My Halloween Reading List

Hey guys! Before I start with today's post, I just wanted to quickly remind you that I made a post a few days ago about my Halloween movie recommendations. So in case you missed it, feel free to check it out here ^^

Alright, so today's post is a list of the books that I plan on reading this month for Halloween. Since I'm rather busy at the moment, I tried to keep my list quite short. But me being me, I might always add some more books to that list during the month haha. Also, if you have some extra recommendations for me, do let me know in the comments.

The Midnight Heir - This is a short story that originally appeared in Cassandra Clare's Bane Chronicles, which she co-wrote with a bunch of other authors and which follows the adventures of Magnus Bane, a character who also appears in her Shadowhunter series. Recently though, the story was published as its own book and me being the hopeless Cassie Clare fan that I am, I had to buy it even if I already own the Bane Chronicles and have already read the story there. 

Since it's a short story, I plan on reading it in one sitting on a quiet afternoon at some point during the month. Or I might keep it for one of my busier weeks when I have less time to read actual novels. 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving - This one is also a short story and it's the classic story that inspired the modern day screen adaptations most of us are more familiar with. I love my Gothic, spooky classics and since I recently found a book with Irving's story at my uni library, I figured I just had to read this for Halloween. 

In case you want to check out some screen adaptations, I highly recommend the movie with Johnny Depp  and the 2013 TV show. The movie was directed by Tim Burton and it's one of his best according to me. The movie is not so scary that a scaredy cat like me wouldn't be able to watch it but it has enough of an eerie atmosphere to keep you enthralled throughout. As to the TV show, I would only recommend the first two seasons. Season one was near perfect but things got really weird towards the end of season 2. 

Dracula by Bram Stocker - Here's another horror classic that I thought would fit perfectly with the Halloween season. I've actually read Dracula once before, when I was in early high school and I remember being disappointed because I found it nowhere as scary as I thought it would be. However, since I wanted to add a classic to my reading list anyway, I thought I would give it another try this year. 

I had actually been meaning to pick it up again for years but kept pushing back because I was so scared I would be disappointed again. The copy I'm reading is one I actually borrowed from the university library but if I end up really enjoying it, I think I might buy my own copy. If you've read Dracula recently, do let me know what you thought!

The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken - Unlike the other titles in my list, this one is a middle grade horror novel that came out earlier this year. While its reviews have been mixed, many people did mention that the book was a perfect read for Halloween. I wanted to add a more recent book to my list anyway so I thought, why not give it a go?

I tried to avoid learning too much about it to keep the book as suspenseful as possible. From what I can gather though, the book follows the story of a boy who finds a demon literally living inside him due to a pact that his ancestor made with that demon, and then broke. The young boy, Prosper, now has to figure out how to free himself from the pact and the demon. I'm actually really looking forward to this book as I don't think I've ever read anything like that before. I hope I enjoy it though, because the last series I read by her, the Passenger series, left me a tad disappointed. I really enjoyed book one but felt a little meh by the second and last book. So let's see how I feel about this one!

So that's it with my Halloween  reading list guys. Like I said in the beginning, I tried to keep it short as I'm rather busy at the moment. Still, if you have other recommendations for me, do let me know in the comments below ^^

9 Movies That I'll be Watching This Halloween

Hey guys! Today I'm kick starting my special Halloween event with some movie recommendations for you. These are actually some of the movies that I plan to watch this Halloween season but in case you want some additional recommendations, you can check out this post that I made last year featuring some more of my favorite Halloween movies. 

Let's start!

Beetlejuice

Okay, confession time here. I have never actually watched this movie. You see, in my home country, since Halloween isn't really a thing, we don't get Halloween TV specials or reruns of popular Halloween movies. So most of the movies that are considered classics or staples of the Halloween season are movies that I've only started to discover in the past few years. 

I know that Michael Keaton stars in this movie and that it has a young Winona Ryder as well and already that's enough to make me super excited about watching it. Plus, I have seen a few extracts of the movie on YouTube before so I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy it based on what I've seen so far. 

The Halloweentown series

These I have actually watched before. Many times actually. But this year I really felt like marathoning all of them again. I mean, would Halloween really be Halloween without Marnie? Oh and by the way, in case you hadn't heard, this year the cast of Halloweentown is coming together to celebrate Halloween and honor the memory of the late Debbie Reynolds, who played Marnie's grandma Aggie in the movies. 

