Hooked on Books discussion
Toys/Objects Roundup
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C: The Puzzle Box Posse
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“Oh, how tragic... Some of you left your poor teammates wandering the toy chest alone. Forgotten dolls, abandoned soldiers, clockwork hearts ticking in the dark with no one to wind them... ⏱️👻
A team that doesn’t all check in together risks becoming scattered pieces—and you know what happens to broken toys, don’t you? They end up in my collection… and I do so adore incomplete sets. 🕸️
So hurry along, little stragglers. Your friends are waiting… and the shadows are growing impatient.”
🪆🎃 Incomplete teams, consider yourselves haunted until you all arrive. 🎃🪆
Have you heard from Kirsten, Lisa? I’m assuming she’s not back from taking Ivy to school.
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Quick reminder:
You still need to consult the Toy Chest of Dread—lurking on the 3rd tab of your spreadsheet.
Let the Chest do its thing. It will give you a number. That number decides your toy. (I don’t know how. I don’t ask how.)
Then, please post:
Your team name
The number you got from the Toy Chest
in the Occult Museum thread (a.k.a. the check-in thread, where Belle sips judgment from a teacup shaped like a skull).
Because if you don’t… well. Belle loves making assumptions. And her math is always cursed.
—Toymaker Lisa
(Toymaker, spreadsheet whisperer, barely keeping the toys in their boxes)
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Hi! I just got into town today. I need to finish up August Quills and then I'll get busy with this one. So you know (because you are the ones I buddy'd with), I did my buddy reads and then only read Drarry for the rest. I had literally NO BRAIN on this trip.
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In F. Paul Wilson’s 1984 novel The Tomb, the pair of cursed but magical necklaces is an ancient artifact linked to the powerful and malevolent force of the Sumar Empire.
These necklaces are imbued with supernatural energies that grant protection and power to their wearers, but at a steep cost. While they bestow abilities such as enhanced strength, resilience, or other mystical benefits, they also carry a dark curse, binding the wearer’s fate to the will of the empire’s lingering evil forces.
Wearing the necklaces ties the characters into an ancient struggle between good and evil, blending allure and danger. The necklaces symbolize a double-edged legacy: magical gifts that are inseparable from their sinister consequences, highlighting the novel’s themes of ancient curses and the perils of tampering with forbidden powers.
Complete the following tasks:
🔗2. Read a chain of 3 books where two characters are magically linked or bonded
Soulmates, enemies, cursed partners, unwilling allies — if there’s magic forcing connection, it belongs here.
💔5. Read a chain of 3 books with a broken bond — romantic, familial, or magical
A friendship shattered, a sibling betrayed, a soulbond severed. Anything once whole now in pieces.
🔤6. Read a chain of 3 books where the author’s first and/or last name includes at least 3 letters from the word NECKLACE
(Bonus if it’s all 7 letters. Ultra cursed.)
So, one of our books is supposed to be a genre we don’t normally read. How do we indicate that?
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So, if I'm reading a book that has a MPG India, can I use that because I don't read many books set in India?
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They glittered in the dark, threads of light twisting like a snare.
“Unfamiliar genres… ahh, the best ones. A necklace always tightens differently when you’re not used to wearing it.”
One jewel pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat.
“Yes, Jackie. Choose your India book. Slip it on. Just don’t be surprised if it never quite comes off again.”
—Toymaker Lisa
Arghh--I forgot to click the notify button or bookmark this challenge and couldn't find it again.This is going to be so fun.
Lisa, I'm using Nowhere Else by Felicia Davin for my Necklace chain because it adds a BR (just fyi). I haven't found my bonded/stretch book yet, but I might join you for your hellhound book because humor is a genre I don't read (funny not funny).
Donna, I’m not sure where to put this, but Lisa and I would like a BR thread for How to Flirt with a Hellhound. I put it in the BR requests, too.
