**Reading Habits and Book Reviews**

As the year comes to a close, I wanted to share with you my reading habits and some book reviews from October.

Firstly, I'd like to start by saying that I've had a great month of reading. I've managed to get through several books across various genres, which is always a delight. From fantasy to horror and sci-fi, my reading list has been diverse and exciting.

One of the highlights of my reading journey was discovering "Starling House" by Alexie Harell. This novel had everything that I love in a story - Gothic horror elements, sentient houses, and a rich history attached to it. The author's writing style is masterful, weaving together fairy tales and dark magic with historical context in a way that's both captivating and unsettling. The characters are well-developed and complex, particularly the protagonist, who undergoes significant growth throughout the novel. I was thoroughly engrossed in the story, which kept me guessing until the very end.

Another book that caught my attention was "Ogres" by Adrian Chowski, a novella that follows a character living in a world where ogres are in charge of humans. While I appreciate the author's writing style and the themes explored in this novel, I couldn't help but feel that it felt like a familiar tale told in a different way. The plot had some elements that reminded me of "Red Rising" by Pierce Brown, which didn't quite sit well with me.

**Spooky Season Reads**

As October approached, I found myself in the mood for something spooky and thrilling. "Starling House" was perfectly suited for this, providing a chilling and atmospheric read that's sure to send shivers down your spine. The author's use of language is evocative, conjuring up images of a foreboding house with secrets hidden within its walls.

In contrast, "Ogres" didn't quite live up to my expectations, feeling like a story I'd heard before told in a different way. While the author has a talent for writing, this particular novella didn't quite resonate with me.

**Gothic Horror and Sentient Houses**

One of the things that struck me about "Starling House" was its use of Gothic horror elements. The sentient house is a masterclass in world-building, with its own history and mythology woven into the fabric of the story. The author's exploration of themes such as legacy, power, and abuse of authority adds depth to the narrative, making it more than just a simple tale of good vs. evil.

The characters in this novel are equally well-developed, with complex motivations and backstories that add nuance to the plot. I particularly enjoyed the budding romance between the protagonist and Arthur, the enigmatic air of the house. Their relationship is fraught with tension and uncertainty, making it all the more believable and compelling.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, October was a great month for reading, with "Starling House" being one of my standout books. While "Ogres" didn't quite live up to my expectations, I still appreciate Adrian Chowski's writing style and the themes explored in this novella. If you're looking for something spooky and thrilling, I highly recommend "Starling House".

