In October, my friends and I went full spooky season and watched a new movie every weekend. By new, I mean, it was a different movie, but it happened to be new to at least one of us every time. Watching movies with friends is nice, don’t you know?
Started a new job this month, so reading has noticeably slowed down. Whoops.
Read Cover-to-Cover in October
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
- Adult dark fantasy about the KKK turning into more literal monsters and the Black hunters taking them down
- Epic on every page
- Takeaway: Writing an intense and horrifying work while maintaining the joy that comes from community coming together
My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress by
Rachel DeLoache Williams
- Adult nonfiction told from the perspective of one of Anna Delvey’s victims
- Not much of a focus on rich people shenanigans, but mostly about an abusive friendship
- Takeaway: Sometimes things are much sadder than initially expected
The Tower of Fools (The Hussite Trilogy #1) by Andrzej Sapkowski
- Adult fantasy about an adulterer in 1400s Poland
- Spends every chapter roasting him and everyone around him
- Novel-in-translation
- Takeaway: Thorough sarcasm works when your main character has his own wants and fears
Audiobooks
Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall
- Young adult horror about a girl trying to find her lost sister
- Really good use of multi-media in presenting the whole story
- Takeaway: Non-linear storytelling can really up the dread
The Merciful Crow (#1) by Margaret Owen
- Young adult fantasy about a girl and her caravan of crows protecting a prince thought dead
- Hella sex-positive!
- Teeth magic!
- Takeaway: Nodding to tropes but making them feel relevant to the main cast
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
- Adult horror about a divorced woman working at a crap-taxidermy museum
- If Narnia was horrific
- The cat doesn’t die in the end
- Takeaway: Putting jokes in from time-to-time to relieve the pressure but not lessen the terror
The Beast is an Animal by Peternelle van Arsdale
- Young adult fantasy about a girl’s village that gets taken by soul eaters
- I really wanted more of the soul eaters, considering the book starts with their story
- Takeaway: Consistency is key
The Last Book on the Left by
Ben Kissel, Marcus Parks, and Henry Zabrowski
- Adult nonfiction covering nine notorious serial killers
- Grisly, but does nothing to paint these villains as heroes
- Takeaway: How to take a podcast and turn it into an engrossing read
November is NaNoWriMo, the beginning of two beta reads. We’ll see how reading books goes.
Until next time,
Jo
Jo Writes Fantasy 
Great month you had… Love your choice
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