Halloween: Books, Shows & Movies

2021 has been such a weird year, you guys. It has gone by so rapidly and yet so uneventfully (personally for me). I spent most of this year working from home, my daughter and son have been studying from home as well, and apart from brief trips to see my parents, we have done nothing interesting at all.

And still, the year has sped by so fast, and it’s Halloween, and I am not prepared at all – no costumes, no books, no TV shows, nothing. Time has stopped having any meaning for me, I guess.

I still don’t know what I”ll do for the kids’ costumes. But here are some books and shows I’d like to read/watch in the next couple of weeks.

Books

I definitely will not be able to read all ten of these books in the next couple of months. But after the excellent The Silent Patient, I am very keen on picking up Alex Michaelides’ The Maidens. Also, it’s been a very long time since I read any classic gothic horror, so I am looking forward to any Shirley Jackson or Daphne du Maurier books. The cover of Jamaica Inn with that boat and the clouds is drawing me in particular.

This year, a few hot books and popular choices for Halloween are Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, and The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. All three books are on my TBR list, and I will read them in due course of time.

No Halloween reading list is complete without a Neil Gaiman recommendation. This year I have his book of short stories – Fragile Things, on my list, and it’s been on my reading list for quite some time. Unfortunately, while watering my plants, I got a bit careless and ended up drenching this book. So, it’s been in quite a fragile state itself, ironically.

I am rounding off the list with these books: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E.Schwab. Honestly, I don’t know much about this book, but I love the cover; it’s been all over the blogosphere and has good reviews, so why not? Windwitch is the second book in the Truthwitch series. I liked the camaraderie between the two witches in Truthwitch, and the story is pretty exciting and adventurous, so I want to continue with the series. Although, I wouldn’t necessarily pick it up as the first choice for Halloween – more of adventure and Fantasy than creepy/horror.

Shows/Movies

Narcos Mexico Season 3 (the final season) is not a Halloween-watching show exactly, but it will be releasing next week, and there’s no way I’m not going to be binge-watching it the very first weekend.

If narco-violence isn’t for you, fear not, there are other interesting-looking horror shows and movies streaming.

Ryan Reynolds headlines The Amityville Horror over at Netflix. It’s pretty old (released in 2005) and probably a pretty lousy movie (since I haven’t heard of this before). But from what little I saw on the web, there’s a lot of bare-chested Reynolds, so the movie might not be a total loss 😜.

Another intriguing show is You – where Penn Badgley plays a serial killer. All my friends rave about it a lot. I watched the first episode, and I’m on the fence; I don’t like him. He was my least favorite character in Gossip Girl. Do I want to see three seasons of this dude? I don’t know. Convince me in the comments, please 😀.

I’m not quite sure what to think of Midnight Mass (also on Netflix). It looks spooky, and I love a good combination of religion and horror. The best horror books/movies always have a strong religious component to them.

Another plus is that Midnight Mass is a limited series, so I don’t feel it’s as big a timesuck as You. What do you think?

What are you watching or reading this Halloween? I’d love some recommendations.