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys it's Sam and this is my October wrap-up I know these are very delayed that's just the way it's going to be for a minute although I am attempting I think to do like a 12 days of vlogmas I do not think I have the time or the capacity to do the full month like I did last year which is just like how do I do that last year anyway but I think I'm going to do 12 days which is what I have traditionally done so we'll see if that happens hopefully I have the ideas for it I have it written down anyway today is my October wrap-up and October was a pretty good reading month there was a few little misses in there but I do feel like they were balanced out by some of the good things that I read so let's get into it also kit is feeling very needy because she doesn't feel good she has uh an eye infection so if you see her and she looks real crusty that's why she's on medicine but she just looks a little you know unfortunate right now all right first thing I read in October was monstrous volume Five I am catching up on the monst series it's one of the things I want to do before the end of the year so monstrous in October perfect for those of you that don't know this is a horror fantasy graphic novel series very very very very dark so there's trigger warnings in this series overall for lots of body horror lots of just like horror elements that have to do with very like graphic depictions of war and uh genocides and like Eugenics type stuff going on between uh sort of like humans witches that are humans and like old eldrich gods and uh arcanic which are a mix of like uh Gods and humans and it's there's a lot there's a lot but it's very good this one I gave four stars to our main character has like some very eldrich type abilities because she's essentially fused with an eldrich being and her story continues to evolve and we're continuing to get sort of answers or closer to answers about her powers about her history about the history of this world about people that she's connected to so this series continues to be excellent and this was a four out of five star volume then I read Hair House by Sally Hinchcliffe this is a book that I picked up when I was in Scotland last year around the Halloween time and this was all over over there because this is a Scottish author it's taking place in Scotland and it's this like Gothic Scottish horror so I was like hell yeah and the whole thing is that this woman goes to live in uh hair house or close to Hair House she basically goes to live in the Scottish Countryside near this place that they deem hair house which I will tell you this is revealed very early on it's because the house is full of stuffed hairs rabbits hairs are different than rabbits so Taxidermy hairs in weird scenes and poses all over the house weird kind of creepy yes but this is sort of a slice of Lifey sort of Gothic horror although I will say I didn't get the gothic and the atmosphere that I wanted or needed there are triggers in here for body horror self harm and death of animals but this is a book that definitely keeps you at a distance you are following this woman that there's some sort of mysteries about her past and there's something happening with the family that resides in hair house and like maybe it's witches maybe it's not maybe it's mental illness are they all making it up who knows the thing is is by time like like that's what kept me reading I wasn't necessarily super hooked but there was just enough mystery that I was like I'll keep reading this there is no satisfying conclusion and I don't tend to need a very clear conclusion for most of my stories but for something like this that is very much like a mystery I want a little bit more so I didn't get enough of the gothic elements like yes there's a sort of like suspended creepiness but not as much as somebody who's like a fantasy reader this is very much more of like a literary thing I I wanted more Fantastical elements that I didn't really get not that this needed to be totally fantasy but like I wanted more uh I don't know intensity or something um and this was just very like kind of bland and then the ending was just very unsatisfactory for having to sit through the whole story so I gave this two out of five stars I think there was elements of the writing that there was like some really good lines and the atmosphere was really good like you felt a lot of it takes place in winter like it's just kind of chilling in that way but the actual plot and stuff and this like the things that we get told kind of lackluster and I read the enchanted Henda by JC cantes this is a sort of cont temporary romance with Magical elements in it I listen to this on audio and it is about a woman whose family owns a farm in I think it's Mexico um and they have like flower abilities like abilities attached to flowers they make floral bouquets for people who know about their magic that like are basically spells but they take a very long time like obviously they have to grow the flowers whatever our main character doesn't have any abilities but she has to go and like watch the farm because of some like family stuff that's happening and she ends up meeting a guy who's like sort of connected to the farm in some way like his family knows about the farm and like they have a romance this was just fine this was cute um I will say that the Magical elements weren't super hokey what I have found for me personally was some romances that try to dip into like not a Romany thing but when it's like a contemporary romance that has Magical elements that are just sort of like handwaved away um sometimes those Magical elements seem like so Hoke and so like I don't know just over the top in a way that really pulls me out of the story I found with other ones that I've read and this was like just enough like it was very low magic like just enough that was believable of like okay yeah there could totally be like a farm that has like floral magic that not many people know about like it didn't require a lot of like World building or just hand waving it away so that was cute but like I gave it like a solid three stars it was just it was just fine uh I don't find it very memorable honestly like now now that I finished it it's just kind of like I don't remember the characters names really uh and it was just like fine which is how I felt about a lot of romances lately so like I'm not shocked then I read wild and wicked things by Franchesca may this is a historical fantasy that's sort of inspired by elements of The Great Gatsby but safic and with witches yeah so main character Annie goes to Crow Island which is very ensconced in Magic and like witches and whatever but witches are Witchcraft and is outlawed but people still use witchcraft for like drug type stuff so you're still getting that like Roaring 20s element of like it's prohibition and and whatever um but she goes there because it was her father's late um estate and she ends up living next to emolene who is the Gatsby is character but then after that it sort of starts to switch and it's not following the Gatsby story like a ton is just very Loosely inspired by and there's just