What have you been reading this October?

[NekroRider]

I've finished a couple of different reads over the last week.

I started and finished Northanger Abbey which was truly a hilarious book. I had a lot of fun with it and definitely was feeling very invested in the story and heroine's obliviousness 😆 I rated it 4/5 stars. I included this in my month of Spooky reads not because its spooky (because it very much isn't lol) but because it was my love of Mysteries of Udolpho that led to me reading it, and I had previously read Udolpho on a past October.

After that I quickly started/finished a very fun Halloween novella from 1977, Hound of Frankenstein. A young doctor is traveling across the Cornish moors on a dark Halloween night to take up a new post, when he falls into a spine tingling tale of mysterious howls heard on the moors and a missing person. This story was very, very good and a solid Frankenstein tribute. For most of it would have easily rated it 4/5 stars...but then I found the final conclusion really didn't match the rest of the story and didn't quite hit with me as well, so wound up rating it 3.75/5. I recommend this to anyone looking for a fun and quick Halloween read!

I am now around 20 pages into The Picture of Dorian Grey and so far it's a bit depressing lol

[The Joy of Erudition]

Well, I finished Queen of the Martian Catacombs, but I personally wouldn't recommend it as someone's first Leigh Brackett story. It was the first of the Eric Stark stories, but I think the second one, The Enchantress of Venus, is a much better story and serves just as well as an introduction.

I'm still working my way through Brandon Sanderson's Elantris, which is long, but on the side I finished The Sea Fairies by L. Frank Baum, and I've just started Clive Barker's The Hellbound Heart for Halloween. Those last two are fantasy of a sort, but not heroic.

@NekroRider: I remember Dorian Grey being rather witty and whimsical, especially at the beginning, not so much depressing aside from the usual Decadent philosophy. But it's been a long time for me. As for Udolpho, would you say it's better than The Castle of Otranto? I've only read the latter, but I'm curious about the former.

[Andrea]

NekroRider wrote: "I started and finished Northanger Abbey which was truly a hilarious book. I had a lot of fun with it and definitely was f..."

One of these days I'm absolutely determined to read something by Austin but it somehow just seems to keep getting pushed off my to read pile each year.

Finished reading The Hotel for the Lost, I mean you go in knowing there is something weird about the hotel and you assume everyone are ghosts and are trapped there, so that's no surprise, but there were some odd quirks that I couldn't quite figure out till it was explained. Nothing too original but kind of liked it (and as a free book, no complaints!)

Now my next rivetedlit.com free read for October will be Light as a Feather by Zoe Aarsen. I ended up prioritizing these books by seeing which ones my library doesn't have first, rather than by how interesting they sound, since I can always borrow the ones I can't cram into this month :)

This one sounds nearly exactly the same as a book I read in high school called The Seance (can't recall the author and too many books come up when I search...especially when "All the Light We Cannot See" and "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" are the top two matches...what a terrible search engine, sigh)

[Andrea]

Found it, guess it was the accent in the name that made it impossible to search for (if you search for just "seance" not a single book with that word in the title shows up!) - The Séance

[NekroRider]

I finished The Picture of Dorian Grey last night and it was an excellent read. At least 4/5 stars for me. I found it ran the gamut of depressing, to funny, to very interesting to think more about (had a few moments of stopping to look up a couple references that I might want to read more on later). Overall very enjoyable book for me. I want to try to read his Canterbury Ghost next October.

I've now switched gears a fair bit and am about 50 pages into Katherine Arden's Dead Voices This is the second book in her children's horror series Small Spaces. She's the author of the Winternight Trilogy (Bear and the Nightingale etc) which I really loved, so last year I decided to start checking out this new series of hers which is aimed at middle school (and I'd say definitely readable for some late elementary too) students. Anyway, I enjoyed the first book last October (cozy, fun Halloween read) so decided to read one each October. With the first book, I liked that it was accessible for middle school kids, but she didn't water down her prose too much. It still felt very much like her writing and she's always quite good at building an atmosphere. This one I'm also enjoying so far, too, but I've only just begun.

The Joy of Erudition wrote: "Well, I finished Queen of the Martian Catacombs, but I personally wouldn't recommend it as someone's first Leigh Brackett story. It was the first of the Eric Stark stories, but I thi..."

