🌒 Hi, guys! I hope you’re having the most wonderful day, surrounded by AMAZING readings.❤️ Today I’m more than excited because as you’ll see from the title I’ll be sharing with you the most spooky books of my TBR, that could become possible readings for Halloween season in October! I know you’re probably thinking “Sofi, it’s August, are you okay?” lol and YES, I KNOW! 😅 But I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I want to read that kind of spooky, creepy, atmospherically engaging plotline. So I thought, even though it’s August and October is still a little while away, it would be fun to gather my possible readings for Halloween and, by the way, know your opinions on each book on my list and thus be able to create a scary stack to read in the future. 😍 Also, of course, I’d love to hear your spooky recommendations for me, as I’m ready to add them all to my TBR.
When I have in mind reading something spooky in general I think of a spooky atmosphere that keeps you on the edge of the seat wanting to know what will happen, I also love anything that has to do with witches, it’s my jam & of course, weird and dark plots. So you’ll find a bit of all of that on my list today. 😊
I hope you like the idea, that you can enjoy the post, and that you especially find new readings for your own TBR! 🙌🏻 You know that I would love to know everything you think in the comments, it will be a lot of fun, so let’s START! 🌒
“What he didn’t say was that you don’t get cold-resistant because your jackets suck, you just stop complaining about it after a while, because complaining doesn’t make you any warmer.”
Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.
The creeping horror of Paul Tremblay meets Tommy Orange’s There There in a dark novel of revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones.
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“I love her so much more when she’s not here.”
From the author of the New York Times bestseller Wilder Girls comes a new twisty thriller about a girl whose past has always been a mystery—until she decides to return to her mother’s hometown . . . where history has a tendency to repeat itself.
Ever since Margot was born, it’s been just her and her mother. No answers to Margot’s questions about what came before. No history to hold on to. No relative to speak of. Just the two of them, stuck in their run-down apartment, struggling to get along.
But that’s not enough for Margot. She wants family. She wants a past. And she just found the key she needs to get it: A photograph, pointing her to a town called Phalene. Pointing her home. Only, when Margot gets there, it’s not what she bargained for.
Margot’s mother left for a reason. But was it to hide her past? Or was it to protect Margot from what’s still there?
The only thing Margot knows for sure is there’s poison in their family tree, and their roots are dug so deeply into Phalene that now that she’s there, she might never escape.
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“Good people don’t bow their heads and bite their tongues while other good people suffer. Good people are not complicit.”
A young woman living in a rigid, puritanical society discovers dark powers within herself in this stunning, feminist fantasy debut.
In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy. Her mother’s union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement.
But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still lurking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the journal of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.
Fascinated by the secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.
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“Girls hunger. And we’re taught, from the moment our brains can take it, that there isn’t enough food for us all.”
Beware of the woods and the dark, dank deep.
He’ll follow you home, and he won’t let you sleep.
Who are the Sawkill Girls?
Marion: the new girl. Awkward and plain, steady and dependable. Weighed down by tragedy and hungry for love she’s sure she’ll never find.
Zoey: the pariah. Luckless and lonely, hurting but hiding it. Aching with grief and dreaming of vanished girls. Maybe she’s broken—or maybe everyone else is.
Val: the queen bee. Gorgeous and privileged, ruthless and regal. Words like silk and eyes like knives, a heart made of secrets and a mouth full of lies.
Their stories come together on the island of Sawkill Rock, where gleaming horses graze in rolling pastures and cold waves crash against black cliffs. Where kids whisper the legend of an insidious monster at parties and around campfires.
Where girls have been disappearing for decades, stolen away by a ravenous evil no one has dared to fight… until now.
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“I will never judge you, nor pity you. I shall rage beside you. And I shall love you. No more and no less.”
Before the birth of time, a monk uncovers the Devil’s Tongue and dares to speak it. The repercussions will be felt for generations…
Sixteen-year-old photography enthusiast Zoey has been fascinated by the haunted, burnt-out ruins of Medwyn Mill House for as long as she can remember–so she and her best friend, Poulton, run away from home to explore them. But are they really alone in the house? And who will know if something goes wrong?
In 1851, seventeen-year-old Roan arrives at the Mill House as a ward–one of three, all with something to hide from their new guardian. When Roan learns that she is connected to an ancient secret, she must escape the house before she is trapped forever.
