 Welcome back, I hope you are all good. So today, since it's spooky season, we're going to be checking about all of my favourite spooky season books. Oaky, Coaky and Creepy Special Edition. So I know around this time a lot of people like to read like gothic books, spooky books and I'm just going to recommend some of my favourites. I don't have a lot of horror, quote on quote horror on this list because I traditionally have not read a lot of horror and I'm only starting to kind of get into the genre. So a lot of these are kind of like, you know, books that fit the aura of Halloween shall we say. Not necessarily horror and let's just get into it. I feel like we've got a really good selection here and I'm excited to chat about these because there are some of my favourite books on this list. Okay, first book I'm going to talk about, I recently spoke about in another video. I'm going to try and not talk about how painful it is that the next one in the series hasn't come out yet. But it is Nightcast by Lee Bardugo. This is absolutely a perfect book to read around this time of year. It's got this very much like autumnal spooky feeling. We're following Alex Stern, who has kind of been given a second chance and has this job at Yale where it's her job to kind of monitor all the secret societies at Yale. So there's all these secret societies who have these magical powers and they're doing some shady shit. They're doing some shady shit. They cannot be trusted. I can't trust them. They don't know what they're doing. There's a murder mystery element to this. There's supernatural elements to this. So I really feel like this is the perfect speaker. Oh my god. I need to reread this. I need to reread it. I want to reread it. But there's no point rereading it because the second book could come out in like two years. I am sending Miss Lee Bardugo all the love, joy, peacefulness, motivation, creativity, inspiration in the world to write book too because I need it. I don't think anyone understands how, well, some people don't understand because some of you have said you need it as well. But like, I cannot wait any longer. I just need a title, I need a hint, I need a hint of something. Me turning up on Lee Bardugo's doorstep. What do we have here? Because I loved this book so much and I just can't wait for book two and we like don't know when it's ever gonna come out. It could never come out. Night House could just never, you know, continue. No. It will continue. There's ghosts in this. It's set, you know, Yale is very like leafy and autumnal and I think it's the perfect book to read around this time of year. So I would really, really recommend it. Okay, next recommendation is another ghostly book and that is Home Before Dark by Riley Sager. I did enjoy this. I don't think it's my favorite Riley Sager that I've read, but I hear it's a fun kind of fast-paced thriller. So in this, we're following our protagonist who when she was a child, her family lived in this house and they fled in the middle of the night claiming it was haunted and they were kind of being attacked by ghosts. And her father dies and she finds out that her dad never sold the house. And so she goes back to the house to kind of, she wants to fix it up. That's what her job is. She kind of, you know, fix up and flips houses. So she wants to do that to the house and then sell it. But it soon becomes clear that that is not gonna happen sis, it ain't gonna happen. Riley Sager is very good at writing like fast-paced thrillers. You will read this probably in like three days maximum. Like it's so compulsively readable. I also really love how in this book her dad wrote a book about the experience living in this house with the ghosts and the hauntings and it was like a cult hit and there's sections of that book kind of interwoven throughout. So it kind of is a chapter following our protagonist and then a chapter in the past with the book that her dad wrote. But it's not just like flashbacks to the past because you don't know if her dad is telling the truth, what may be a truth, what may be a lie. And I think it adds a really interesting element to the book. So yeah, it's a really fun book. I also love the cover. I love the kind of neon in this of it. Okay, next. Listen, I won't talk about it for too long. I won't. I won't. But come on. So this is probably my favourite book series of all time and it's perfect to read this time of year. So if you don't know, Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, European Chamber for the Monstrous Gentlewoman and the Sinister Mystery of the Mares Rising Girl are my children. They're my children. I love them so much. So we are following the daughters and female versions of men from classic Victorian gothic literature. So we have Mary Jekyll and Diana Hyde. We have Justine Frankenstein, Catherine Moreau, Beatrice Rappuccini. In book two, we meet Lucinda Van Helsing. So we've got characters from, you know, Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, Dracula, loads and loads of classic Victorian books. And they call themselves monsters, these girls, these monster group of girls. There's a big overarching mystery of this society of Alchemists throughout the whole three books, which is a society that some of the men in the book belonged to. They try to uncover the truth of that society, but there's also kind of like mysteries within each book, you know? It's this sisterhood of these girls. It's set in Victorian London. Cheryl Cohn-Watson also play a big role in this book. They kind of sidekicks to the girls. I know it's not for everyone. Listen, if you didn't like the book, because you read it on my, you know, recommendation, I can, I can... Huh. I can accept it, but I can't accept it because no. Everyone loves me. Well, your bastard hates me, but they're just wrong. I think I'm just special. Special. The book is being written by Catherine, one of the girls of their story. And so there's moments where she comes out through the narration and also the girls cut in throughout the book to kind of like correct something that Catherine may be writing. And I just love it. I recently reread this first book with my patrons for our book club. And it was just the most amazing experience. I can't tell you, I was so nervous going into it that I wasn't going to love it as much, but I did. Like, it was still five stars. It was still my favourite book ever. I got quite emotional reading it because I just realised how much I love these girls, this Victorian, cold, cold world and all the gothic-ness of it. So I would really recommend this series. The audiobooks are incredible. I think you should not read this just physically. You're at the very least lead to read the audiobook or read it audiobook and physically together. That's how I like reading them now. But you need to listen to the audiobook. It's the best single person audiobook I've ever listened to. It feels like it's a full cast. The narrator is absolutely amazing. And these girls, I just, I just hope I can't accept that this is the end. I need more books in this series. I don't know who I need to pay, but I will make it happen. Next, another book involving Dracula just like that is Dairy of Blood by S.T. Gibson. So this is written from the perspective of one of Dracula's brides. You find out at the start that she has murdered