Autumn Wrap Up!

The leaves have fallen, the nights have drawn in, and I’m freezing my tits off every day. Which can only mean one thing: autumn is making way for winter. I’ve always been an autumn girlie, so it’s sad the say goodbye to my favourite time of the year. I’ll miss the colours and the aesthetic deeply. But, yay, Christmas! 

This autumn, I set myself a spooky season TBR and actually stuck to it, managing to read every book I’d put on my list. So, I thought I’d share my quick thoughts and ratings on each one! 

First up was Young Gothic.

I picked this up on a whim because I fell in love with both the cover and the blurb when I found it on the shelf in my favourite queer bookshop. It was the perfect story to open the Halloween season with. The characters were as intriguing as the plot, and I’m so excited that a sequel has recently been announced after that ending. The only reason I’m not giving it five stars is because the author said that Cinnamoroll is a bunny. My poor boy is a DOG. That was my only issue. Petty, I know, but I love Cinnamoroll. 

Next up was Sixteen Souls, which I’d been meaning to read since last year!

I’m so glad I finally got around to it because I adored the plot. I’m a sucker for anything involving ghosts. It was also nice to read something set in Yorkshire, because I feel like a lot of UKYA books tend to be set down south. It was time for us northerners to shine! 

Here’s one that had been sitting on my shelf for far too long: Gideon the Ninth. 

I kept putting this one off because I knew so many people loved it dearly, and I wasn’t sure whether I’d vibe with it. Whilst it did take me a little while to get a hang on it, I was obsessed once I was I properly in. I am very much in love with Gideon. The ending destroyed me. I bought the sequel immediately. 

Then I moved onto The Other Ones. 

I actually bought this at the start of the year but was determined to wait until October to read because just look at it. It’s perfect Halloween material. It was so worth the wait because I lapped it up from the very start. It wasn’t what I was expected. From the blurb, I thought it was a supernatural mystery, and it was more of an autumnal contemporary. But I loved it anyway. I have a feeling I’ll be craving a reread of this one next spooky season. 

My penultimate read of October was Now, Conjurors. 

I’ll admit, I picked this one up because I completely fell in love with the cover art. Unfortunately, this was one of those times where I shouldn’t have judged a book by it’s cover. I wanted to enjoy it so much, but it just didn’t deliver what I wanted it to. I couldn’t connect with the characters, and they got quite irritating at times. The plot had potential, and there were parts of it that I liked a lot, but not enough for it to save the book as a whole. The jumps between present day and the past were too clunky for me to appreciate. My favourite part of the story was the character who was already dead at the start, so…yeah. 

My final book was a comic based on my all-time favourite video game, MediEvil. 

This game has such a special place in my heart because it was the first game I ever played. I’ve bought modern consoles for the sole purpose of playing remastered versions of this game. It was also a game I bonded with my dad over, and since it’s approaching the anniversary of his passing, it felt like the perfect time to read this little comic. Needless to say, I adored it, and it made me wish we could get more games in this world.

So that was my autumn TBR! Very proud that I actually stuck to it and didn't get distracted by a book I bought on a whim. Now I need to start planning what I read during Winter. What will warm me up during the cold months...

What did you read this autumn?