Wednesday, 1 October 2025

October = Horror Month

October is now here. Our sprinklers have been turned off for the winter... (at least they're supposed to.) I dropped Jo off at the hospital to get her next chemo and came back to do a bit of cleaning up... and to write a quick Blog. October is the baseball playoffs.. #GOBLUEJAYS And it's Hallowe'en month so I'll be trying to fit in a few horror novels over the next few weeks. I've currently got 3 on the go, one that's a carry - over from previous months and two new ones. I'll start with those and then list a few others I may try or you might like to try. Then it's off to pick up Jo.

Currently Reading

1. The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey (Girl with Gifts #1) Carey also writes the Felix Castor horror / fantasy series under Mike Carey.

"Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius."

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.

Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad."

2. Red X by David Demchuk (2021). I bought this back in 2021 and finally dusted it off to read. 

"A hunted community. A haunted author. A horror that spans centuries.

Men are disappearing from Toronto's gay village. They're the marginalized, the vulnerable. One by one, stalked and vanished, they leave behind small circles of baffled, frightened friends. Against the shifting backdrop of homophobia throughout the decades, from the HIV/AIDS crisis and riots against raids to gentrification and police brutality, the survivors face inaction from the law and disinterest from society at large. But as the missing grow in number, those left behind begin to realize that whoever or whatever is taking these men has been doing so for longer than is humanly possible.

Woven into their stories is David Demchuk's own personal history, a life lived in fear and in thrall to horror, a passion that boils over into obsession. As he tries to make sense of the relationship between queerness and horror, what it means for gay men to disappear, and how the isolation of the LGBTQ+ community has left them profoundly exposed to monsters that move easily among them, fact and fiction collide and reality begins to unravel."

3. The Girls in the Cabin by Caleb Stephens (2023). Another new horror author for me. I got this last October.

"A dad will do anything to keep his daughters safe. But the phone lines are down. The roads are blocked. And the woman in the cabin is hiding a terrible secret . . .

This camping trip is Chris’s last chance to repair his relationship with his daughters, Kayla and Emma. Nothing’s been the same since they lost their mom. But things go wrong as soon as they get to the mountains.

When they make camp, nine-year-old Emma runs off into the woods. By the time they find her, there’s a snowstorm rolling in. And Emma’s leg is badly broken. They need to find shelter, fast.

They think they’re safe when they come across an old farmstead. The woman inside welcomes them in from the howling blizzard and straps up Emma’s leg.

They settle down for the night, but when Chris wakes at dawn and looks over . . . Emma is gone.

And this family’s nightmare is only just beginning."

Other Possibles

1. The Tindalos Asset by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Tinfoil Dossier #3). I've enjoyed exploring Kiernan's work. This is the final book in the Tinfoil Dossier trilogy.

"The Signalman returns in The Tindalos Asset.

A rundown apartment in Koreatown. A Los Angeles winter. A strung out, worn out, wrecked and used government agent is scraped up off the pavement, cleaned up, and reluctantly sent out into battle one last time.

Ellison Nicodemo has seen and done terrible things. She thought her only remaining quest was for oblivion. Then the Signalman comes calling. He wants to learn if she can stop the latest apocalypse. Ellison, once a unique and valuable asset, can barely remember why she ever fought the good fight.

Still, you don't say no to the Signalman, and the time has come to face her fears and the nightmare forces that almost destroyed her. Only Ellison can unleash the hound of Tindalos. . ."

2. Our Love Will Devour Us by R.L. Meza (2023). Another of the books I bought in October last year as I was checking out the horror genre, but never got around to reading.

"A remote cabin in a snowy forest could be the perfect place for Claire and Emma to work on their marriage and bond with their two children, if only it didn’t come with so many memories of Claire’s inhumane treatment at the hands of her abusive mother, and if only the strange abandoned schoolhouse nearby didn’t have a dark history of its own. When their children go missing in a snowstorm, the two mothers must put their personal troubles aside and rely on one another to get them back, but nothing has prepared them to face the ever-growing horror that steps lightly in the storm.

Soon the two mothers are forced to ask themselves, how far would you go to save the ones you love?

Our Love Will Devour Us is a novel about the bonds of family, the depths of love, and things that hunger in the dark."

3. Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 5 by James Tynion IV (#5 / 2022) Nothing could be more appropriate than continuing this graphic novel series.

"Erica Slaughter strikes out on her own in the bestselling, award-winning series!

After a year since we last saw her in Archer’s Peak, Erica Slaughter resurfaces to take on the case of a girl who’s seen a new kind of monster, one with terrifying implications. But Erica’s broken ties with the House of Slaughter and that can have deadly consequences. The Order of St. George does not forget nor do they forgive. Even as Erica goes on the hunt, she must keep an eye out for the mysterious figure on her trail in order to survive the coming storm. Erica Slaughter returns after the Archer’s Peak Saga in this volume of the Eisner and Harvey Award-nominated series from GLAAD Award-winning author James Tynion IV (The Woods, Batman), artist Werther Dell’Edera (Razorblades), colorist Miquel Muerto (Bleed Them Dry), and letterer AndWorld Design (Nightwing)."

4. Pound of Flesh by Sara Clancy (Wrath & Vengeance #1 / 2018). 

"Terror feeds them. Rage drives them. Only fury lasts forever…

A ghost town, isolated from civilization by miles of scorching desert, has become a killing ground. Blood taints the sand and the stench of rot hovers on the humid air.

It’s a small patch of hell that Aleksandr Sokolovsky was born into. The son of the world’s most prolific serial killers, he yearns for a freedom he’ll never have. He comforts himself with the knowledge that death eventually comes for everyone. But he had never considered the Furies.

Summoned by years of pain and rage, the three demonic sisters have descended upon the ghost town. The creatures of Greek legend are real. Consumed by their desire for blood and vengeance, they rain down a reckoning. They delight in ripping their victims’ minds and bodies to shreds before offering a merciful death.

For most of his life, Aleksandr has been ready to die. But he’ll fight to his last breath to spare his younger brother and sister the same fate. Unable to battle the hellish creatures alone, Aleksandr is forced into an uneasy truce with Evelyn Figueroa, the woman his parents chose to be his first female victim.

Together they face an ancient rage that can’t be reasoned with or destroyed. Burning with an inferno of hatred, the Furies won’t stop until they’ve collected their debt in full.

A pound of flesh for every sin."

5. Star Shapes by Ivy Grimes (2024).

"Kidnapped from downtown Birmingham, Alabama, and taken to the country, our protagonist is pretty irked. Rather than ask for a ransom, her captors make her feed animals and read dusty books.
She is unnerved by the growing realization that something weirder is afoot, and it all ties back to a book of strange constellations known simply as Star Shapes.

People look to the stars to read the future, but sometimes the stars conceal stories from the past."


So there you go, folks, a few October reading ideas for you. Enjoy the playoffs and your month.

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