Wrap-Up 10.19

I’m not back to regular blogging yet (I’ve got about two more really busy weeks coming up, and hope to catch up with posts later this month), but I had this one mostly drafted in advance and wanted to get it up before it seemed irrelevant. I read mostly spooky/gothic/horror books in October, and it turned out to be probably my best reading month of the entire year so far in terms of enjoyment, which seems like a sign that I should read these genres more frequently year-round!

Here’s what I read in October:

1. Dark Age by Pierce Brown. 4 stars. I actually read most of this in September, but finally finished it at the start of this month. It’s a 700+ page 5th book in a series that I enjoyed, but perhaps not as much as I expected to or as much as I’ve previously enjoyed other books in this series. In my review, I talk more broadly (no spoilers) about the Red Rising series as a whole, so feel free to check that out if you’re at all interested in the series, no matter how many of the books you’ve read (or not read) so far!
2. In the Tall Grass by Stephen King and Joe Hill. 4 stars. I read this short, supernatural horror story just as the Netflix adaptation was being released, and thoroughly enjoyed both mediums. My review covers both!
3. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. 4 stars. This is a translated literary fiction novel about a “crazy” old woman in a remote Polish village who loves animals more than people. Though the mystery wasn’t the most compelling aspect for me, I still found the story delightfully macabre and perfect for October, and the narrator’s voice is so compelling that I imagine it would be great to pick up at any time of the year.
4. A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore. 4 stars. Despite the title, this was another excellent October read (though of course it would be great in winter as well), with a wonderful gothic tone running through most of this incredibly tragic historical fiction tale. I’m a bit more cautious about recommending this one because there are some major trigger warnings that come with this title, but I did find it a worthy first Women’s Prize winner and really enjoyed the experience even though it was so sad!
5. Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann. 5 stars. This Booker shortlisted novel missed the win, but fully deserves more attention. It’s a thousand-page book mostly told in one single run-on sentence, but it’s been one of my favorite reads of the year without question. My review ran a bit long but I’m pleased with how it turned out (which doesn’t happen so very often), so if you’re at all curious about this literary novel on motherhood and violence in Trump’s America, please do check out my review for more info!
6. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. 5 stars. A classic horror story here, and another duo review with some thoughts on the recent film included alongside the novel as well. This was creepy and so bizarre, and exceptionally well-written; a perfect fit for my reading taste and one I highly recommend for anyone looking for some fairy-tale-esque psychological horror.
7. Wilder Girls by Rory Power. 3 stars. This is a recent YA release set in a dystopian near-future, on a secluded island housing a girls’ school. There’s a cli-fi element to this one, as well as plenty of body horror, but the mystery aspect was what kept me most interested. (Quite a genre-bender, this one!) I had some issues with characterization and the way that Power explained things, but overall found this a quick, fun read. Full review pending.
8. The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell. 5 stars. Here we have a gothic, historical horror. By the time I picked this one up I had forgotten everything about its synopsis, which made it quite a delightful surprise. I adored Purcell’s writing from the start, found all of the characters/perspectives compelling (even when I didn’t necessarily like or agree with the character), and loved the balance of psychological/fantastical in the horror element. Full review pending.
9. Ghostly Stories by Celia Fremlin. 4 stars. This was the first story I picked up from the new additions to the Faber Stories collection, and is actually a little volume of two short stories. Both deal with motherhood (though neither from the mother’s perspective, interestingly) and hauntings; they are simple and straightforward enough that they failed to really surprise me, but both are competent literary works that address an interesting point of view, and they pair nicely. Full review pending, to appear in my next batch of Faber Stories mini reviews.

I was hoping to get to a few more spooky titles, but Ducks took longer to read than planned and I couldn’t begrudge it for the extra time- it was so nice to give it my complete attention and just luxuriate in its brilliance rather than trying to finish on a schedule. That meant that I wasn’t finished with it before the winner(s) announcement for the Booker Prize (you can find my thoughts on that here), but I didn’t mind. And, since I enjoyed the spooks I did read so much this month (three 5-star reads! and almost everything else was a 4-star! I didn’t dislike anything!), I don’t mind having some horror stories left for other months. I’m still currently reading my Halloween book, Thomas Harris’s Hannibal, the third book in the Hannibal Lecter series that I’ve been reading at the rate of one book per Halloween; additionally, I’m currently reading Valeria Luiselli’s Tell Me How it Ends, a short nonfiction essay piece that works as a companion to Lost Children Archive. Reviews for both of these will be coming up as well. (If you’re wondering how I’m still finding time to read and not blog, the answer is that I have some down time at work without good internet access. Fitting in some reading has been a lifesaver in the midst of my current crazy work schedule!

 

Some stats:

Average rating – 4.2 (a 2019 record high!)

Best of month – Ducks, Newburyport

Worst of month – Wilder Girls, but even my “worst” was pretty enjoyable this month, and naming it here is more a result of not quite jiving with the writing style than thinking it’s a bad book at all.

Books hauled – 14, I think; I’ve got my October haul / November TBR partially drafted as, so maybe that will be up later this week or early next? (I feel bad posting anything when I don’t also have time to interact with all of my blogger friends and their posts, so we’ll see.)

Owned books read for the first time – 6. Not as many as I hauled (again. This is seriously getting to be a problem), but it does mean that 2/3 of the books I read this month were owned-unread books, which is a good proportion. And I expect November will be similar, as I haven’t had time to visit the library, either.

October TBR tally – 1/8. I had a couple more of those 8 in my October-hopefuls stack that I didn’t end up getting to at the end of the month, but I knew going in that I was planning to focus more on reading horror than on reading whatever was new to me this month, so I’m not surprised this result is low. (In case you’re curious, here’s the link to my Sept. haul / Oct TBR.)

Year total – 104. I have officially surpassed my Goodreads challenge of 100 books for 2019! It feels like a good time of year for that- my goal wasn’t too easy or too hard to reach, but if I feel like pushing myself I can still try to beat last year’s total of 118 books for the year.

 

I haven’t had a chance to peruse any other wrap-ups yet, so if you feel like sharing, let me know what your favorite book from October was! (Spooky or non, of course!)

The Literary Elephant