Dracula. And then we're going to go back throughout the book to kind of see their relationship together. It's very, very interesting. Another interesting kind of perspective because it is written from one of our characters' perspectives. It's beautiful lyrical writing. Like some of the most beautiful, like, shockingly beautiful writing I have ever read. There's really good and interesting and thoughtful polyamorous rep in this. The romance is kind of like dizzying and it's a nightmare. But it's like the romance between all these characters has got this kind of breathlessness to it, I would say. Like it's such a different book than anything I've read recently or before. It's perfectly gothic, you know, it's historical. And I just thought it's a look at kind of abusive relationships and the existence of love in abusive relationships. How hard it can be to recognise that you are in an abusive relationship when you love that person was so interesting. But alongside all of that kind of commentary and examination of these dynamics, it's got this beautiful gothic writing and setting and you're following these vampires. So it's gory, there's blood, it's sexy, like it's so dynamic and I just really, really loved it. So yeah, I would really recommend it. It's such an interesting, unique book. Next I'm super fun, like some super-duper fun, like Halloween recommendations. It's going to be good and we're all going to have fun. So I just think, oh my god, just pick these up now and read them because it won't take you long. Is the Graveyard Book Graphic Novels by Neil Gaiman. So the Graveyard Book is a book by Neil Gaiman, but these graphic novels kind of follow the story in a graphic novel format. Now I really love these graphic novels because it's set into kind of short stories and each short story is by a different illustrator, which I really, really enjoyed because it's like different adaptations of this story and it kept it feeling really, really fresh. We're following a boy whose family are murdered and he's like a baby and he wanders into this graveyard and the ghosts there and Silas, who is this kind of like vampire looking character here who we don't know if he's a vampire. I don't think he's a vampire. He's kind of like undead. They decide to adopt him and it's kind of just the story of him growing up in this graveyard with all these ghosts to kind of teach him things and it's just so much fun. Really, really interesting. I had a great time reading them. I need to read more spooky graphic novels, I feel like. I feel like graphic novels can actually be perfect for like Halloween kind of time because they can really capture the vibe. So if you have any recommendations like autumnal, Halloween-y graphic novels please let me know down below because I need to know. But yeah, these are so much fun. I thought the family, like the found family dynamics in this were really, really fun as well. So if that's something you enjoyed, really recommend picking these up. Next, a horror that I read recently is The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. This is about four Indigenous men who killed some elk 10 years ago and now that is coming back to haunt them and nature is punishing them for their crimes against nature. This was a really interesting horror because I went through a lot of ups and downs in it. I literally just posted a vlog where I spoke about it, so I won't speak on it for too long. But as someone who, you know, at school in England, they don't teach you anything about, you know, native Indigenous culture in America or Canada or other countries that have Indigenous cultures and I think we're much poorer for it. But I sadly have very, very little knowledge of Indigenous culture and I feel like this book is so deeply rooted in it and everything references Indigenous culture and beliefs. And the way that it is mirrored and interwoven throughout the story is absolutely amazing. But it did take me a moment to, like, check myself and, like, look for that in the story. Like, really trying to identify that in moments in the story and my enjoyment of it, like, kind of just trebled. Well, once I did that, the ending gave me goosebumps. Like, the ending was very emotional to this horror, which I wasn't expecting, but it's like a gore. It's so gory. Like, if gore ain't your thing, don't read it because it is so gory and brutal. There were moments where I was like, fuck, like, I'm not sure I'm in the mood to read gory shit because it's very, very gory. It's like a slasher horror. So, you know, people die in left, right and centre. I'm really excited to read more Stephen Graham Jones in the future. I've got loads of his short stories, like, on audiobooks or when I want to read. So I'm really excited to explore more in the future, but this is a horror that I literally just read in spooky season. And it's definitely the most kind of gory out of all of these, like, definitely the most horror, scary. And it's kind of written also in stream of consciousness thought, especially at the start, which took me a moment to get into. And that's not your thing, be warned. But I think it's a really interesting storytelling technique. So, yeah. And finally, not my favourite series in the world. We have, you know, we have an interesting relationship with this series, where I think I've given both of these books, like, 3, 3.5 stars. But I'm not going to stop reading the series. I'm going to finish it. Is the Stalking Jack the Ripper series I've read the first two, which is Stalking Jack the Ripper and Hunting Prince Dracula. These are perfect spooky season reads. Like, I don't think I'm ever going to read this series, not in autumn or winter. Like, I'm always going to read it at that time of year, because it is Victorian cold. You know, this one is like literally in the winter in Dracula's castle. Like, come on now. But the writing and me, like, we don't really get along. We don't really get along. But I can't, I'm not going to do enough of this series. This one was much better than this one. We're following Augie Rose, who is this girl who wants to kind of examine dead bodies as well. Her uncle does. That's what she wants to do. Obviously, it's very frowned upon in Victorian society. In this one, she is trying to figure out who Dracula the Ripper is. And this one, there's this kind of like murders that seem to insinuate that Dracula is back and alive. They're interesting. A lot of people love them. I like them. Like, they're fun, quick reads. Like, you will read them so fast. I have a fun experience reading them, but they're not like highly rated books. But I still wanted to mention them because they are perfect this time of year. So there we have it. That is all of my spooky season recommendations. I hope you found something here that you want to read in these last few months of spooky season or into November. Because I think a lot of them are kind of just good for like October, November kind of time. Let me know if you have any recommendations for me down below, specifically graphic novels. I do have Sheets by Brenna Thumbna, which is a graphic novel about a ghost. So maybe that would be a good book to read soon. I don't know. I hope you have a good rest of your spooky season. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you very, very soon in another video. Bye.