2026 I Read Horror Year-Round Challenge - Third Quarter Check-In

The year of being late. That's what I've dubbed 2026. I'm so sorry once again. Not only am I late, but my reading for this challenge has not been going great either. I hope it's going better for you. 

Let's update, shall we?

I'm doing the Chilling level which is 12 books in a year. Plus, I'm going to try to do the Complete the Word Bonus Challenge. I picked FRIGHT. Here's how it's going so far...

• Winter - set in winter or snow on the cover or winter in the title
  Freezing Point, Karen Dionne
• Epistolary horror - found footage, told in letters and/or diaries
• Cult and/or ritual
  Last Days, Adam Nevill (currently reading, will finish by end of October)
• Haunted house - No One Gets Out Alive, Adam Nevill
• Full moon and/or woods on the cover
• Indigenous, Asian, or Latino author
• Pumpkins/Jack O' Lanterns on the cover
• Black author
• Book published in the 60's, 70's, or 80's
• Social justice horror
• Yule/Christmas holiday themed
• Whatever scares you the most
  Marla, Jonathan Janz (creepy...creepy scares me the most. lol)
  
  

F - Freezing Point, Karen Dionne
R
I - Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
G
H - Hell Bent, Leigh Bardugo
T - The October Country, Ray Bradbury (currently reading, will finish before Oct 31)

I guess I'm not doing as bad as I thought, but I'm still not sure if I will meet all the prompts by the end of the year. We shall see.

I keep track of my yearly challenges over on my sister site, True Book Addict. There's a link to my 2026
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.)...

Thanks for bearing with me! Wishing you continued terrifying reads!

Adam Nevill's Last Days Read-Along - Discussion Two

Possible spoilers ahead. Enter if you dare.

Well, well, well. Here I am on the 14th actually posting the discussion. Go me! It's late, I know, but still the 14th so... Anyway, as I mentioned in the update I posted the other day, I combined sections two and three so this discussion covers sections two and three. Just for clarification.

So, a lot to unpack here. What a terrible devastation was the last days at the Arizona mine. How utterly horrific. The murders of her closest disciples, and even her. The way they found the bodies in the "temple." And then the bodies out by the fence. Not only shot, but literally chewed on...by teeth that were not animals. That Katherine sure did have some weird shit going on. It still astounds me how people will just blindly follow something like that. Now we find out even more horrible things have happened, like rape of females and males. Also, the cases of some of these people being missing. As Martha said, probably taken out to the desert, killed and buried, or perhaps even buried alive. Yikes!

The part in Kyle's hotel room scared the crap out of me. Can you imagine waking up and hearing and then seeing something like that? And what are they? Well, not too long after this occurrence we start to find out.

I am so glad that Nevill brought this historical element to the story. I feel like it adds such depth, but also gives us a back story about what exactly Kyle is dealing with. Those terrible paintings, but even more terrible is the story behind them. It makes me wonder if something like that really happened, meaning the massacre of an entire town. I mean I know that went on in those times, but specifically, was there a sect similar to Lorche's that was burned out of existence by the Spanish Catholics? I'm definitely going to research it. 

Now that we know the back story, I'm hoping we will get more of an explanation. Maybe we will, maybe we won't, but I feel like this is another outstanding work by Nevill. 

Side note: The part in the paintings where Lorche and the Unholy Swine were "ascending" up in the air in the last painting. It reminded me of the end of the 2018 Suspiria remake. Not exactly like it, but that kind of supernatural depravity. Disturbing.

Looking forward to getting to the end and what we will find there. I think Nevill is pretty good at not leaving readers hanging. Let's hope it's the case with this book as well.

What are your thoughts? Please share in the comments.

Our final discussion will be posted on October 30. If you need to reference the reading schedule, click the link to the master post below, or in the blog menu at the top.

This post is part of Something Wicked Fall.

2026 Something Wicked Fall - Quick Update!

I just wanted to apologize for being rather ghostly of late. I will disclose now that I have a lot on my plate right now and I've been struggling with some mental health issues the past few months (incidentally, I have started therapy again). For this reason, I have decided to postpone the official launch of my YouTube channel until the new year. It's a busy season and it's only going to get busier with the holidays coming up. Probably not a good time to be a beginner and dipping my toes in when I'm dealing with overwhelm. A sneak peak into what has had my attention the past several days. Crafting with my sister last Monday through Thursday has really helped in the mental health department. Here's what we're working on...

We're almost finished. We just have to finish up the scenes in each room. As you can see, there is a skeleton yoga room on the bottom floor, left room. On the right is going to be the witch room, and the second floor, left room is the mummy/embalming room. It has been a lot of work, but we are enjoying it. Halloween is my favorite! Duh, right?!

Regarding the Last Days read-along, I got behind again. I've decided to combine discussions two and three so will plan to have that posted no later than the 14th. That's firm because the 15th is my birthday and I have a pretty busy birthday weekend planned which will include a lot of reading since Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon is on the 17th. Yay!

For those of you participating in the I Read Horror Year-Round reading challenge, I will have the third quarter update posted soon. I'm also failing miserably on that challenge this year as well. *sigh*

Now that I've shared what's going on in my life, how are things going in yours? Feel free to share. I'm always willing to listen. 

Thanks so much for being a follower of this blog, and for bearing with me. I appreciate it more than you will ever know.

Adam Nevill's Last Days Read-Along - Discussion One

Possible spoilers ahead. Enter if you dare.

First of all, thank you for bearing with me on my lateness. I had quite the week and just could not get caught up. I finally sat down this weekend and read the first section. Wow! Just what I would expect from a Nevill novel. Starting off with a bang with that prologue, and then not too long after, the creeping dread begins.

The first foray of Kyle and Dan into the house on Clarendon Road, the original headquarters of the Last Gathering, was definitely edge of seat. I can only imagine how scared they were. I was scared right along with them. They stuck around way longer than I would have. Also, the revelation that Max had been part of the Last Gathering. I thought he acted kind of weird. Makes sense that he would run a spiritual, new age type production company, though after his experiences with the cult, I wonder why? There is definitely something more about his involvement than he is letting on. At least in my opinion.

Onward with the creepiness...to Normandy and the dilapidated farm. Thinking about those poor children kept in the barn/temple with the dogs. How weird anyway. Kyle touched on it when he thought about how strange it was that Sister Katherine would want the followers to procreate when she mostly expected them to be celibate. A definite contradiction in the cult by-laws so to speak. I kept screaming in my head to Kyle. Why was he exploring that place by himself after Dan went off to help Gabriel? I knew something bad was going to happen there. But back to Kyle and his ill-advised solo mission inside the barn/temple and then Katherine's fermette. What exactly are these beings or figures he is seeing? Something nefarious for sure, and not sure what they're waiting for because they sure seem to be poised to do something. What, who knows? 

I just wonder what makes people want to stay in "cults" like that. Sister Katherine clearly was cruel and probably a lunatic. Even after they discovered she was living high on the hog while they were suffering, some of them still stayed. The psychological trauma after experiencing something like that had to be significant. Well, we witnessed it with the woman in the prologue, and also with Susan and Gabriel's obvious apprehension on returning to those places.

I have to say I'm intrigued AND creeped out. This is why I love a Nevill novel. He never disappoints.

What are your thoughts? Any ideas on the mysterious and creepy figures? Add your thoughts in the comments.

Our next discussion will be on September 30. I will try very hard not to get behind again. If you need to reference the reading schedule, click the link to the master post below, or in the blog menu at the top.

This post is part of Something Wicked Fall.