Another month is coming to a close, and it’s time to show you guys what I read this month! Don’t forget, if I have a review for the book, you’ll be able to click the STARS for the review link! (Titles will still take you to Goodreads.)
(this picture is a damn lie. I haven’t yet finished The Girl from the Well, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shatter Me, or Girls of Paper and Fire… guess I shouldn’t have been so overly optimistic while taking photos)
October Reads…
EMOJI KEY:
? = review copy
? = POC rep
? = LGBTQ+ rep
? = OWNtober
? = spooky reads
1. What if it’s Us — Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera ★★☆☆☆ ???
2. The Toy Thief — D. W. Gillespie ★★☆☆☆ ??
3. Doorbells at Dusk — Evans Light ★★★★★ ??
4. Blanca & Roja — Anna-Marie McLemore ★★★★★ ???
5. Slothilda — Dante Fabiero ★★★★☆ ?
6. Drawn to Sex — Erika Moen & Matthew Nolan ★★★★★ ???
7. Pumpkinhead — Cullen Bunn ★☆☆☆☆ ??
8. Breathe. Breathe. — Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi ★★★★★ ???
9. Dead Leaves — Kealan Patrick Burke ★★★★★ ??
10. Super Chill — Adam Ellis ★★★★★ ??
11. Home and Away — Candice Montgomery ? DNF ???
12. Odd One Out — Nic Stone ★★☆☆☆ ???
13. Evidence of the Affair — Taylor Jenkins Reid ★★★★★ ?
14. That Night — Amy Giles ★★★★★ ?
15. Empire of Storms — Sarah J. Maas ★★★★★ ??
16. Imagine Us Happy — Jennifer Yu ★★★★★ ?
17. Finding Baba Yaga — Jane Yolen ★★★★★ ??
18. Hunting Prince Dracula — Kerri Maniscalco (reread) ★★★★★ ????
19. A Very Large Expanse of Sea — Tahereh Mafi ★★★★★ ??
20. Suspended in Dusk II — Simon Dewar ★★★★☆ ??
21. Paper Girls, Vol. 1 — Brian K. Vaughan ★★☆☆☆
22. Tower of Dawn — Sarah J. Maas ★★★★★ ??
23. It — Stephen King ★★★☆☆ ??
24. Garden of Eldritch Delights — Lucy A. Snyder ★★★★☆ ???
25. Knee Deep in Little Devils — WorD Publishing ★★★☆☆ ??
26. A Monstrous Love, Vol. 2 — Magen Cubed (no rating) ???
27. Watersnakes — Tony Sandoval ★★★★★ ???
28. Zero’s Journey — D.J. Milky ★★★☆☆??
29. Bedfellow — Jeremy C. Shipp ★★★★★ ??
30. Strange Fruit, Vol. 2 — Joel Christian Gill ★★★★★ ??
31. My Favorite Half-Night Stand — Christina Lauren ★★★★★ ?
32. The Graveyard Book — Neil Gaiman ★★★★★ ??
33. Fairest — Marissa Meyer ★★★★☆ ?
34. The Halloween Tree — Ray Bradbury ★★☆☆☆ ??
35. Trick or Death — Calvin Demmer ★★★★★ ??
Other Reviews Posted this Month…
Movies Watched this Month…
- Stephanie — ★★★.5
- The Blackcoat’s Daughter — ★★★★.5
- Emelie — ★★★.5
- Gnome Alone — ★★★.5
- Let Us Prey (rewatch) — ★★★★★
- Creep (rewatch) — ★★★★★
- Truth or Dare (2017) — ★★★.5
- Malevolent — ★★★.5
- The Haunting of Hill House S01E01 — ★★★★★ (I can’t wait to continue this!)
My Favorite Non-Review Posts of the Month…
- My first ever witchy post: How I’m Celebrating Samhain
- Favorite Horror Films
- October-December TBR 5-Star Predictions
- Unpopular Character Opinions
- Shortest Books On My “Owned” TBR
My Favorite Posts from OTHER Bloggers This Month…
- Shanah’s October TBR/TBR Unhaul Challenge
- Shanah is doing a new thing where her friend is choosing 2 books from her owned TBR and she has to read them that month, otherwise she must unhaul them! I LOVE this idea and am actually planning on stealing it!
- Elise’s Imagine Us Happy review
- Malanie’s Read and Chill-A-Thon announcement
- Kelly’s “What’s On My Netgalley Shelf” post (which I am 100% stealing ASAP)
- Josie’s “7 Things Bloggers Should Know” post (inspired by a twitter word-vomit from yours truly)
- My horror twin Heather shared a bunch of recommendation lists for monsters, zombies, murderers, witches, demons and ghosts, and her overall scariest reads!
