I’ve been getting increasingly excited as the spooky season has rolled closer, and it’s had me looking at all my darker reads on my TBR (naturally). There are quite a few so whittling this list of hopefuls down to a reasonable number was a challenge and a half.

I did a reasonably good job with the books I’d lined up for myself for September, finally conquering A Court of Silver Flames, which was very exciting. Nothing is more satisfying than sticking to a list (but it’s so fun to deviate from them too!)

I’m anticipating that October will be a relatively busy month, with various birthdays, baby showers, house warmings and Halloween parties filling up my weekends. But I remain hopeful that I’ll have time to read! Having spent August and September away from home to housesit, I’m now finally back home and surrounded by my bookshelves once more – so I’m hoping that will be motivating to slay some books. I’ve been averaging about 6 books a month for the last two months, which is leaving me shy of my (secret) goal of 100 – I’m on track to read 95 right now. So I want to gogogo to get ahead and hit that goal.

Let’s take a look at what I’m hoping to read.

Audiobooks

This is a rollover from last month. I’ve been really in the mood to read/listen to this, but my commute while housesitting was only 5 minutes, and it took me a long time to get through some other audiobooks so I didn’t make it to this.

That, and I kept forgetting to download the file onto my Audible app. In fact, I still haven’t done that – I should do that right now *goes to do it*

Right, now that I’m ready to go, next time I go to select an audiobook I’ll be able to dive straight into this and continue the story!

I’m really excited to listen to This Much Is True – a colleague of mine read this and said it was fabulous. And even better, Miriam narrates the audiobook herself.

I’ve always been a big fan of self-narrated celebrity memoirs, and I know Miriam Margolyes from Harry Potter (as I’m sure many of you who are around my age do too).

Apparently, this is very witty with lots of delightfully dry humour, so I’m hoping to chuckle my way through this and also learn about a very interesting acting career.

TBR

She’s beauty and she’s grace! Nona the Ninth is finally in my hot little hands. The book was released in the middle of September, and ambitious me thought I’d be onto it right away. But my pre-ordered copy didn’t arrive until a good week after release, which was annoying.

Regardless, I’m currently torn as to how I want to go about this. I’ve got a physical copy for Nona, whereas I’ve done audiobooks for the previous too, but I decided they were so complex (though the audiobook narration is fabulous) so I wanted to read this myself. But! Being so complex, there’s a lot I feel I’ve missed or not understood in the previous book particularly, Harrow the Ninth. So do I reread books one and two before going into this?

As I said, I’m torn. I want to make progress through my TBR and these are chunky reads (500+ pages) so rereading them is going to slow down my TBR-slaying activities. I probably understood enough to just jump straight into this – but anyway, you see my dilemma. Whichever way I decide, there’s no doubt I’ll get to this in October because I’m so extremely excited about it.

Second First Impressions is another guaranteed read in October. I’m buddy reading this with some good friends of mine over on Instagram (you can follow me at @ozbooksnail) around the third week of the month.

This is a recent addition to my TBR but one of the few contemporary YA romances I’ve been particularly interested in. While I still haven’t read the likes of Book Lovers (I’m taking a break from TikTok-hyped books after Crawdads and Evelyn), I’m really excited to try my hand at Sally Thorne’s stuff.

Do I know much about this? Not really. I’m mostly going in blind and just generally enjoying the cosy-cute vibe of the cover.

And being the spooky month, it just wouldn’t be right if I didn’t have some Agatha Christie on the list, would it?

I’m a big Agatha Christie fan and it’s always surprised me by how few people have actually read her stuff (at least among those with whom I hang out). She’s such a brilliant writer and the mysteries are always satisfying. These four are the remaining ones (officially) on my TBR, and I thought it would be fun if I did a 24 hour readathon to see how many I can knock off.

I *do* have a collection going for her complete works, in the Crime Collection editions (so cool), but I haven’t committed to adding them all to my TBR (because omg my TBR would look so huge if I did, and it’s already huge). So anyway, these cute editions are the ones I’m going to focus on, and I really do want to read them as a spooky-themed TBR for the month! The one I’m most excited about is Murder on the Orient Express.

Now, if you’ve seen Ordinary Monsters in person you might be quaking in your boots like I am at how big this book is (it’s a brick!) But I’m really excited about it. I got this as part of the Novellous book box subscription (they’re an Aussie book-only subscription, super awesome) and I was obsessed at first sight.

This is a big, meandering epic fantasy that gives me all the grungy vibes. I actually read the first chapter just for a taste and I think I’m going to like it. But I do have big aspirations for how many books I want to read this month, so picking up a beefy boy like this might not be my best strategy. The question is, do I have the willpower to resist it?

House of Hollow made 2021’s TBR for October, I’m fairly certain. And lookee, lookee – it’s still unread! I am nothing but a disappointment to myself.

I actually got this as a birthday gift last year (I think) and I’ve heard amaaazing things. I really do feel that I’ll enjoy the spooky vibes of this when I read it, so why not read it this Halloween?

This is certainly scary enough to make this list, with mentions of mysterious half-moon scars on throats, twins, corpses, and other general hauntings *shudders* Let’s hope if I read this one I don’t have too many nightmares.

I also think that Hunting Prince Dracula would be a perfect read for this month. It’s been such a while since I read book one, but I remember it so well.

I can’t believe that I haven’t continued this series yet, if I’m honest, so perhaps Halloween is the kick up the butt I’ve been waiting for. I love so many things about what these books promise, from the covers to the feminist twist on historic events – all while using the same cast of characters! It’s very fun and if book one sets the bar, then standards are sure to be high for the remaining books.

While this is getting very ambitious in terms of how many books I’m likely to get through this month, I would love to continue the Scholomance series. I read A Deadly Education right when it came out and have been eyeballing The Last Graduate ever since.

This is such a fun fantasy read that you should definitely be getting your knickers in a twist for. It’s a bit bigger than book one, but they’re very pacey reads so if I do find time for this (or feel like reading this over something else), I think this creepy, dangerous magical school would be a great fit for this TBR.

The final book I’m threatening to read is Slayer. I’ve only ever read one thing by Kiersten White but I honestly think I own nearly everything she’s ever published.

This is inspired by Buffy, which I haven’t watched, but I really like the sound of it. If And I Darken is anything to go by (and clearly looking at my White collection, I’ve pre-determined it is), this is bound to be an excellent read.

It’s been on my TBR for a bit of time now as well, so this would be super satisfying to finally explore and cross off the list.

And because it was fun to go through, here are some other spooky reads on my TBR that might just find themselves being picked up this month …

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What books are you hoping to read in October?