.

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

I read this as a horror read for spooky season and Halloween. I'm a horror wimp, prefering things more gothic than horror. This went far enough that I made sure to read it in full daylight only, but I suspect most serious horror fans would find it weak. I loved the satire of the whole thing, down to modeling the physical book after the Ikea catalog!

4 stars

I may never shop in an Ikea or similar store again.

This is a very clever ghost and haunted house story set in Orsk, a store very much spoofing Ikea, the physical store and its products as well as the retail philosophy behind it. And it is creepy, playing on so many of those irrational fears we all have. Only here they are not just 'monsters under the bed'! It is also the evolution of narrator Amy from slacker employee to a woman with strength and commitment.

I enjoyed this and appreciate the author's narrative commitment and dark humor. I also appreciate his digs at corporate coverups and limitation on liability after massive failures.

Joy D wrote: "Read for Halloween - I am a lightweight when it comes to "scary" and this one was perfect for me. Others may find it not scary enough, but may enjoy searching for the classic gothic literary refere..."

This sounds up my alley. I'm a wimp when it comes to horror too.

A Christmas-y horror book... read for Halloween.

Secret Santa / Andrew Shaffer]
3 stars

Lussi has been laid off of her publishing job for a while now and is having trouble finding another job. She was at a horror publisher (it’s the 1980s and horror is very popular!), but she is now interviewing for a position at a snooty high-brow publisher. The interviewer is quite rude, but had a heart attack (I think) at the end of the interview. When his son takes over the publishing company, he gives Lussi the job with the promise that she’ll find him the next Stephen King, in hopes that the company will be able to turn a profilt. But weird things are going on in this old building. And Lussi seems to be a target.

This was ok. Maybe a bit creepy, but I didn’t think all that much. It just wasn’t really all too exciting for me. I didn’t find the characters all that interesting, either. It was definitely 80s, though! There was a little bit of humour at the start, but I didn’t find the funny lasted throughout the book – at least it didn’t seem to for me.

LibraryCin wrote: "A Christmas-y horror book... read for Halloween...."

Probably should have left it to read for Dec Flurries, as I do tend to have a harder time coming up with Christmas reads than Halloween reads. I decided to read it now because of the "winter" monthly tag, though.

KTloves2listen wrote: "Dracula by Bram Stoker

4 stars

Listening to a full cast narrate Dracula made my first experience with the book help a lot.

There were several..."

This sounds great!

Theresa wrote: "This sounds up my alley. I'm a wimp when it comes to horror too..."

As familiar as you are with classics, I think you will definitely enjoy it, Theresa. In fact, I thought of recommending it to you.

I think I know where my next audible credits will go - and what I will listen to on my Thanksgiving road trip.