Good to know re. Queen of the Martian Catacombs! As far as Dorian Grey, what wound up depressing me in the early pages was more so the discussion in the painting studio on aging and decline that led Dorian to make his accursed wish to begin with. It probably doesn't have that effect on everyone, but I find that sort of thing depressing, lol. Shortly after that point it got quite a bit wittier (especially with Lord Henry) I agree! I liked it a lot, regardless.

As far as Ortranto, you and I are in opposite positions, lol. I read and loved Udolpho but still need to read Ortranto (I've got a long list of 18th and 19th century gothic novels I am still trying to get to!). I think with Udolpho enjoyment really depends on how much you like reading Radcliffe's very descriptive style of prose. I'm generally a big fan of the long landscape descriptions you see in many gothic novels, plus I really got a kick out of the "heroine" herself so the book was very much a good fit for me. But I've also seen others consider it boring for the same reasons, so I think this one heavily depends on reader preferences.

@Andrea, I hope you get to/enjoy some Austen next year. I found Northanger Abbey a lot fun and will probably try to give Pride and Prejudice a go next year...which I'm sure my mother will be thrilled to hear, given her life long obsession with that book, lol.

[Stanley]

NekroRider wrote: "I finished The Picture of Dorian Grey last night and it was an excellent read. At least 4/5 stars for me. I found it ran the gamut of depressing, to funny, to very interesting to th..."

I also found The Picture of Dorian Grey to be much more interesting and entertaining than I had anticipated.

[Andrea]

Finished Cry to Heaven by Anne Rice. I must admit I kept expecting a vampire to pop out of the shadows so was kind of weird reading a pure historical novel from her :)

For some reason, most of my Halloween reading has been taking place in the 1700's, both Cry to Heaven and the four Johnathan Barrett books take place them, so lots of guys in high heels and white wigs (in fact I pictured Barrett in 1800's and got all confused when he was staring at his wig in disgust, had to mentally re-imagine his entire wardrobe)

And talking of Barrett, on to the third book - Death Masque by P.N. Elrod. Loving this series so much more than I thought I would :)

[Faith]

My review of The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold

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

[NekroRider]

This morning I finished Dead Voices by Katherine Arden (author of The Winternight trilogy). Another 4/5 stars although for different reasons. This is a children's/pre-teen horror book (part of a series), but I find Arden balanced quite well between pre-teen themes and a well told ghost story. Since she traditionally excels at natural/landscape descriptions (especially wintry landscapes) I was expecting more of that here, but sadly didn't capture the seasonal atmosphere as much as in her fall entry (or the Winternight trilogy). It made up for it with the ghost story, though, imo and another heartwarming ending.

I've now moved on to Agatha Christie's Hallowe'en Party which I'm about 60 pages into. I got a good laugh out of the early chapters, in usual Poirot mystery fashion. I imagine this will be another quick read, after which I'll dive into my last planned book for October (the somewhat lengthier gothic mystery, Woman in White).

[Barbara]

I love Agatha Christie. 🧡

[Andrea]

NekroRider wrote: "I've now moved on to Agatha Christie's Hallowe'en Party which..."

Agatha Christie wrote a Halloween Poirot story! I must read this...

[Luffy Sempai]

Personally, I found Halloween Party to be quite repetitive and ditched it, sadly.

[Tony]

I finished The Luna Missile Crisis. I do like alternate history novels and this was not bad, but there were a few moments that just didn't ring true to me. It fills in the Published in 2020 Bingo slot for me.

I have started The Star Lost, a Star Trek graphic novel, which will also fill in the Media Tie-in slot.

[Mary]

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Volume 1 by Satoru Yamaguchi

[Karen]

I just finished The Raven Tower (finally) and have just started Deal with the Devil, because how could I say no to mercenary librarians?!

[Tim]

I’m reading The Long Winter series by A.G. Riddle. Enjoying it at the moment! Half way done with book two.