I am going to duck out of the Hellhound BR. I just realized that the book I read, Don't Sleep with the Dead works for soulmates (the characters trade hearts) and I don't wanna read Shannon Mae. Sorry, but I assume you'll be fine without me.
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The Monkey’s Paw is a legendary cursed object from W. W. Jacobs’ classic 1902 horror short story The Monkey’s Paw. It is a shriveled, mummified paw of a monkey that grants its owner three wishes, but each wish comes with devastating, often ironic consequences.
The paw was enchanted by a fakir to teach people not to interfere with fate. When someone makes a wish, the paw curls a finger, and the wish is granted, though never in the way the wisher expects. Wishes made with the Monkey’s Paw tend to bring tragedy rather than happiness, revealing that tampering with destiny comes at a terrible price.
Grimy and unsettling in appearance, the Monkey’s Paw is a potent symbol of greed, temptation, and unintended consequences. It serves as a chilling warning: Be careful what you wish for, because the cost may be far greater than you imagined.
Complete the following tasks
📘2. Spell the Curse: P.A.W.
Read a chain of 3 books with a title that spells out PAW
🧷3. Threads of Fate
Read a chain of 3 books with a hand on the cover — human, animal, skeletal, drawn, gloved, or ghostly. If it's grasping something? Even better.
🔮4. Wish Fulfillment Gone Wrong
Read a chain of 3 books featuring a deal, a wish, or a bargain that doesn’t go as planned. Doesn’t have to be supernatural — career goals, marriages, Faustian pacts… fate’s got range.
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https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Yes, but the task says title that spells out PAW.
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I only have an A on my immediate tbr, so I’d take that letter, please.
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Annabelle is inspired by a true story about a doll believed to be haunted by the spirit of a young girl. In 1970, a student and her roommate reported that their Raggedy Ann doll, the real Annabelle doll the movie is based on (pictured on the right), was acting strangely. A medium told them the doll was inhabited by the spirit of Annabelle Higgins. Despite their attempts to care for the doll, they couldn’t control its behavior and eventually sought help from Ed and Lorraine Warren, famous demonologists. The Warrens concluded that an unnatural entity was manipulating the doll. They took the doll and secured it in their museum, protected by sigils and wards. While the Warrens documented several instances of unusual activity, including the doll seemingly moving on its own, there is no proof it has ever caused physical harm or death.
The movie Annabelle draws heavily from this story, but is a fictionalized version. Still, the doll in the film (pictured above on the left) is undeniably creepy.
Complete the following tasks
Step 1: Purify the space & spirit by burning sage
Read a chain of 3 books that start with a letter in SAGE
Step 2: Choose the materials for your wards
Read a chain of 3 books with your ward material chosen on the cover (the team must choose from plants, stones, metal, or crystal, but you will all read for the same material)
Step 3: Put your ward items at the 4 corners of your area (around Annabelle). Draw your sigils/symbols in oil or water, encircling your space with a defensive boundary. It's all about intention.
Read a chain of 3 books that have the word SYMBOL in the text
Plants or metal for ward?There are lots of trees and buildings on covers
My next book is a plants book, so I like that idea.
We are checked in -- I will try to prioritize this, because really we are dangerously close to last place!!!
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Nightmare (known as Atmosfear in some regions) is a horror-themed interactive VHS board game released in the early 1990s, blending traditional gameplay with a live-action video experience that evolves in real-time.
The game comes with a haunting VHS tape (later DVD versions), featuring The Gatekeeper, a decaying, sinister figure who serves as the game’s host. Players must race against the clock(typically 60 minutes) as the Gatekeeper appears on screen at intervals to issue commands, curses, and sudden challenges. His interruptions are unpredictable and increasingly aggressive as time ticks on, heightening the tension and sense of urgency.
The goal is simple yet chilling: collect keys from different regions of the board, confront your fears, and reach the Well of Fears at the center before time runs out. However, only one player can win, and only if they draw and conquer their secretly written fear.
