What I read in October 2024

Appropriately, I read 13 books in October, and a not-insignificant proportion of them were spooky in nature. I also saw three Colchester Fringe shows (with three still to see this month), and wrote… not a lot.

Elemental Forces, edited by Mark Morris - once again, this annual anthology put me on to new-to-me authors and expanded my TBR exponentially. 4*

Rule Britannia, by Daphne Du Maurier - 4*

The Witch’s Daughter, by Imogen Edwards-Jones - 4*

And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, by Gwendolyn Kiste - one of my discoveries from Elemental Forces. New obsession alert! 5*

The Keeper, by Sarah Langan - another new discovery. 4*

The Dollmaker, by Nina Allan - 4*

Don’t Look Now and other stories, by Daphne Du Maurier - aka “assorted British people have some awful travel experiences”. 4.5*

On Beauty, by rob mclennan - 4*

The Invisible Orientation, by Julie Sondra Decker - good, but kind of outdated now, and not as fun as Angela Chen and Sheronda J. Brown’s books on the subject. 4*

Babel, by R.F. Kuang - magnificent. 5*

Quiet Houses, by Simon Kurt Unsworth - 4*

Victim, by Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger, translated by Megan Turney - review coming soon! 4*

The Hotel, by Daisy Johnson - small but perfectly formed. 5*

Looking ahead…

I’m ridiculously excited to read more of Gwendolyn Kiste’s work, and Pretty Marys All in a Row is my next stop.

I’ve had Hunting by the River, by Daniel Carpenter, on my radar for a while, and as I received it for my birthday last month it’d be rude to leave it on the pile for long.

I’m already a third of the way through The Gracekeepers, by Kirsty Logan – one of the spoils from my London bookshop raid the other month – and it’s absolutely gorgeous.