- Owl posted two amazing pieces on book buying and accessibility!
- Kathy peeked through my horror recs and picked a few out!
- Kathy also talked about peer pressure in the book blogging community, and made SO many good points.
STATS:
AVERAGE RATING FOR THE MONTH: 4.3/5
FORMAT: 37% PRINT, 54% EBOOK, 9% AUDIO
PERCENTAGE OF OCTOBER TBR COMPLETED: 57% completed, 9% in progress,
34% not attempted (whoops!)
jamsu
November 1, 2018Wow. You had great reading month!
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Thank you so much! <3
Alyssa Cohen
November 1, 2018OH MY GOODNESS!!! How did you read 35 books?! I read 8 books this month, which was a huge success for me!! I really want to pick up “A Very Large Expanse of Sea”, so I’m really happy to see that you gave it 5 stars! Great wrap-up!!
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018I HAVE NO IDEA. Lol! I honest to gods don’t have a CLUE how I read so much because my usually number is 20-ish on a good month! 8 is amazing, though!! You should be very proud of yourself, especially if that’s more than your usual or you were expecting! 🙂 AVLEOS was AMAZING and I cannot recommend it enough. I hope you love it!
Nerd Narration
November 1, 2018That thing when you could multiply my month (a month I didn’t get married in/celebrate a birthday in) by 5 and get your total! *facepalm*
Jokes aside this is unbelievably impressive. I suspect you’re passed out now and napping so I’ll allow delay in responding to this comment! <3
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Hahaha awww, thank you! ♥♥ I have no clue where all of these came from, I actually gasped when I was putting the post together and hit the 20-ish mark (which is my usual “good month” reading count) and realized I had more to add. I was like, “Wait… WHAT?!”
Victoria
November 1, 2018Wow, SO MUCH READING! I really need to read something by Anna Marie McLemore because I’ve heard so many good things about her books. I also really need to read the new Tahereh Mafi and TJR novella because I love both of their other books. Seeing that you gave the new Christina Lauren book five stars makes me super excited to pick up my copy! I’ve been trying to wait until closer to release date to read it, but I don’t think I can wait much longer!
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Anna-Marie McLemore is amaaaaazing, especially if you enjoy lyrical writing! But really, all of the books you mentioned were phenomenal and I can’t recommend them enough. Haha I was also gonna wait until closer to the release date on Half-Night Stand but I picked it up on a whim as I was craving a cute, romantic read and then the next thing I know, it was 5am and I had just finished it lol!
CJR The Brit
November 1, 2018OMG that’s an amazing amount of books to have read, go you! Did you end up doing the Off the Grid Readathon? I found it really helped me….?
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Thank you! 😀 I did! Not only did I do that, but it was so eye-opening that it motivated me to put time locks on my browser and my phone/iPad permanently. I now have it set so that I can’t spend more than 30 minutes across all social media sites (except goodreads) on my browser, and my phone doesn’t give me any notifications for twitter or facebook or allow me to access them between… I think I set it to 12pm-8pm, but I’m considering changing it to 10am-10pm. It has been tremendously helpful not only for my reading but also for my general productivity and my mood! How did you like going off the grid that weekend? 😀
CJR The Brit
November 2, 2018That’s fab, I’ll have to see if I can do that, although I’ve lost my phone a bit as my son’s tablet died and he uses my phone for his crappy games an hour an evening….so that helps!
I read 5 books (I think) in that 3 day period and that is huge for me! Defo want to do again!!! ?
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Oh no, lol! Poor thing. That’s sweet that you let him use your phone. My son loves playing little educational games and when I updated my phone, we actually made him his own iCloud account and took off all the regular apps and put on only educational games for him, and he’s allowed to have that a bit here and there through the day. It’s amazing how much those games have actually taught him and it’s a lifesaver in long car rides lol!
That is awesome!! It needs to be a monthly thing lol!
CJR The Brit
November 2, 2018He loves the times table songs, and it actually helps him learn them! We have a few other maths apps but sometimes I have to twist his arm to go on them, history is his thing!
I need a monthly readathon, but also the days off work!!!
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Aww, too sweet! Mine is 2, and he loves anything with colors and shapes, or animals. My mom has goats, so he’s especially fond of anything with farm animals because they remind him of her house, I guess! lol.
CJR The Brit
November 2, 20182 is a lovely age, brains like little sponges so they take it all in. Mine is 9 now and the teenage attitude is already starting to come through. I need to get more wine for when it hits fully ?
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018LMAO, oh god, good luck!
CJR The Brit
November 2, 2018I have wine ?
