2024 Something Wicked Fall featuring a Stephen King read-along + stories, movies, and more!

It's September 1st so it's officially fall here at Castle Macabre and spooky season starts NOW! I can't believe this is our 7th year...and we have a Friday the 13th in September this year. I might have some goodies for you on that auspicious date. 🎃

Everything on the agenda is on the button above, but I'm going to share more details below. 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

👿 Stephen King's Fairy Tale read-along. We will be reading the book for the entire two months.

Discussions will be held on this blog. I will put a new post up the day after each reading section ends. We will read along according to the schedule below.

My edition is the Scribner (hardcover) edition, published in 2022. 599 pages.

Read-Along Schedule
September 1 - 14 - Ch. 1 - 9, pp 1 - 153 

(Discussion post September 15)
September 16 - 28 - Ch. 10 - 16, pp 155 - 295 

(Discussion post September 29)
Sept 30 - Oct 12 - Ch. 17 - 24, pp 297 - 450 

(Discussion post October 13)
October 14 - 26 - Ch 25 - Epilogue, pp 451 - 598 

(Discussion post October 27)

💀 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 watch an inordinate amount of horror movies and shows during the 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 cares to contribute. The more the merrier!

👻 #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.

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!!

  

Castle Macabre is 13 today...and update on Something Wicked Fall

I have always been a horror reader, but around the time of this blog's inception, I was reading more historical fiction than anything else. A lot has changed since then and horror has once again become the forefront of my reading passion. Back to my roots, I would say...since horror was the genre I mainly read when I started reading adult fiction as a preteen. I also write horror and I'm currently working on my first horror novel. 

Anyway, A big thank you to everyone who follows/reads the blog, and to those who participate in events and reading challenges. Here's to many more years of horror!

Update on Something Wicked Fall

The votes were counted and our Stephen King read-along winner was Fairy Tale. I'll have the reading schedule for you in the kickoff post on September 1st. Here's the updated event graphic...

Save the date for the FrightFall Readathon in October at Seasons of Reading...

Save the date...and a poll for our scary fall events

Save the date for our scary fall events. Something Wicked Fall, which runs through September and October, kicks off on September 1st. We will be having another Stephen King read-along and you get to vote for your choice. Just click this link when you're ready to vote: https://forms.gle/u8Pcb2QMEsk83LGK8 

Please only vote for one title. Voting is anonymous, but feel free to share what you voted for in the comments below.

I will have the post live with all the info, and the reading schedule for our TBD read-along on the kickoff date. The FrightFall Readathon, hosted over at my readathon blog, Seasons of Reading starts on October 1st. Sign-up for that event will be posted before mid-September on the Seasons of Reading blog.

Check out the preliminary event button for Something Wicked Fall below. I hope you will join us!

I Was A Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones - Review

There's a recently released horror movie called "In A Violent Nature" which is a slasher film told mostly from the killer's perspective. I saw it. Didn't love it, but didn't hate it either. If you like a lot of gore and creative dispatches of victims, this would be for you. I, for one, felt it needed a better story.

So if you want a better story told from the killer's perspective, this is the book you should read. Never in the history of my love for horror books and movies have I ever read a premise this creative and just plain interesting. Finally we get the inside workings of what everything a slasher is about, right down to how and why he (she) never seems to be killable. And it's really a juxtaposition between a ruthless killer and a likable teenager. I really can't say more, as I don't want to spoil it. I'll also mention that there are creative killings so for the fans I mentioned up there, you will like this too. 

One final note: Amber's beat-up Rabbit truck, with the passenger seat that slid forward on its rails every time she braked. I had a car with a seat like that, except mine was a beat-up 1974 Mustang. My friends loved it. I was a bit older than the book's characters, graduated in 1986, but the 80s nostalgia never truly leaves us.