1583. Hermione, a new young bride, accompanies her husband to the wilds of North Wales where he plans to build the largest water mill and mansion in the area. But rumors of unholy rituals lead to a tragic occurrence and she will need all her strength to defeat it.
Three women, centuries apart, drawn together by one Unholy Pact. A pact made by a man who, more than a thousand years later, may still be watching…
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“The anticipation of the loss hurts nearly as much as the loss itself. You find yourself trying to hold on to every detail, because you’ll never have them again.”
Seventeen-year-old Aderyn (“Ryn”) only cares about two things: her family, and her family’s graveyard. And right now, both are in dire straits. Since the death of their parents, Ryn and her siblings have been scraping together a meager existence as gravediggers in the remote village of Colbren, which sits at the foot of a harsh and deadly mountain range that was once home to the fae. The problem with being a gravedigger in Colbren, though, is that the dead don’t always stay dead.
The risen corpses are known as “bone houses,” and legend says that they’re the result of a decades-old curse. When Ellis, an apprentice mapmaker with a mysterious past, arrives in town, the bone houses attack with new ferocity. What is it that draws them near? And more importantly, how can they be stopped for good?
Together, Ellis and Ryn embark on a journey that will take them deep into the heart of the mountains, where they will have to face both the curse and the long-hidden truths about themselves.
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“Little Lucy, dressed in white
Gave her mother such a fright
Walked into the woods one day
Where she went no one can say
Down a road that no one found
Or are her bones sunk in the ground?
How many steps did Lucy take?
One, two, there, four…”
In the faux-documentary style of The Blair Witch Project comes the campfire story of a missing girl, a vengeful ghost, and the girl who is determined to find her sister–at all costs.
Once a year, the path appears in the forest and Lucy Gallows beckons. Who is brave enough to find her–and who won’t make it out of the woods?
It’s been exactly one year since Sara’s sister, Becca, disappeared, and high school life has far from settled back to normal. With her sister gone, Sara doesn’t know whether her former friends no longer like her…or are scared of her, and the days of eating alone at lunch have started to blend together. When a mysterious text message invites Sara and her estranged friends to “play the game” and find local ghost legend Lucy Gallows, Sara is sure this is the only way to find Becca–before she’s lost forever. And even though she’s hardly spoken with them for a year, Sara finds herself deep in the darkness of the forest, her friends–and their cameras–following her down the path. Together, they will have to draw on all of their strengths to survive. The road is rarely forgiving, and no one will be the same on the other side.
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“Monsters were way more interesting to Deirdre than animals, even talking ones.”
The Blair Witch Project meets Imaginary Girls in this story of codependent sisterhood, the struggle to claim one’s own space, and the power of secrets
Sixteen-year-old Skye is done playing the knight in shining armor for her insufferable younger sister, Deirdre. Moving across the country seems like the perfect chance to start over.
In their isolated new neighborhood, Skye manages to fit in, but Deirdre withdraws from everyone, becoming fixated on the swampy woods behind their house and building monstrous sculptures out of sticks and bones.
Then Deirdre disappears.
And when something awful comes scratching at Skye’s window in the middle of the night, claiming she’s the only one who can save Deirdre, Skye knows she will stop at nothing to bring her sister home.
| Goodreads | Book Depository |
From the author of You Must Not Miss comes a haunting contemporary horror novel that explores themes of mental illness, rage, and grief, twisted with spine-chilling elements of Stephen King and Agatha Christie.
Following her father’s death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor’s doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone…and more tormented.
As the cold New England autumn arrives, and Jane settles in to her new home, she finds solace in old books and memories of her dad. She steadily begins making new friends, but also faces bullying from the resident “bad seed,” struggling to tamp down her own worst nature in response. Jane’s mom also seems to be spiraling with the return of her childhood home, but she won’t reveal why. Then Jane discovers that the “storage room” her mom has kept locked isn’t for storage at all–it’s a little girl’s bedroom, left untouched for years and not quite as empty of inhabitants as it appears….
Is it grief? Mental illness? Or something more…horrid?
| Goodreads | Book Depository |
“Bongo is an excellent watchdog, by which I mean that he will watch very alertly as the serial killer breaks into the house and skins me.”