Lola
November 1, 2018Whoa! That’s a whole lotta books! I am so impressed 🙂 I have been meaning to start watching The Haunting of Hill House. It’s good then? 😉
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Thank you so much! 🙂 And yes, the first episode sucked me in immediately! I can’t wait to continue the series.
Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum
November 1, 2018Wow! Great job this month! 😀
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Thank you! 😀 I’m really proud of this wrap-up, it’s by far the most I’ve ever read in a month!
yarnowlreads
November 1, 2018Holy crap!! ??????
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Haha thank you! ♥
Avery @ RedRocketPanda
November 1, 2018You’re a reading MACHINE.
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018I don’t even know what happened to me in October! I’m kind of wondering if it’s just because I locked down my social media usage so much, or what, but I’m not complaining!
Marie
November 2, 2018Oh my god you’ve read SO much this month, that’s incredible, HOW do you do this and where do I get your magical reading powers, hahaha 🙂 I hope that November will be just as good! 🙂
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Thank you!! <3 I have no idea where all of this came from to be honest! I think it might be because I made the decision at the beginning of October to start severely limiting my social media time. I feel like that made a huge difference in how I spend my free time!!
Marie
November 3, 2018That’s so good to hear – I really need to do that too haha 🙂
Alexa
November 2, 2018THAT’S A LOT OF BOOKS! Congrats 😀
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Thank you, Alexa! 😀
Verushka, an editor (@SydneyEditor1)
November 2, 2018My goodness, well done! You have indeed had a busy month!!
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Thank you so much!!
sarahrmorrison
November 2, 2018Amazing! So tell me how you managed to read so much this month? I can read about 10 books in a month and that is about all. I am super jealous of your fantastic reading month!
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Thank you!! I usually average 20 per month at the most, so this is hugely abnormal for me, but I THINK the difference this month was due to the fact that I started using the new “screen time” feature on my phone and a Google Chrome extension called StayFocusd to limit my social media usage to about an hour per day. It has made a massive difference in how I spend my free time! It’s so much easier to focus on reading when I’m not constantly having twitter or facebook notifications popping up, or spending so much time scrolling mindlessly through my feeds, and it has also improved my mood which helps my reading a lot, too! My house is even cleaner thanks to it! ??
sarahrmorrison
November 2, 2018That is fantastic! Great insight! Thanks!
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018You’re welcome and good luck! Happy reading ♥♥
Sarah
November 2, 2018a) Jawdrop at your reading for this month — congrats!
b) I read Paper Girls Vol 1 last year and it just… didn’t do anything for me. I read Vol 2 a couple weeks ago to give it another shot and ran into the same problem. It seems pretty well-loved so I’m glad I’m not the only one to sit around 2-3 stars with them.
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Thank you! <3
Ugh, I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling that way about Paper Girls!! Honestly, I knew I wasn't going to get into it from the moment the one girl started throwing around the f-slur, because it felt so freaking unnecessary I couldn't even deal with it, but then the story just… wasn't worth the trouble? Sigh. I dunno. It's how I feel about Saga as a whole, too—"not worth the effort".
Sarah
November 2, 2018Yeah, exactly my problem. I felt like the girls could be unnecessarily rude just for the sake of being rude and I didn’t really find it cute or funny. I also struggle with really jumbled stories, so I had so much trouble piecing together what was happening. I haven’t tried Saga yet and might, but have heard so many mixed things that it’s not really a high priority atm.
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Right! Yes to all of this. And honestly, if you don’t like jumbled stories (I’m not big on them either typically), I’m not sure you’d dig Saga much, either. That’s my biggest problem with Saga. It follows too many *mostly* unrelated threads and there are so many side characters and offshoots from the main plot and I just… couldn’t care after a while. Plus, in the very beginning, you learn you’re basically being told the story from the child’s memories, and you know something bad is coming, which was super anxiety-inducing for me because, as we’ve discussed, I struggle a lot with kids in danger? Well, a booktuber I’m friends with mentioned a warning a few days ago that in volume… 6? I think? There is a huge trigger warning for SOMETHING related to children and she didn’t say what it was, but the last volume I read was #5 and it effectively cancelled ANY chance of me continuing the series because I literally got anxious just imagining what could have happened.
Sarah
November 2, 2018Oh dang, that’s a good reason to stop!! Yeah it definitely sounds like something I might not dig, in that case. Sometimes you just gotta accept when something isn’t for you haha.
innah96
November 2, 2018Wow – you managed to finish off so many books! And a lot of them spooky! I loved your post and I hope your November TBR is even bigger and better! <3
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Thank you! <3 Happy reading in November!
