Spooktoberthon Check In - Week 2 Progress

Hey Bookdragons! Halfway through the month and you should either be loving the countdown to Halloween or having nightly nightmares 😆

Spooktoberthon Week 2 Reading Progress

💀 City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab - 🌟🌟🌟🌟 

💀  The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
💀 The Naida Tapes by Dawn Kurtagich - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 
💀 Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics 🌟🌟🌟🌟 
 💀 The Broken Girls by Simone St. James
💀 Creep by Eireann Corrigan
💀 The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh

Currently Reading

💀 Crimson Peak by Nancy Holder

Still to Read

💀 The Haunting of Beacon Hill by Ambrose Ibsen

💀 Nevermore by Kelly Creagh

💀 The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

💀 Slasher Girls and Monster Boys Anthology

💀 The Witch of Blackbird Pond

💀 Lucky Break by Carly Phillips

💀 The Hollow by Jessica Verday

💀 Now Entering Addamsville by Franscesca Zappia

💀 The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

🍂 Spooktober Movie Progress 🍂

Watched

🍂 Practical Magic 

🍂 Carrie

🍂 The House of Wax (Vincent Price Version)

🍂 Addams Family  & Addams Family Values 

🍂 Halloween

🍂 Casper

🍂 The Haunted Mansion

🍂 Tower of Terror

🍂 Friday the Thirteenth

🍂 The Fog

🍂 Crimson Peak

🍂 The Haunting

Still to Go

🍂 I Know What You Did Last Summer

🍂 I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

🍂 Hocus Pocus

🍂 Scream 1-4

🍂 Halloweentown 1-4

🍂 An American Haunting

🍂 Sleepy Hollow

🍂 The Legend of Hell House

🍂 Prom Night

🍂 IT

🍂 The Shining

🍂 Psycho

🍂 House of Wax (2005 Remake)

🍂 Swimfan

🍂 Monsterville: Cabinet of Souls

🍂 Flatliners

🍂 Bad Times at the El Royale 

🍂 The Legend of Lucy Keyes

🍂 Solstice

🍂 When A Stranger Calls

History of Halloween #2

 Irish immigrants brought the tradition of carving pumpkins into Jack O'Lantern to America. But, the original Jack O'Lantern was not a pumpkin. Pumpkins did not exist in Ireland.

 Ancient Celtic cultures (Pagans) in Ireland carved turnips on All Hallow's Eve, and placed an ember in them, to ward off evil spirits.

The Tale of Stingy Jack and the Jack O' Lantern

Jack O'Lantern legend goes back hundreds of years in Irish History. Many of the stories, center round Stingy Jack. Here's the most popular story:

Stingy Jack was a miserable, old drunk who took pleasure in playing tricks on just about everyone: family, friends, his mother and even the Devil himself. One day, he tricked the Devil into climbing up an apple tree. After the Devil climbed up the tree, Stingy Jack hurriedly placed crosses around the trunk of the tree. Unable to touch a cross, the Devil was stuck in the tree. Stingy Jack made the Devil promise him not to take his soul when he died. Once the devil promised not to take his soul, Stingy Jack removed the crosses, and the Devil climbed down out of the apple tree.

Many years later, Jack died, he went to the pearly gates of Heaven and was told by Saint Peter that he was mean and cruel, and had led a miserable, worthless life on earth. Stingy Jack was not allowed to enter heaven. He then went down to Hell and the Devil. The Devil kept his promise and would not allow him to enter Hell. Now Jack was scared . He had nowhere to go, but to wander about forever in the dark Netherworld between heaven and hell. He asked the Devil how he could leave, as there was no light. The Devil tossed him an ember from the flames of Hell, to help Stingy Jack light his way. Jack had a Turnip with him. It was one of his favorite foods, and he always carried one with him. Jack hollowed out the Turnip, and placed the ember the Devil had given him, inside the turnip. From that day onward, Stingy Jack roamed the earth without a resting place, lighting his way as he went with his "Jack O'Lantern".

On all Hallow's eve, the Irish hollowed out Turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes and beets. They placed a light in them to ward off evil spirits and keep Stingy Jack away. These were the original Jack O'Lanterns. In the 1800's a couple of waves of Irish immigrants came to America. The Irish immigrants quickly discovered that Pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve out. So they used pumpkins for Jack O'Lanterns.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? - 2 September 2019

#IMWAYR is a weekly meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at The Book Date.

Happy Labor Day Bookdragons! I hope you're relaxing and reading and enjoying the end of the three-day weekend! 