When a young woman clears out her deceased grandmother’s home in rural North Carolina, she finds long-hidden secrets about a strange colony of beings in the woods.
When Mouse’s dad asks her to clean out her dead grandmother’s house, she says yes. After all, how bad could it be?
Answer: pretty bad. Grandma was a hoarder, and her house is stuffed with useless rubbish. That would be horrific enough, but there’s more—Mouse stumbles across her step-grandfather’s journal, which at first seems to be filled with nonsensical rants…until Mouse encounters some of the terrifying things he described for herself.
Alone in the woods with her dog, Mouse finds herself face to face with a series of impossible terrors—because sometimes the things that go bump in the night are real, and they’re looking for you. And if she doesn’t face them head on, she might not survive to tell the tale.
| Goodreads | Book Depository |
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I’ve only read Burn Our Bodies Down, which I recommend! I have Bone Houses and Rules for Vanishing on my list too! happy reading 🙂
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Can’t wait for Burn Our Bodies Down, I got the audiobook through Netgalley so maybe I heard it before Halloween comes around. 😍✨👏🏻 Rules Of Vanishing & The Bone House sound SO unique, I hope we both enjoy them ❤️
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Ooh enjoy! 🙂
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I have two of them on my TBR! Now i have to add more! Happy happy reading.
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YAY!! 👏🏻✨ SO happy to grow your TBR, hope you enjoy them a lot once you read them 😊
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Yasss. Love this list! Spooky season is HERE.
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YESSS!!! ❤️ I love to start getting the vibe, I’m ready to read all the spooky stuff 😅
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These all sound so good! I’ve been planning my TBR and posts for October for months so I’m very ready for it to be Spooky Season! Summer just isn’t the time of year for me 😅
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OMG, Louise!! 😍 I can’t wait to see all of you amazing spooky content, I’m ready!! 👏🏻 I celebrate my horror season in the middle of spring, I swear I live in the wrong hemisphere 😂 but I do my best, I adore my spookie readings in any season 😄✨
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I LOVE this TBR. I’ve read two and the rest were already on my wishlist so we have v similar taste. I gotta say The Year Of The Witching is fantastic, I hope you enjoy.
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I’m SO glad we have similar tastes! 🥺 I hope we both love all these books ❤️ & I really can’t wait to read The Year Of The Witching, it sounds AMAZING, I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed it 😍✨
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Love the sound of Burn Our Bodies Down. The cover alone looks so atmospheric and autumnal.
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I know, right? the first thing that caught me was that beautiful cover 😍
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I’m gonna need all of these 😍 Fantastic list!
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YAY! LOVE to see we’re ready for spooky season to begin 😍✨
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I’ve read Burn our Bodies Down, Sawkill Girls and Teeth in the Mist the last of which was probably the most classically scary though Burn Our Bodies Down was pretty good.
Katrina Leno’s first book gives me great hopes for Horrid though! That one and Here There Are Monsters are going right on my TBR!
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I’m so glad to know your thoughts on each of them! Thank You ❤️ & it makes me happy that Here Are Monsters is going to your TBR, it sounds so good and I’m honestly in love with the cover, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it once you read it ❤️✨
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I haven’t read any, but would love to read Sawkill Girls. I haven’t read horror books but been thinking of givingit a try. Do you know about horror graphic novels?
Love your post, as always. Take care 😊
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Sawkill Girls definitely sounds amazing, so I hope you love it if you get to read it. ❤️
Sorry honey, I don’t really know much about graphic novels, but I do know that Through the Woods by Emily Carroll is very much loved, it has incredible reviews. 😊
Thank you SO much, Yade, I hope you have a beautiful day 🥰
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Thanks ❤
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Hi! Butting in here with some horror graphic novel recs 😄 The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is pretty good. Then there’s Locke & Key, co-created by Joe Hill, it’s a six-book series and I loved them all. And of course there’s The Walking Dead if you want to get your zombie on 😄 I also have Afterlife with Archie but I enjoyed that story less. Hope you find something you enjoy!
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Hi! Thank you so much for this! I’m always trying to find more graphic novels (no matter the genre) to read and this is perfect! Thank you so much, take care! 😊
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You’re welcome 😊 Be sure to check out https://mycomicrelief.wordpress.com for all comic recs!
