HRCYED 3.0: The Spooky Update

This was the best reading month of the year! Awe… I do miss reading like this. It didn’t take me almost 2 weeks to finish one book, and I read more than 30 sleepy minutes before bed. This is why I keep saying I need to get back into a reading habit. When I put in the effort and the hours, I feel so satisfied after. I’ve been so focused on reading books to finish prompts that I stopped looking at every prompt a book could fit in, but that is going to change. I said I would keep a record of every prompt, whether it’s completed or not, so I’m going to pay more attention to it.

Finally, it was time to read The Sixth Faction by Veronica Roth. After months of talking about it and the Divergent series, I finally sat down to read it. And I had a great time. Chocking! I actually started a free trial of BookBeat to listen to the audiobook because my copy was late and I had no idea how long it would take to arrive – I’m not going to pre-order the second book from the same store, that’s for sure. So I started listening to the audiobook and then finished reading the last half.

I already have a review of it (you can read it here), so I’m not going over everything again. I enjoyed it, and I can’t wait to continue the story and see how it will end. I knew this book counted for the Birthday prompt since it was published in my birthday month, and the Re-re-remix prompt since it’s an alternative version of Divergent, a retelling, if you will. Another 2 new prompts are complete, which makes me very happy.

Then I finished the first part of the Hello Neighbor series with Buried Secrets by Carly Anne West. This was a nail-biting ending I wasn’t expecting. This was dark. Since it’s a middle grade novel, I was hoping for a happy ending. But I was so wrong. It was great though! The story continues in a second part told from a different perspective that should give more answers to all the questions still left open, and maybe by then I’ll get my happy ending. While the story is set in a fictional town, it’s supposed to be located somewhere in Missouri. So I’m counting it for the US Road Trip prompt since I don’t have any book on that state yet.

I’ve wanted to try a Fear Street book by R L Stine for quite some time. I’ve seen the Netflix adaptation. All 3 movies, and I really enjoyed them. Because of that, I was expecting Secret Admirer to also be horror. But it’s not. It’s a thriller. It was quick and straight to the point. The ending was predictable but well executed. After reading/watching many thrillers, it’s hard to be surprised and not pick out the culprit right away. However, that doesn’t have to be the book’s fault. And while I do enjoy a thriller, I’m a little disappointed it didn’t have any evil spirits. I was in the mood for something spooky, but this was just a nice warm cup of tea.

This book wasn’t on my TBR. It was a free read on Simon Teen for October. So there aren’t many prompts I can fit it in. I could count this book for the Bookception prompt if I wanted to read Romeo and Juliette. But am I really going to read Shakespeare? No. So, I’m only left with the Titular Counting prompt for a title with 2 words.

While I still had some hours left in my subscription to BookBeat, I also listened to We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer. This was so good. I already bought a copy so I can reread some parts and try to decode stuff that might be there for me to decode. And I like this type of horror. We are not exactly sure what it is. It’s the unknown that’s creepy. It doesn’t use gore or disgust. It’s purely psychological and makes you question everything. I’m currently reading House of Leaves, and I’m curious to see how both books will compare.

I was listening to We Used to Live Here while crocheting my Gingerbread blanket from Sirdar CAL from 2 years ago. One of the Not-So-Secret prompts is to read a book with a craft on the cover or to listen to an audiobook while crafting. It was interesting to work on something so Christmassy while listening to a character question her sanity. And the story is also set in Portland, so I get to add another state to my US Road Trip.

By the end of October, this is how the prompts are looking:

Rest of the year reading list

I have to be honest, my reading is booked until the end of the year. There are books I need to finish this year and others I’m in the middle of, so all my reading is set in stone. If by any chance I have any time left, I might read something else, but I wouldn’t count on it.

One of my recent purchases was Breath of Life by Ruth Fox, the final book in the Under the Heavens series. I’ve been waiting for this book for so long. I have reviewed the two previous books in this series (Under the Heavens and New Eden), and slowly I fell in love with them. Now, the final book is here, and the cherry on top of the cake is the name of the protagonist, Kim. The same name as the Red Mars author, Kim Stanley Robinson. I was already planning to read Red Mars for HRCYED. Now I get to count it for one more prompt.

I’m also continuing the Shiritori. Sister of Mine by Laurie Petrou is almost finished, and then I’ll start The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. I’m making slow progress in The Perfect Story by Elísabet Benavent for my Spanish curriculum book. But I’m still planning to finish it this year. And even though Halloween is over, I’m still making my way through House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. I’m hoping to count it towards the Bookception prompt. The story already mentioned War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, – which isn’t going to happen – but I read somewhere that it also mentions Frankenstein. If that’s true, then it could be an option.