[Andrea]

Finished Death Masque, my only complaint about this series is that after becoming his initial death Johnathan manages to nearly get himself killed about 3 times each books, which seems a rather high death rate for any person in general. It's a bit like reading the Dresden book where he gets beaten to a pulp in every single book, and sometimes keeps going to get beaten up a bit more. It gets a little unrealistic (I mean Johnathan surviving is one thing, he's a vampire but how does Dresden keep going each time). But not enough of a complaint to take away my overall enjoyment of either series (really looking forward to reading Peace Talks this year)

But first, more vampires, this time getting around to reading the one I picked for my eReader. I haven't actually touched it since I opened it up a couple weeks ago, so now I'll dedicate actual time to reading it like a regular book and not just...well...used to be when I commuted but of course I don't do that now :) So on to Decorated To Death by Dean A. James

[Andrea]

Charged the rest of the way through Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board...that is one freaky game if it's really a thing, but the ouija boards freak me out too. It was ok, but I started to find it kind of long, and I wasn't a teenager whose ambition was to be part of the cool group so I couldn't find myself too concerned about most of the main characters "problems".

I have two more free books on my list from Rivetedlit.com and less than a week left before they switch out with other ones. I'll probably miss out on Rot and Ruin, it was the only one I had heard of before, but my library has it, and second, it's a series, so I I'll pick the standalone instead.

So it's The Beast Is An Animal by Peternelle van Arsdale up next, which sounds a bit like Strange Grace which I read earlier in the month.

[The Joy of Erudition]

Andrea wrote: "Charged the rest of the way through Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board...that is one freaky game if it's really a thing"

It's a real game. I saw it played twice as a child, once at school during recess, and once at camp after hours.

I recently finished reading The Hellbound Heart, which has excellent prose, good characters and dialogue, some brilliant ideas and imagery, and a lot of contradictions, loose ends, and poor motivations.

Also still working my way through Elantris.

[Pamela]

Chasing Graves by Ben Galley, a different kind of ghost story, just right for Halloween.

[Tony]

I finished The Star Lost. The artwork was nice and the plot was pretty good - and had enough gaping plot holes to make it seem like a regular Star Trek episode :)

I am continuing my reread of the Foundation series with the first of the actual Foundation books - Prelude to Foundation.

[Barbara]

Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds

Chasm City is the sequel to Revelation Space but works fine as a standalone.

In this sci-fi story, a former soldier is on a revenge quest to kill a man who's escaped to Chasm City, a place that harbors the horrific Melding Plague.

Good world-building and an action-packed plot. 3.5 stars

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

[Andrea]

Finished Decorated to Death, a silly light cozy mystery though I'm still wondering why the author chose a vampire as his main character when he just has him take a pill that takes away all his vampiric aspects :)

Now to wrap up October, the last Jonathan Barrett book - Dance of Death by P.N. Elrod

[The Joy of Erudition]

I finally finished Elantris, and now I'm reading Carnacki, The Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson and Swords Against Death by Fritz Leiber, both very nice collections of short stories.

[Andrea]

The Joy of Erudition wrote: "I finally finished Elantris, and now I'm reading Carnacki, The Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson and Swords Against Death by Fritz Leiber, both very n..."

I've read the Carnaki stories, enjoyed those.

[The Joy of Erudition]

Andrea wrote: "I've read the Carnaki stories, enjoyed those."

Really good haunted house stuff so far!

[Tony]

I have started reading another Star Trek graphic novel - The Modala Imperative - which features both the original crew and the Next Gen crew, although not interacting with each other.

[[deleted user]]

I spent the month reading short stories, working thru some magazines stacked on my kindle and an embarrassingly large number of anthologies that had been on my "currently-reading" list for a looong time (where I'd read a couple of stories then put it aside for months,.... anthologies are easy to play with that way.)

The best was, not surprisingly, Ken Liu's The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, which is some really great reading.

[Andrea]

Finished the Jonathan Barrett books, only complaint is that I wouldn't have minded there being more of them. And that other issue I pointed out of him almost dying three times in a book even though he keeps talking about how he's faster/stronger than regular humans. Seems event the weakest of them were able to take him out quite easily and regularly :)

The day before that I finished The Beast is an Animal, it was alright though I expected to learn a bit more about the nature of the Beast. I didn't get to read Rot and Ruin, but will get around to borrowing it from the library some day, at least I didn't start yet another series in a year when I was trying to finish them LOL