all of this like deception and and relationships and it's all very gay and uh again magic and all this stuff it is pretty intense at times though so's some trigger warnings for self harm possession physical abuse sexual abuse there's some like Illusions to miscarriages and things so it is very intense because it's one of those like magic has a price type stories so yeah I really enjoyed this though and was really good for spooky season it's not super spooky but it was very good with that like witchy uh whole like story so I get this brought of five stars and this is a book that I've had like forever like for years and it was one that I finally wanted to get off my shelf and I'm bum that I like waited so long I think I got an arc of this yeah 2022 um so it would have probably really gotten it in 2021 oh my gosh I I can't I have to stop doing that this was very fun then I read one of my favorite books of the year so far and that is Starling house by alexie herrow alexie herrow can be so hit Miss for me but when she hits so good this is a contemporary Gothic sort of fantasy mystery that fils her main character of opal and she lives in this small town in I think it's Kentucky or sort of like appalache area and there is a house that she's always been entranced with called Starling house where like no one really knows about the inhabitants and weird stuff happens in this town and yeah she basically gets sort of sucked into the mystery of this house and she ends up working at this house mostly to help her brother her mom um had passed away years ago and so she's sort of been like the mom to her brother for so long and she needs to make money and so she starts working at this house and she starts uncovering like the mystery about that and there's Mysteries attached to the town attached to her mother who died kind of mysteriously she has a lot of PTSD from her mother's death she ends up meeting the air of the house Arthur who they have a sort of like antagonistic sort of relationship you also get chapters from him where you're sort of realizing that there's more to this house than you think so this has everything um again sort of this like Gothic horror element we have a sentient house I love a sentient house I love a sentient house I love a sentient Forest uh there is history attached to uh you know like capitalism and like slavery and just horrible abuse of power by people in power that magic gets sort of attached to and like Vengeance and things Starling house is also attached this Legacy of um children's books that are very creepy because one of the former inhabitants wrote those books and so then there's this element of like fairy tale and what's real and what's not so alexie harell when she does like dark fairy tales attached to also like history in a way perfect perfect because I also really liked ones in future witches which had the same element um in ways so yeah this has everything that I was destined to love and then there's also this like budding romance between these two that builds up in a very like interesting and believable way like if you sort of like the oh this would kind of be grumpy grumpy if you kind of like a grumpy grumpy pairing this is them black cat Doberman kind of energy I guess yeah yes this can get a little dark because again Gothic horror kind of elements so there's triggers in here for death of family members drowning self harm like self harm related to like magic and stuff lots of blood body horror type stuff so yeah but if you can hang with all of that I really loved this I thought I was going to love it from the synopsis I was not disappointed give this five five stars perfect for spooky season perfect for any season and the last book that I read in October was unfortunately a disappointment which was ogres by Adrian chowski this was one of the novellas for the Hugo award I do have a full wrap up of responding to the Hugo Awards I think I had posted my predictions and then I have to like still do my responses I know I'm very late in all this but ogres is a Nolla that follows a character who is living in a it seems like the future where there are ogres who are basically in charge of all of the humans but there's some mysterious things about humans where they're very short they can't eat meat without getting sick and like ogres are sort of seen as their gods um and something happens with this main character where he like accidentally Gets In conflict with an ogre family and everything kind of goes from there and it becomes a sort of like Rebellion aspect this had elements of things that I'm like okay I've sort of seen the story before this felt very much like red rising in a lot of ways um I think Adrian chowski is a really good writer but it just had things that I've like I've seen this before and it felt just very like not satisfying like there were elements of like things that were revealed again very sort of like sci-fi e type stuff but again felt very like dystopian Red Rising but it didn't feel like it added anything super different um it didn't really like relate to the characters much or like really feel for them a ton just because it felt like a story I'd heard before told differently so yeah just kind of like fine uh I mean not even fine like kind of bad like I didn't enjoy it uh so I gave it to out of five stars again because Adrian shakow is like a pretty decent writer there's like elements of that that were kind of interesting but overall the plot was just like a little Bland for me so yeah those are the books I read in October so comment below let me know what you read in October I know we're a little again we're a little behind we're almost done with November filming this like the day after Thanksgiving so I get it but let me know how your October reading went and I I'm promise I promise I'm CCH up thank you all for watching and I'll see all you guys soon byehey guys it's Sam and this is my October wrap-up I know these are very delayed that's just the way it's going to be for a minute although I am attempting I think to do like a 12 days of vlogmas I do not think I have the time or the capacity to do the full month like I did last year which is just like how do I do that last year anyway but I think I'm going to do 12 days which is what I have traditionally done so we'll see if that happens hopefully I have the ideas for it I have it written down anyway today is my October wrap-up and October was a pretty good reading month there was a few little misses in there but I do feel like they were balanced out by some of the good things that I read so let's get into it also kit is feeling very needy because she doesn't feel good she has uh an eye infection so if you see her and she looks real crusty that's why she's on medicine but she just looks a little you know unfortunate right now all right first thing I read in October was monstrous volume Five I am catching up on the monst series it's one of the things I want to do before the end of the year so monstrous in October perfect for those of you that don't know this is a horror fantasy graphic novel series very very very very dark so there's trigger warnings in this series overall for lots of body horror