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Thanks!
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Seriously Sofi, STOP with all the amazing recommendations! My TBR is wayyyy too full!!! Ahhh but these all look so good, and an amazing post by you per usual.
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Awww, Erin!!! 🥺🥺🥺🥺 I must confess that growing everyone’s TBRs is my guilty pleasure, though. 😅
Thanks for your incredible comment, you always made my day 😍✨
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I read The Twisted Ones last year and it has since become one of my favorite books! Seriously, I cannot wait until October either, I’m saving up a lot of my horror/dark fantasy/creepy books for Halloween month 🙂
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I think I have a book for you. It is Dark Fantasy. The name is Flame of Chaos by Amelia Hutchins.
https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/flames-of-chaos-amelia-hutchins/1136119949
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OMG, knowing it’s one of your favorites makes me even more excited to read it!! I haven’t seen many people talking about it, so it makes me happy to know that. ❤️ YAY! I’m also super excited, although I always plan a huge stack that I can’t finish, but anyway… it’s a lot of fun 😅✨👏🏻
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Feeling ALL those spooky vibes. (And now dancing Jack Skellington style back to my TBR to add these fantastic recommendations!)
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YAY!! 😍👏🏻✨ I LOVE that, fave comment ❤️
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I recently read Rules for Vanishing and it’s SO GOOD! It scares me (in a good way when you’re reading a horror book) and it’s perfect for halloween! This halloween I really want to get to The Dreadful Tales of Prosper Redding and The Wicked Deep 🙂
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OMG, really? 😍 I feel that urge to read it as soon as possible, but I’ll have to wait a bit! 😅 The Dreadful Tale is in my TBR too, I’ve had it for a long time, so I have to prioritize it & OMG, I hope you love The Wicked Deep, it’s one of my favorite books 🥺✨❤️
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Halloween is not really a thing here but you are absolutely right when you say that The Bone Houses might be a good read around that time. I have it on my tbr as well. 😀
I don’t think I know any of the other books on your tbr though. Rules for Vanishing looks/sounds pretty good.
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Halloween isn’t a thing where I live either, but I celebrate it alone and I watch horror movies with my boyfriend, and I plan to drown myself in creepy books, that makes me happy 😂 & The Bone House and Rules Of Vanishing sound amazing, I can’t wait to reading them! ❤️
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These kind of books are not my cup of tea. But I do like Halloween reads. A book that caught my attention is Forever Charmed: A Witch Cozy Mystery (The Halloween LaVeau Series Book 1). Sounds like a great read! And another one that I got is Switching Hour: Magic and Mayhem Book One by Robyn Peterman.
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Thank you SO much for mentioning more books! I’m definitely checking them out 😍👏🏻
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I love this post so much, Sofi! I love Halloween, so I love seeing spooky things (and TBRs). Every year in October I make a “Halloweenie” TBR and try to read as many spooky books as I can. Great choices! These all sound so good and I will definitely need to add these to my TBR as well. I am always looking for some awesome spooky vibe books. ❤
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Makes me SO happy you like the post, beautiful! ❤️ OMG, I do the same every year, but I end up being super ambitious which won’t change this year, SO… 😅. It makes me happy that you add some to your TBR! I hope you enjoy them if you get to read them ❤️
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Haven’t read any of these yet but a few of these titles are on my TBR list. My favorite scary or Halloween books are of course Halloween by Richard Curtis which is based on the screenplay of the movie. It’s really obscure and very hard to find with the popularity of the movie. Salem’s Lot by Stephen King which is also great, and another called “A Sincere Warning About the Entity in Your Home” by Jason Arnopp which doesn’t rate all that great on GR, but trust me it’s creepy.
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OMG, adding EVERYTHING TO my TBR! ❤️ I’ve been thinking a lot about reading more Stephen King in the future and I thought of Pet Cementary & Carrie, both books whose movies I love, but I’ll add the one you mention too!! 👏🏻✨✨✨
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YESS THIS POST IS EVERYTHING!! I love everything about Halloween, the weather, the crunchy leaves, and of course the scary, spooky vibes. It’s perfect for curling up with a good book and I can’t wait too check out these books. And the cover and concept for The Bone Houses looks amazing!