The Phantom of the Opera

I actually watched this one last year as well but being a huge Phantom of the Opera fan and given my movie crush on Gerard Butler, I just had to include it in this year's watch list as well. Plus, the dark atmosphere of the movie will be a nice change of pace from my other funnier Halloween selections. 

Bram Stocker's Dracula 

This one also stars Winona Ryder along with Gary Oldman and Keanu Reeves. Although I don't known much about this one, the trailer looks really cool and the reviews are pretty good in general. Plus, I'm reading Dracula this month so this one fits right in. 

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Yup, another old time classic that I've never watched before! This one is actually only 25 minutes long but it's a classic Halloween TV special and I just had to include it on my list. Especially since it looks super cute. 

Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic 

I'm a huge fan of the anime Black Butler (or Kuroshitsuji) and last year, for Halloween, I watched the Book of Murder, which was a movie that kinda served as the anime's fourth season. Book of Atlantic is a new Black Butler movie that came out this year and since from what I could gather from the trailer it seems to be about a zombie invasion on board a cruise ship, I thought it would be perfect for this time of the year. If they keep releasing these movies, I might make it a personal Halloween tradition to watch Black Butler in October every year (or however often they release those movies). If you didn't know, the anime is set in Victorian England and it follows the story of a young Earl and his demon butler. Like, the butler is an actual demon. So yeah, the anime is definitely Halloween material!

Other movies I might watch if I have more time

I'm currently completing the last semester of my Master degree so I may not have time to watch more stuff. But if I do find some extra time, I'd love to revisit some of my favorites like Practical Magic and Hocus Pocus. If you have additional recommendations for me, do let me know in the comments ^^ 

So that's it for this post guys. Since this month I'm having a special Halloween event, be sure to keep an eye out for my other upcoming Halloween posts. 

Special Halloween Event Announcement!

Hey guys! Today I have a super exciting announcement post for you. Those of you who've been reading my blog for a while now already know this, but Halloween is actually my favorite time of the year. So, this year, I thought I would go all out and have exclusive Halloween themed posts throughout the month of October.

There are three main reasons why I wanted to hold this event

Reason #1: Lately I haven't been blogging as much as I used to partly because I've been caught up with my Masters. I've also kinda been in a blogging slump these last couple of months. I thought that rather than force myself to post articles that I didn't have the heart to write, it would be better to get back into blogging when it began to feel fun again. And so, to ease back into  blogging, I thought it would be fun to write about Halloween. Which brings me to the next reason...

Reason #2: I LOVE Halloween! Like big time! However, in my home country, Mauritius, Halloween isn't really a thing. Right now, I'm currently living in Malaysia because I'm attending university here, and Halloween isn't a big deal here either! So, to make things interesting anyway, I thought I would do fun stuff throughout the month such as have movie nights, do DIY projects (if I find the time), read spooky stories and, yes, write Halloween posts for the blog.

Reason #3: I want to celebrate with you guys! Yup, since I'm away from my family and don't have that many friends with whom I can celebrate, Halloween can feel a bit lonely. So, I thought Halloween would be a lot more fun if I was to celebrate and interact with you guys!

So what can you expect from me this month?

I'll be posting my Halloween TBR, my movie recommendations, DIY projects, tips for those of you who are also celebrating at home or alone, along with a bunch of other fun stuff. So if these sound like things you might enjoy, keep an eye out for my upcoming posts!

Are you also blogging about Halloween this month?

If you are, whether it's about recipes, DIY projects, lookbooks, TBRs or any other kind of post, feel free to drop by and leave me a link to your posts. I'd love to read them ^^

Will you be sharing Halloween pictures on Instagram? Let's follow each other!

Throughout the month I'll also be sharing my Halloween themed pictures on Instagram. So if that's sounds interesting, you can follow me there by clicking on the link below ^^ I'll be very happy to follow you back as well. 

Upcoming next...

My first Halloween post is coming out on the 5th and in that post I'll be sharing my Halloween movie recommendations with you. So look forward to that!

Let's have a great Halloween together this month!