I hope you had a great Halloween - if it’s your thing, of course! This is the first Halloween since The Housetrap was released and it’s been an absolute SCREAM! It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of getting my spook on - I have always loved spooky season, even from a young age. (One year, I was perhaps twelve, I lugged a very heavy bucket of water and apples door to door in my neighborhood, so people could apple bob on the doorstep. Never again.) So of course, with a scary book to share I was in my element.
It was a suitably busy, fun and bookish month. I’ve read some absolute crackers in the creepy genre (I’ll share my top three below) and I’ve also been lucky enough to take The Housetrap out to play in schools and festivals across Bath and Bristol (check out Storytale Festival here)
If you click on the image above it will take you to my feature for BookTrust on how scary stories can be beneficial as well as lots of fun, and below you’ll find a lovely interview in Paperbound Magazine (huge thanks to Steve Blackman for picking my brains)
The weekend was a Monster mash of fun, starting with the brilliant Mr B’s Halloween Spooktacular with Hana Tooke (The Unadoptables & The Midnighters) and Emily Randall (The Witchstones Ghosts). We entertained a packed shop, with shadow puppetry, spider and magic wand crafts, and a fiendish memory game.
Then I spent a gloopy afternoon pumpkin carving and a gory evening horror movie marathoning (American Werewolf, Carrie and The Omen). I was also delighted to pop up on this wonderful list with some of my absolute favourite spooky authors:
And, on top of all that I had this piece of amazing news …
The Housetrap is on the Longlist for the James Reckitt Hull Children’s Book Award!
It really has been a great year for spooky books, and not just mine. So here are a few recommendations for the season if you want to creep yourself out a little longer ... my top three reads from October:
Kalynn Bayron’s You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight does everything you’d expect from a US holiday camp turned immersive slasher game gone wrong. OK, so I did guess one of the twists but that made it even more fun. It fully delivers on all the best classic slasher movie tropes and it was a great, fast-paced read.
Next up is an older book that I’d somehow never noticed before!
With its brilliant illustrations by Jon Klassen (of course they’re brilliant!) The Dark, by Lemony Snicket was a magical find, for me. Some reviews suggest that it can be a bit too scary for young children, as the Dark has a voice - and yes, that might be pretty worrying, but as it turns out, it just wants to help. I wasn’t sold on the big chunk of explanatory text in the middle but otherwise, I was utterly charmed (in a slightly spooky, seasonal kind of way).
and finally, Read, Scream, Repeat is a brilliant collection of short stories from some uber talent, such as Kirsty Applebaum, Polly Ho-Yen, Phil Hicks and Rachel Delahaye to name but a few … all curated by Jennifer Killick. The scariest thing about this book was trying to decide which story was my favourite!
And that’s it … next stop, Christmas!
For lots more Halloween and Autumn themed books, go to https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/cosy-magical-autumnal-spookiness for a whole heap of glorious autumn reading fodder including The Housetrap, as well as some of my solid faves, including BITE RISK and the brand new, THE WITCHSTONE GHOSTS.
See you soon and follow me on Twitter at @emmydee73 and Instagram @ediereadie