With its eerie soundtrack, sudden video interruptions, and ever-changing instructions, Nightmare/Atmosfear is less about strategy and more about immersion and dread. It transforms a living room into a haunted game space, where players are never quite sure what horror the Gatekeeper will unleash next.
Darkly theatrical and wonderfully nostalgic, Nightmare is a cult classic that turns game night into an unforgettable, spine-tingling experience.
📼👁️ VHS DESCENT: The Tape Is Watching You
You found a tape. You pressed play.
Now you’re inside it. And the only way out… is through.
This mini-game will take your team through three levels of cursed reading. Each level pulls you deeper into the static. Complete one task per level—but beware: the Gatekeeper might glitch into your feed at any time.
You MUST read Level 1, then Level 2, then Level 3 in order, BUT not at the same time. If a glitch is added while you are working through it, you have to change the book you are reading (unless it works for the new prompt, too).
🎮 LEVEL 1: PLAY
The screen flickers. The laughter sounds canned, but wrong.
Choose one:
Read a book under 250 pages. Quick, like your nerves.
Read a book tagged “humor” or “camp.” You’ll need the relief.
Read a book with a game or game-like concept—something with rules, puzzles, or dangerous dares.
🎮 LEVEL 2: DISTORTION
Your reflection is wrong. The book isn’t what you thought it was.
Choose one:
Read a book where a character questions reality (e.g., gaslighting, strange rules, or dreamlike confusion).
Read a book where the main character is isolated—mentally, emotionally, or physically.
Read a book with a mixed media format (emails, articles, interviews, found footage vibes).
🎮 LEVEL 3: DESCENT
The screen blinks. You’re not watching the tape anymore. It’s watching you.
Choose one:
Read a book with an eye on the cover.
Read a book with “eye(s), watch, vision, look, or see” in the title, subtitle, or series name.
Read a book where someone is being watched, followed, or surveilled.
Do we each have to do a different task?
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I assumed that and so I’ve picked mine.
Do we all have to finish our Level 1 book before we read Level 2, etc.?
Oh... that one I didn't even think about.
Hooked on Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Don't Sleep with the Dead (other topics)How to Flirt with a Hellhound (other topics)
All the Light We Cannot See (other topics)
Becoming Mrs. Lewis (other topics)
Catching Fire (other topics)
More...
Team Challenge
September 2025 - November 2025
Please consult the Toy Chest of Dread for your first toy selection. This is in the 3rd tab of your spreadsheet. Post your team name and the answer that the Toy Chest supplies you at the Occult Museum (check in thread).
Team
Jackie
Kirsten
Lisa
Important Links
Belle's Cabinet of Notices (Announcements)
Occult Museum (Check-in Thread)
Scoreboard
Ouija Board (Q&A)
Collectibles
The Monkey's Paw (Feedback)
SS: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Rules
⛓️Each toy/object has specific chains and/or tasks that need to be completed.
Examples:
1. Create a chain of 3 using titles consecutively (ABC)
-All the Light We Cannot See
-Becoming Mrs. Lewis
-Catching Fire
2. Create a chain of 3 with "dog" in the titles
-Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike
-The Dog Stars
-Hot Dog Girl
⛓️One person should NOT complete a whole chain by themselves. This is a team challenge. However, if a toy/object has multiple chains and a slower reader can only/want to only read for 1 or 2 chains (they must read at least one), then the other two faster readers on the team can complete the other chains between the two of them.
⛓️You may choose which toy/object from the list to capture first but you MUST complete it BEFORE starting a new toy/object.
⛓️You may use or drop articles: A, An, The
⛓️If you somehow manage to incorporate a Buddy Read into a chain, you can earn points based on the BR tier system.
⛓️Standard Rules Apply
⛓️At the end of the official challenge (last day of November), your team may choose to continue on at your own pace. There will be no points accumulated after November but you can finish any toys/objects that you didn't get to during the challenge.
Scoring
You will get 3 points for every completed book (9 per completed chain) PLUS page points.