Kelly Brigid
November 2, 2018*bows in awe* Reading more than a book a day!? I don’t know how you do it! I’m so impressed! I’m really glad your average rating was so high, and am happy to see that you enjoyed Fairest! I had such a grand time gushing about the Graveyard book with you too! Haha. <3
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Thank you, love! ♥ I had a blast with our buddy read, too! I hope your November reading is amazing!
Book Bosomed Blonde
November 2, 2018Wow you had a killer month (no pun intended) haha but you definitely had some really great books. I read hunting prince Dracula as well and I freaking loved it, but I loved the first one as well so I’m not surprised.
Great reading month xx
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Hahaha thank you! HPD is so fun, it was my second time reading it and I loved it just as much as the first time! I’m glad you loved it, too.
Annemieke
November 2, 2018Oh my gosh, you read so much. I’m jealous. 😉
I’ve been meaning to read The Halloween Tree some day but your rating discourages me haha.
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 2, 2018Haha thank you! It’s that social media ban, I’m telling you!
Yeah… The Halloween Tree was such a bust for me. :/ I just hated the writing style so much and found it incredibly boring. Almost everyone in my group read gave it 4+ stars, though, so maybe it was just me? :/
malanielovesfiction
November 2, 2018ahhhh omg thank you for featuring my post, I’m so happppyyy????? <3 also, I feel better knowing you also hated Ben from What If It's Us. if I had a boyfriend and he treated me like Ben treats Arthur, I would dump his *ss. THAT HAMILTON SCENE????? poor Arthur, he was so cute and deserves a better boy, it's my mission to find him one
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 3, 2018Any time!! ♥♥ and YES to the Ben thing, omg. That scene killed me! Like… how? HOW. It was so rude and awful and just completely unnecessary and — ugh please don’t let me go on ANOTHER rant about this book lmaoooo.
emmareadstoomuch
November 3, 2018WHO ARE YOU. WHAT. SUPERHERO.
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 4, 2018I don’t even know but I need it to become a thing EVERY MONTH okay because my shelves are getting out of hand
Lauren @ Wonderless Reviews
November 4, 2018omg what an amazing reading month ? you’re incredible!!! I’m five episodes into The Haunting of Hill House and it’s incredible. I had to take a break, but I can’t wait to continue it either.
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 5, 2018Thank you!! I’m so glad you’re enjoying Hill House, I still really need to continue the series! 😀
Kathy @ Books & Munches
November 5, 2018You read a LOT and even though we both know some books absolutely sucked.. I’d say you can be very proud of that 4.3 star average! Sounds like a brilliant reading month to me! And you read a TON of OWNtober books so YAY YOU. <3
I'm always way too stoked to see how my challenges help people, haha. 😛
[I didn't even watch a second episode of The Haunting of Hill House because.. well.. I'm a wuss and I proved it during that first episode, haha! Maybe I'll give it another shot when it's actually DAY instead of evening / night..]
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 5, 2018Thank you! 😀 I definitely was able to focus on some OWNtober reads and it made me realize how much I’ve missed reading things that… aren’t… ARCs lmao. I love reviewing ARCs and I’m obviously super grateful to have them, but it was kind of eye-opening to make me realize that I need to stop reading JUST review copies and start focusing more on the books that I loved and bought. :’)
Kathy @ Books & Munches
November 8, 2018Yuup. Reading non-ARC’s equals reading without pressure. And it’s awful to say that but it’s true, at least to me it is.. :’) Sometimes I just need to remind myself there are books I don’t have ANY expectations for and where nobody else has any expectations regarding me and my opinion / review / whatever either. :’)
Darque Dreamer Reads
November 6, 2018I picked up a copy of Bianca and Roja recently!
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 8, 2018I hope you love it! It’s soooo good.
Darque Dreamer Reads
November 8, 2018Hooray! It sounded really good! 🙂
Becky (coffeecocktailsandbooks)
November 8, 2018I love how detailed your wrap-ups are! Also holy hell, you read so much! That’s amazing!
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 9, 2018Awww thank you love ♥♥ I’m still in shock a little lol! I don’t think November will be anywhere near as good ?
thecritiquesofafangirl
November 9, 2018Wow you read a lot. That’s amazing, I could only read 2 books due to my stupid exams ?
And it’s really nice to someone who also considers manga and comics as reading ?
Destiny @ Howling Libraries
November 9, 2018I’m sorry your exams took up so much of your time! 🙁 I hope you have more reading time in November. And yes, manga and comics definitely count! 🙂 Thank you!
thecritiquesofafangirl
November 9, 2018Unfortunately November and December are also gonna be very busy months but I’ll get time at the end of December to read a little more ? your welcome