What I Read Last Week:

So I ended up DNF'ing this one less than ten pages in. I didn't like the first book so I don't know why I thought the second book would be better. *Sighs* oh well. Another book off my shelf at least. 

I read all three Scary Stories books (bound into one hardcover) last week. I was so afraid to read these books as a kid and now I wonder why. They weren't scary, they were actually boring and fragmented. 

What I Am Reading Now:

I started reading this book at the coffee shop on Wednesday and I'm really enjoying it so far!  As a street team member (and even if I wasn't) I highly recommend preordering this November release. And guess what? If you preorder from One More Page you'll get your book signed (and personalized if you wish) with an exclusive crown stamp on the page! To preorder visit: https://www.onemorepagebooks.com/crown-oblivion-julie-eshbaugh-signed-featuring-exclusive-stamp-nov-12th

Last week I also started reading Bloodleaf. I'm not very far into it and I might put off finishing it for a while because I have more than a few books going right now for me to really devote time to this one.

I still need to finish the audiobook of It's Always the Husband. I'm only about 20% in because with last month's writing schedule I was so tired by the time I crawled into bed I was too exhausted to focus on an audiobook and I didn't want to miss anything because I love this author's writing! 

Up Next:
With a new month comes a new TBR list and this month I hope to read...

This should be easy to get through because I can always read a story or two before bed while still reading other books during the rest of my free time.

I've been meaning to read this book since it came out and I think it's high time I got into it.

The book I've been waiting for all year... I can't wait to get my copy of Capturing the Devil and see how this series ends!

I blew off most of my ARC reading last month so I'm catching up this month. I've been wanting to start this one, I just haven't had the time.

One of the things I love most about Fall is the spooky reads. This is another ARC I have to get to and it is the perfect time of the year to get started on it! 

What are you reading this week? Do you plan out a TBR for the month or do you just wing it?

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Spooky Reads for Halloween

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme started by The Broke and the Bookish and currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Top Ten Tuesday: Halloween / Creepy Freebie

This week's TTT is a Halloween freebie so I'm listing 10 of my favorite spooky reads to binge around Halloween!

1. The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

2. And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich

3. Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

4. Slasher Girls and Monster Boys

5. Asylum by Madeleine Roux

6. There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

7. Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann

8. Boy Heaven by Laura Kasischke

9. The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

10. Broken Things by Lauren Oliver

Do you like spooky reads around Halloween? What are some of your favorites?

Let me know in the comments or drop me a link to your TTT!

Happy Reading and Haunting Bookdragons!

Book Review: SAWKILL GIRLS by Claire Legrand

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

Blurb:

Beware of the woods and the dark, dank deep.

He’ll follow you home, and he won’t let you sleep.
Who are the Sawkill Girls?

Marion: the new girl. Awkward and plain, steady and dependable. Weighed down by tragedy and hungry for love she’s sure she’ll never find.

Zoey: the pariah. Luckless and lonely, hurting but hiding it. Aching with grief and dreaming of vanished girls. Maybe she’s broken—or maybe everyone else is.

Val: the queen bee. Gorgeous and privileged, ruthless and regal. Words like silk and eyes like knives, a heart made of secrets and a mouth full of lies.

Their stories come together on the island of Sawkill Rock, where gleaming horses graze in rolling pastures and cold waves crash against black cliffs. Where kids whisper the legend of an insidious monster at parties and around campfires.

Where girls have been disappearing for decades, stolen away by a ravenous evil no one has dared to fight… until now.

My Review:

Earlier this year I read Furyborn by this author and I didn't really like it. But when I saw the blurb for this one and it sounded so amazing I had to give it a chance. 

Furyborn and Sawkill Girls are night and day. Sawkill girls is a story beautifully steeped in legend, bone-chilling thrills, and three very different girls. Once I picked it up I didn't want to pick it down and it was one of those rare books where I liked all of the characters whose perspectives the story is told in. I found myself feeling sympathy for Val, the girl cast as the mean girl, I cheered for shy mousy Marion as she came out of her shell, and I felt the struggle Zoey lived with every day. 

My one issue with the writing was the author's description of people. Describing someone as just a black man or a white man doesn't give me a real good picture. Not all people of the same race look the same, give me broad shoulders, and military buzz cuts and scars beneath one eye... something to tell me what the person looks like. 

I did like that the author chose to go with an LGBTQ romance as well as delving into an asexual character in this book. It was refreshing and I've actually never read a book where the character was asexual.

Overall, I really loved this book and it completely turned me around for this author's books. 

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

4.75 of 5 Stars!