October 2022 TBR

Happy spooky season! It’s time for all the creepy, atmospheric reads. Let’s get to my October 2022 TBR.

Dracul

Synopsis:

It is 1868, and a twenty-one-year-old Bram Stoker waits in a desolate tower to face an indescribable evil. Armed only with crucifixes, holy water, and a rifle, he prays to survive a single night, the longest of his life. Desperate to record what he has witnessed, Bram scribbles down the events that led him here…

A sickly child, Bram spent his early days bedridden in his parents’ Dublin home, tended to by his caretaker, a young woman named Ellen Crone. When a string of strange deaths occur in a nearby town, Bram and his sister Matilda detect a pattern of bizarre behavior by Ellen–a mystery that deepens chillingly until Ellen vanishes suddenly from their lives. Years later, Matilda returns from studying in Paris to tell Bram the news that she has seen Ellen–and that the nightmare they’ve thought long ended is only beginning.

Dracul is one of the reasons that I wanted to read Dracula. Dracul has interested me ever since it was published, but I figured I would miss something if I didn’t read Dracula first. So now that I’m obsessed with Dracula, I really can’t wait to get to Dracul.

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The House of Seven Gables

Synopsis:

The House of the Seven Gables is a Gothic novel written beginning in 1850 by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne and published. The novel follows a New England family and their ancestral home. In the book, Hawthorne explores themes of guilt, retribution, and atonement, and colors the tale with suggestions of the supernatural and witchcraft. The setting for the book was inspired by the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, a gabled house in Salem, Massachusetts, belonging to Hawthorne’s cousin Susanna Ingersoll, as well as ancestors of Hawthorne who had played a part in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The book was well received upon publication and later had a strong influence on the work of H.P Lovecraft.

I’m stuck on gothic novels right now. And I already know that I enjoy Nathaniel Hawthorne’s work. Plus, this one follows a curse on a family that participated in the Salem Witch Trials. So, I’m very excited to dive into this one.

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Long Live the Pumpkin Queen

Synopsis:

Jack and Sally are truly meant to be … or are they?

Sally Skellington is the official, newly-minted Pumpkin Queen after a whirlwind courtship with her true love, Jack, who Sally adores with every inch of her fabric seams– if only she could say the same for her new role as Queen of Halloween Town. Cast into the spotlight and tasked with all sorts of queenly duties, Sally can’t help but wonder if all she’s done is trade her captivity under Dr. Finkelstein for a different cage. But when Sally and Zero accidentally uncover a long-hidden doorway to an ancient realm called Dream Town, she’ll unknowingly set into motion a chain of sinister events that put her future as Pumpkin Queen, and the future of Halloween Town itself, into jeopardy. Can Sally discover what it means to be true to herself and save the town she’s learned to call home, or will her future turn into her worst… well, nightmare?

I don’t expect this to be a literary masterpiece, but it seems fun. I’m hoping that it gives me all of the Halloween feelings that I’m craving this month.

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Fledgling

Synopsis:

This is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly unhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted-and still wants-to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself.

And I’m back to vampires. But this sounds more sci-fi than paranormal. I’ve wanted to read from Octavia Butler, and this seems like the perfect time to pick this one up.

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So those are the books on my October 2022 tbr. I hope I can get to all of them. I’m ready for all the spooky vibes.

Let me know what spooky books you’re reading this month in the comments below.