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YAY!!!! Makes me SO happy you like the post. ❤️ I’m from the opposite hemisphere, so the weather is super warm not creepy at all 😅, but nothing stops me from reading ALL the spookies books & definitely! The Bone Houses sounds really cool 😍✨
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You can never plan too early for Halloween in my opinion. 🙂
I hope to get to a couple of these, despite me not being a big horror reader–I have The Bone Houses in my TBR at least. 🙂
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I know, right? 😍✨ Well I think that even though you don’t usually read horror, I think that some of these are more of dark and suspenseful vibes, so they could work 🥰
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I feel you! I can’t wait for it to be October even though we don’t celebrate Halloween in India, I love how everything on Instagram becomes spooky and dark and eerie!
Spooky and Horror genre is a one that I’ve been meaning to try for a long time, I love watching horror movies but for some reason I haven’t read many horror books
Thank you for sharing this list of book, I’m definitely gonna check all of them out. I have the Year of the Witching on my TBR and it sounds phenomenal!
Have a great day and happy reading 💕
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Halloween isn’t celebrated in Argentina either, so I celebrated it myself watching horror movies and reading only the spooky books! 😍✨👏🏻 I don’t read a lot of horror books as such either, but I do love reading books with creepy and spooky vibes, you know? I love that kind of book that’s kind of weird! 😊
Aw, of course, honey! I’m dying to read The Year Of The Witching, it sounds amazing ❤️
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Same! Last year around the time of Halloween I watched The Haunting of Hill House and it was soooo good 😻 highly recommend!
I know! Books with creepy vibes are amazing
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I LOVE Hill House!!!! 😍😍 I’m excited for the second season, I know it will be another story, but still I can’t wait 👏🏻
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SAME! I can’t wait to see what happens in the new season, I really hope it releases soon
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I always enjoy themed reading and I look forward to picking up a few spooky reads as well! Sawkill Girls sounds like a perfect one for me. Thanks so much for sharing these!
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It’s a pleasure to put these lists together, Lori, it makes me happy you like it! Sawkill Girls definitely sounds amazing, can’t wait to read it 😍✨
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Every year I set a Halloween tbr but I always fail because I’m a chaotic mood reader and a scaredy cat at the same time lmao. But I hope you can get to all of these xoxo
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OMG, I feel you! 🥺 Every year I set myself a super unattainable goal consisting of an endless stack of spooky books. Does that mean I’ll stop doing it? of course not 😂👏🏻
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It might be August but I’m already ready for autumn & the spookiness 👻 I sadly haven’t read any of the books on your TBR but they all sound very spooky! My favorite spooky recs are probably The Devouring Gray, The Call, Scythe, Anna Dressed in Blood and The Wicked Deep 🎃
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YAY! it’s never too early to have a spooky moment!! 😍✨👏🏻 & I adore several of the books you mention, The Devouring Gray is great, I love how atmospheric it is, Scythe is just AMAZING & The Wicked Deep is one of my faves 😍❤️
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OMG, I’m also planning my October TBR already 😀 Actually I’m writing and schedule as many posts as possible for the next three month, in preparation for exams D:
Burn Our Bodies Down is def going to happen this october! I’ve been pushing it off every month since its release and I just want to read it. Lol
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YAY! 👏🏻 That’s great, I can’t wait to see all your spooky posts ❤️ & I wish you the best with your exams, beautiful! 🥰
I got the Burn Our Bodies Down audiobook, so I don’t know…. I guess will be happening sooner or at least, I want to, I’m dying to read it! 😍👏🏻
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[…] Sofi @ A Book. A Thought made my tbr even longer by giving us more spooky books too read for October […]
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[…] 📝 Notable posts: Book Recommendations: Standalone Edition – Top 10: Spooky TBR […]
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These all sound like really good books!
Wondering if you’d be up for buddy reading either Burn Our Bodies Down or The Bone Houses with me? ^_^
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I would love to read Burn Our Bodies Down with you, Paige!! In October you can DM me on Twitter or email to agree on the date and stuff, it will be fun! 😍😍👏🏻✨
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I’ve sent you a DM on twitter ^_^
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[…] I was excited to read for the spooky season, if you’re curious you can see the complete list HERE & then I thought it would be fun to ask my boyfriend to participate in the process of […]
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