Spooky Scary Book Tag

Hi everyone! We’re taking it easy on today’s #blogtober2020 post. Since it’s been a while since the last tag I did (Animal Crossing New Horizons Book Tag), I decided that it’s time that I do another tag! I found this one through a quick google search for Halloween book tags, and it looks like it’s a fairly old one at this point but I’m still going to do it! At this point, I think book tags aren’t really tags so much as matching books to prompts as blog post fillers.

What goes bump in the night?

Name a book that has legitimately scared you while reading it.

I think the book that most fits this prompt is Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant. I haven’t read too many horror books, but I do plan on changing that in the future. Into the Drowning Deep was scary to me because not only was it about being trapped on a boat with nowhere to go, but the way that Grant – a penname for Seanan McGuire – wrote about the mermaids and backed everything with science made it scary for me as someone with a background in biology and knowing that we haven’t fully explored our oceans so there are definitely organisms out there that we haven’t discovered yet. Just that possibility alone made this scary for me!

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Jack O’ Lanterns and Classic Costumes

A book you always reach for during Halloween time.

I can’t say that I ever read the same book for Halloween, but I do watch the same Halloween movies every year! So I guess I’ll fudge this prompt a bit and say movie instead of book, and for that I would say 100% Hocus Pocus. It’s just so quotable and fun, and I can’t see myself ever getting sick and tired of it! I don’t think I would ever read the book that was written as a sequel, just because I haven’t heard very good things about it. Plus, why fix what isn’t broken?

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Black Cats and Magic Mirrors

A book you love that is laced with superstition and/or magic.

Oh boy, this is a tough one for a fantasy lover like me! So many of the books that I read and love have magic throughout it, but the very first one that comes to mind is The Eye of the World, which is the first book in The Wheel of Time series! Not only is there magic, but there is superstition as well with how people treat the Aes Sedai who are the ones who wield magic.

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Witch’s Brew

Favorite witch character in any book/series.

In books, my favorite witches definitely has to be the Thirteen from Throne of Glass, especially Manon and Asterin! Their character growth – especially Manon – was incredible to read and the way things ended in Kingdom of Ash broke my heart. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever cried more reading a book! The only one that rivals Kingdom of Ash would be House of Earth and Blood, which just shows that SJM knows how to make me ugly cry.

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Ghouls and Ghosts

A book that still haunts you to this day (good or bad).

I still think about how much I hated reading The Surface Breaks! It was praised as this amazing, feminist retelling of The Little Mermaid, and all it did was make me so angry with how it handled feminism. All it did was point out how unequal this mermaid society was, but never DOES anything to challenge that view. There was girl hate, incest, body shaming, sexual assault, emotional abuse, the female characters were only important as long as they were pretty, and all the male characters were misogynistic sexual predators. The world building was non-existent, and the writing was so jumpy and it seemed to me that the main message of the book was that all men are evil, abusive monsters. I had 20% of the book left by the time I DNF’d it and I highly doubt that the ending did enough to make up for how terrible the rest of the book was. Can you tell it still makes me angry?

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Haunted Graveyard

You’re all alone in a haunted graveyard, you get ONE book to give you comfort, which is it?

If I only get one book, I think I would choose House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas, mainly because I got SO into it that I wouldn’t even notice what was going on around me so I probably wouldn’t notice any ghosts or anything like that in a haunted graveyard.

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The Undead

Favorite supernatural creatures to read about (i.e. vampires, zombies, werewolves, etc)

Hmmm if we’re talking about standard supernatural creatures, I would go with vampires or witches. If we’re saying ANY supernatural creature, then I would hands down say the fae! Of course, any combination of supernatural creatures is also good, I’m not picky! As someone who reads mostly fantasy, there is almost always some sort of supernatural creature involved.

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In the dead of night

Pick a book with a black cover

The first book that came to mind is a book that I don’t even own! I thought of the 10th anniversary edition of The Night Angel Trilogy because it’s a matte black cover with black text, and it just looks so sleek!

I honestly can’t think of anyone to tag for this, so if you’re reading this and maybe need some filler for Blogtober or just want to do a book tag, do this one!