Fun for Monday: Halloween Book Covers Tag (#2)

This is an original tag created by Kristen over at Moonlight and Metaphors that I had a lot of fun doing back in 2020. Last time, I used it to celebrate some great artists and book covers. This time round I’m going to share some of the books that are on my radar because of awesome reviews from some of my favourite fellow bloggy peeps.

 

Skull/Skeleton/Bones

When Ariana of The Book Nook talks about a cosy, creepy read featuring a dog made of bones, you better believe I’m going to read it! Nettle and Bone by T Kingfisher sounds frigging awesome.

 

Pumpkin

This prompt was hard enough the last time I did it! Pumpkins just don’t feature much in my little world so I’m skipping this one.

 

Blood

Maddalena of Space and Sorcery is one of the few people who could convince me to read a Dracula retelling (I remain leery of vampire stories), but her post about A Dowry of Blood by S T Gibson has me sold.

 

Spiders, Bats, or Other Creepy Creatures

I have had The Vorrh by Brian Catling on my physical TBR stack for quite some time, so Ollie’s review of Earwig by the same author caught my eye (also because earwigs are by far the most creepy of creepy-crawlies and terrified me to such a degree when I was a child that I slept with a shower cap on my head so they couldn’t get in). It sounds a bizarre novella, but a fascinating one too.

 

Something Witchy

Sia of Every Book a Doorway is absolutely awesome and there’s not a post of hers I’ve read without then adding the book she’s been talking about to my immediate TBR. I also love that while a lot of blogs are talking about the same new releases, Sia is always reading something different that I wouldn’t otherwise have learnt about. Her review for The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings being a case in point.

 

Severed Body Part

I know this isn’t actually severed body parts on the cover of Borne by Jeff VanderMeer, (if it were, I’d probably think twice about reading it), but it is wonderfully, unidentifiably biological. *squick* The ever-marvellous Maryam The Curious SFF Reader wrote the post that really sold this to me (although VanderMeer is my catnip).

 

Full Moon

The terrific Tammy of Books, Bones and Buffy said good things about Glen Duncan’s The Last Werewolf way back in a 2011 post. I don’t know how I came across this post (I wasn’t blogging back then), but I was very happy to find it as The Last Werewolf is one of those books that keep attracting my eye when I visit the library.

 

Cemetery

I’m getting undertones of cemetery from this cover, aren’t you? The Library of the Dead by T L Huchu is on my TBR thanks exclusively to Lisa of Dear Geek Place, whose review for this book both intrigued and delighted me.

 

Haunted House

I’m such a scaredy-cat that I haven’t yet brought myself to read anything by Paul Tremblay, even though I really do want to. Mogsy at Bibliosanctum put Tremblay and Cabin on my radar with her balanced review back in 2018. Her thoughts on another of his books, A Head Full of Ghosts, makes me think that this will be where I start with his work though – how can anyone resist such enthusiasm?

 

Ghost

Thanks to Jonathan Thornton at The Fantasy Hive A Country of Ghosts by Margaret Killjoy is definitely a book I want to read. But then pretty much anything Jonathan recommends immediately goes on my list.

 

Classic Monster (Vampire, Werewolf, Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster etc)

Not about a classic monster as far as I can tell, Daughter from the Dark by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko was absolutely sold to me thanks to the fantastic review by Aquavenatus, which has left me with the burning question: exactly what is Mishutka the teddy bear??!

 

Candy

Kaiju? Scalzi? I’m in. No recommendation necessary (and the same goes for ‘candy’ – in my case chocolate).

 

Someone in a Costume or Mask

The Mask of Mirrors by M A Carrick is something that I’ve been salivating to read since Lynn reviewed it, but as you know by now – it’ll probably be another few years before I actually get round to it. Still, Lynn’s post promises that it’ll be a delicious read when I get there.

 

Orange and Black

(Not quite orange here, I know). Nils from The Fantasy Hive wrote a review for The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buelhman that made me very much want to make Kinch’s acquaintance.

 

Something Creepy

The cover art for Sourdough and Other Stories by Angela Slatter isn’t creepy exactly, just … tantalizing. This wouldn’t be on my radar at all if it weren’t for author C S E Cooney’s recommendation of Slatter’s work last week in response to my Spooky Scary Book Tag post:

(Now I am impatiently waiting for my copy to arrive on our doorstep because the idea of babies being made out of bread is holding my imagination hostage).

 

 

Have you read any of these titles? Is there anything here you think I should read immediately, instead of twiddling about talking about it?

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