2025 Something Wicked Fall featuring a Hell House read-along + stories, movies, and more!

September 1st is officially fall AND spooky season here at Castle Macabre. Commence with all things scary! This is our 8th year and, as always, I'm excited to share the fun and the horror. 🎃

👺 Social Media - If you're on Facebook, we have a Seasons of Reading group and page, where we interact during readathons so I'll be sharing info there, and also on the Seasons of Reading Instagram, and in the Seasons of Reading Goodreads group. Castle Macabre also has a Facebook page and we're on Instagram here. Also, if you like Discord, join us on the Seasons of Reading Discord. There is a Something Wicked Fall channel if anyone is up for some live interaction. Here's the invite link: https://discord.com/invite/e6uAmXtGqA

👿 Richard Matheson's Hell House read-along. We will be reading the book for the entire two months.

Discussions will be held on this blog. The dates for discussions and the reading schedule are below.

My edition is the Quality Paperback Book Club, through St. Martin's Press (trade paperback) edition, published in 2006. This is an omnibus edition containing I Am Legend, several short stories, and Hell House. Hell House in this edition begins on page 9 and ends on page 301. (I will probably read the short stories too. If I do, I will share in a separate post.)

Read-Along Schedule

• Start reading the first section on September 1
  Chapters - December 18, 1970 - December 22, 1970, pp 9 - 117
  (Discussion post - September 21)
• Second section, September 22
  Chapter December 23, 1970, pp 119 - 213
  (Discussion post - October 12
  
• Third Section, October 13
  Chapter December 24, 1970, pp 215 - 301 (end)
  (Discussion post - October 30

💀 For the two months of Something Wicked Fall we focus on everything horror...Gothic (Best Gothic Books of All Time), Classics, Folk Horror (Goodreads Folk Horror List) and any other kind of horror (Best Horror Anthologies and Horror Collections - Single Author). This post will be the master post where we can post about what we're reading in the comments (or leave links) so be sure to bookmark it (I will also have Something Wicked Fall linked in the menu at the top of the blog).

👹 Horror movie/shows I'm a year-round horror girl so I watch an inordinate amount of horror movies and shows, and even more during spooky season, so I will be sharing my take on some of those, and will probably share a few book reviews as well. As always, I invite guest posts or reviews from anyone who would care to contribute. If interested, send me a message via the Contact Me button in the sidebar.

👻 #FrightFall Readathon, October all month long, at Seasons of Reading. Sign-up for the readathon will be open soon. Reader's Imbibing Peril (R.I.P.) is going on right now as well. This year, they're doing a buddy read of Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I read it a few years back...it's really good.

🎃 In case you missed it last year, I created some printable Halloween bookmarks for you guys. If you would like to download them for printing, just click the image below.

I believe I've covered everything. If you have any questions, feel free to comment, or contact me via the contact form (click the image near the top of the sidebar) No official sign-up for this. Just share that you're in by leaving a comment. You can join in as little or as much as you want.

Stay Wicked!!

Recent reads - Mastodon by Steve Stred and Viy by Nikolai Gogol - Reviews

In the Afterword, the author mentions frequent visits to cryptozoology.com dating back to the early 2000's. First of all, as a cryptozoology fangirl, how did I not know about that website? Secondly, the same sentiments he mentions...footage of crypto creatures is exciting and always has me hoping it's real. But should we be hoping these creatures are real? After reading this book, I'm not so sure. 

I was fully engrossed in Mastodon. Missing parents, restricted government area, mind-blowing and terrifying creatures created in secret government experiments, and a story with heart that had me rooting for Tyler. All of this kept me coming back every chance I had. There are some definite shocking gross-out moments, and it will make you cringe at one point, but everything is necessary to convey the horrifying reality of what is going on in that facility. The ending left me cold, but not in a bad way. Overall, this is a solid cryptozoology government conspiracy mashup. If that's your thing, I recommend it.

Oddly enough, I discovered Nikolai Gogol from watching the Russian TV series, Gogol (an excellent series for horror fans - you can watch it for free on Tubi). Episode 6 is actually titled Viy. I developed an interest in the real Gogol and set about obtaining his works. I also watched the film, Viy (1967) which was rather comical in addition to the various horrific elements (watch the full movie for free on YouTube).

Preceding the story, Gogol's author's note: 

The "Viy" is a monstrous creation of popular fancy. It is the name which inhabitants of Little Russia give to the king of the gnomes, whose eyelashes reach to the ground. The following story is a specimen of such folk-lore. I have made no alterations, but reproduce it in the same simple form in which I heard it.

Viy is an entertaining story. Not so very scary, as it has a dark comedic tone (deftly reflected in the 1967 film), but I can see where this would have been a terrifying tale at the time it was written in regards to the folktale and the religious and superstitious beliefs of the time. The Viy episode of the TV series was much more frightening. All this being said, I enjoyed this tale, and I'm looking forward to reading more of Gogol's works.

Scene from 1967 film:

Gogol TV series trailer:

Happy 14th CM...and save the date for Something Wicked Fall 2025!

I'm passionate about horror, as anyone who knows me is aware. I had some years of segue into reading mostly historical fiction, but horror is once again at the forefront of my reading, and writing (I'm currently at work writing my first horror novel). So, I've gone back to my roots since horror was the genre I mainly read when I started reading adult fiction as a preteen. 

A big thank you to all the horror lovers out there, authors and readers alike! Also, thank you for following this little corner of the horror universe. It means more than you will ever know.

Here's to many more years of horror!

Save the date for our scary fall events. Something Wicked Fall, which runs through September and October, kicks off on September 1st. I will have the kick off post live with all the info, and the reading schedule for our read-along of Richard Matheson's Hell House that day (this is a reread for me and I'm excited because it's my favorite horror novel!). The FrightFall Readathon, hosted over at my readathon blog, Seasons of Reading starts on October 1st. Sign up for that event will be posted by mid-September. 

Check out the FrightFall event button. So excited for spooky season! I hope you will join us for all the fun!

2025 I Read Horror Year-Round Challenge - Second Quarter Check-in

Late again. I really need to set a reminder. Apologies.

So, how did the second quarter go for you?

I'm doing the Chilling level which is 12 books in a year (plus, I'm trying for the Cryptid Bingo). Here's how it's going so far...

• Vampires - The Vampire Armand, Anne Rice
• Witches
• Folk Horror
• Written by a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) author
• A Ghost Story - The Hacienda, Isabel Canas
• Written by a female author - Pine, Francine Toon
• Cosmic Horror - Annihilation, Jeff Vandermeer
• Frightening Cover
• Adapted as movie/series - The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
• Katsu, Ketchum, King, or Koontz - Holly, Stephen King
• Black, gray, orange, or red cover - Horseman, Christina Henry
• Book featuring a Cryptid (mark off one BINGO square!) - The Dover Demon, Hunter Shea

I can't believe there are still two more quarters and I've already read eight! I also have three squares marked on Cryptid BINGO. I've read...

Loch Ness Revenge, Hunter Shea

The Dover Demon, Hunter Shea

Rogue, Luke Phillips (Bigfoot)

I keep track of my yearly challenges over on my sister site, True Book Addict. There's a link to my 2025
challenge page in the menu above.

I hope you're enjoying your horrific reading! Share your progress in the comments (update, links to posts/reviews, etc.)...