Lately, I’ve been bouncing back and forth for my Tuesday posts, alternating between the Top Ten Tuesday and Top Five Tuesday memes, depending on their topics for the week. This week, both are Halloween themed… so I’m doing them both!!
First up… it’s Top Ten Tuesday:
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is a Halloween freebie! For my Halloween post, I’m going to focus on horror novels on my to-read list (updated for 2024). I’ve done this topic a few times in the past several years, and given the state of my TBR list, it’s time to do it again.
Noted with shame: Some of these books were on my Halloween horror TBR list last year! So, you know, I’m not exactly great at following through…
Still, here are a bunch I really do want to get to… including a few upcoming 2025 new books.
- Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
- Dread Nation by Justine Ireland
- The Changeling by Victor Lavalle
- Diavola by Jennifer Thorne
- Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong
- The Return by Rachel Harrison
- Cutting Teeth by Chandler Baker
- Overgrowth by Mira Grant (upcoming 2025 new release)
- Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix (upcoming 2025 new release)
- My Ex, the Antichrist by Craig DiLouie (upcoming 2025 new release)
Are any of these on your TBR too? Which ones look best to you? And if you’ve read any, let me know what you thought!
Next, let’s take a look at this week’s Top 5 Tuesday:
Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Meeghan Reads — check out the next batch of upcoming topics here.
This week’s topic is Top 5 books to recommend for Halloween, and the prompt is: It’s trick or treat time — are you going to tell us your best scary books or cutesy Halloween tales?
My picks are mainly ghost stories, plus a funny/clever fantasy that I reread every October!
- The Uninvited by Cat Winters (review)
- The Veil by Rachel Harrison (review)
- Thornhill by Pam Smy (review)
- I’ll be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong (review)
- A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny (review) — I’m reading this one again right now! Such a fun annual tradition.
What books do you recommend for Halloween? I love a good ghost story — do you have any favorites?
In case it’s not obvious, I’ll probably be spending my Halloween with my nose in a book! Wishing you all a happy Halloween, whatever you’ll be doing!
Bookshelf Fantasies 
Diavola has such a scary cover!
I agree! I’m looking forward to reading it — I really loved the author’s previous novel.
I’ve read Starling House and enjoyed it!
That’s great to hear! I’ve had a copy for a while, and I really need to make it a priority finally.
Some of these have really scary covers!! I hope you enjoy them. 🙂
Thank you! I hope you have some great reading planned for Halloween!
Thank you! I definitely do during the day! 🙂
Starling House and Dread Nation are two I want to read, too. I did read Hemlock Island and didn’t love it, which was disappointing because I’m such a fan of Kelley Armstrong. That new Grady Hendrix one looks good, too. I’ve got that one on my TBR list. 😀
Oh, too bad about Hemlock Island — I’ve been loving every book of KA’s that I’ve read so far!
I have at least half of your TTT list on my TBR too! I hope you love Diavola as much as I did. It is probably going to make my Top 5 books of the year😁
I came across Mira Grant’s upcoming new book thanks to you! She’s a must-read for me, and usually Hendrix and DiLouie are too, although I realize that I still haven’t read their books from this past year (should probably get to those first!). I’m excited to read Diavola — I loved her last book!
I’ve read DREAD NATION and HEMLOCK ISLAND. I really liked the former. The latter was disappointing for me since I love Kelley Armstrong’s mystery books. It was too gruesome and unconvincing for me. So much of it just seemed silly. I hope you like it better than I did!
Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Too bad about Hemlock Island — I love Kelley Armstrong’s books, but I’ve heard very mixed things so far.
I like that you combined the two memes. I wish I’d done the same.
I’d also like to try Diavola, but I’m also a little scared to. However, I might make my way to the Changeling next year.
I enjoyed Dread Nation and would recommend it.
For both Diavola and The Changeling, I really enjoyed other books by those authors, and I’m excited to keep trying their books. I’ve heard really good things about Dread Nation — so glad to hear that you recommend it!
I don’t read horror so I haven’t heard of any of these books, but some of the covers are pretty creepy.
If you’d like to visit, here’s my TTT: https://thebooklorefairy.blogspot.com/2024/10/top-ten-tuesday-november-tbr.html
Definitely some creepy covers! I tend to go for eerie vibes rather than flat-out gore, but apparently I do like horror in general!