lots of just like horror elements that have to do with very like graphic depictions of war and uh genocides and like Eugenics type stuff going on between uh sort of like humans witches that are humans and like old eldrich gods and uh arcanic which are a mix of like uh Gods and humans and it's there's a lot there's a lot but it's very good this one I gave four stars to our main character has like some very eldrich type abilities because she's essentially fused with an eldrich being and her story continues to evolve and we're continuing to get sort of answers or closer to answers about her powers about her history about the history of this world about people that she's connected to so this series continues to be excellent and this was a four out of five star volume then I read Hair House by Sally Hinchcliffe this is a book that I picked up when I was in Scotland last year around the Halloween time and this was all over over there because this is a Scottish author it's taking place in Scotland and it's this like Gothic Scottish horror so I was like hell yeah and the whole thing is that this woman goes to live in uh hair house or close to Hair House she basically goes to live in the Scottish Countryside near this place that they deem hair house which I will tell you this is revealed very early on it's because the house is full of stuffed hairs rabbits hairs are different than rabbits so Taxidermy hairs in weird scenes and poses all over the house weird kind of creepy yes but this is sort of a slice of Lifey sort of Gothic horror although I will say I didn't get the gothic and the atmosphere that I wanted or needed there are triggers in here for body horror self harm and death of animals but this is a book that definitely keeps you at a distance you are following this woman that there's some sort of mysteries about her past and there's something happening with the family that resides in hair house and like maybe it's witches maybe it's not maybe it's mental illness are they all making it up who knows the thing is is by time like like that's what kept me reading I wasn't necessarily super hooked but there was just enough mystery that I was like I'll keep reading this there is no satisfying conclusion and I don't tend to need a very clear conclusion for most of my stories but for something like this that is very much like a mystery I want a little bit more so I didn't get enough of the gothic elements like yes there's a sort of like suspended creepiness but not as much as somebody who's like a fantasy reader this is very much more of like a literary thing I I wanted more Fantastical elements that I didn't really get not that this needed to be totally fantasy but like I wanted more uh I don't know intensity or something um and this was just very like kind of bland and then the ending was just very unsatisfactory for having to sit through the whole story so I gave this two out of five stars I think there was elements of the writing that there was like some really good lines and the atmosphere was really good like you felt a lot of it takes place in winter like it's just kind of chilling in that way but the actual plot and stuff and this like the things that we get told kind of lackluster and I read the enchanted Henda by JC cantes this is a sort of cont temporary romance with Magical elements in it I listen to this on audio and it is about a woman whose family owns a farm in I think it's Mexico um and they have like flower abilities like abilities attached to flowers they make floral bouquets for people who know about their magic that like are basically spells but they take a very long time like obviously they have to grow the flowers whatever our main character doesn't have any abilities but she has to go and like watch the farm because of some like family stuff that's happening and she ends up meeting a guy who's like sort of connected to the farm in some way like his family knows about the farm and like they have a romance this was just fine this was cute um I will say that the Magical elements weren't super hokey what I have found for me personally was some romances that try to dip into like not a Romany thing but when it's like a contemporary romance that has Magical elements that are just sort of like handwaved away um sometimes those Magical elements seem like so Hoke and so like I don't know just over the top in a way that really pulls me out of the story I found with other ones that I've read and this was like just enough like it was very low magic like just enough that was believable of like okay yeah there could totally be like a farm that has like floral magic that not many people know about like it didn't require a lot of like World building or just hand waving it away so that was cute but like I gave it like a solid three stars it was just it was just fine uh I don't find it very memorable honestly like now now that I finished it it's just kind of like I don't remember the characters names really uh and it was just like fine which is how I felt about a lot of romances lately so like I'm not shocked then I read wild and wicked things by Franchesca may this is a historical fantasy that's sort of inspired by elements of The Great Gatsby but safic and with witches yeah so main character Annie goes to Crow Island which is very ensconced in Magic and like witches and whatever but witches are Witchcraft and is outlawed but people still use witchcraft for like drug type stuff so you're still getting that like Roaring 20s element of like it's prohibition and and whatever um but she goes there because it was her father's late um estate and she ends up living next to emolene who is the Gatsby is character but then after that it sort of starts to switch and it's not following the Gatsby story like a ton is just very Loosely inspired by and there's just all of this like deception and and relationships and it's all very gay and uh again magic and all this stuff it is pretty intense at times though so's some trigger warnings for self harm possession physical abuse sexual abuse there's some like Illusions to miscarriages and things so it is very intense because it's one of those like magic has a price type stories so yeah I really enjoyed this though and was really good for spooky season it's not super spooky but it was very good with that like witchy uh whole like story so I get this brought of five stars and this is a book that I've had like forever like for years and it was one that I finally wanted to get off my shelf and I'm bum that I like waited so long I think I got an arc of this yeah 2022 um so it would have probably really gotten it in 2021 oh my gosh I I can't I have to stop doing that this was very fun then I read one of my favorite books of the year so far and that is Starling house by alexie herrow alexie herrow can be so hit Miss for me but when she hits so good this is a contemporary Gothic sort of fantasy mystery that fils her main character of opal and she lives in this small town in I think it's Kentucky or sort of like appalache area and there is a house that she's always been entranced with called Starling house where like no one really knows about the inhabitants and weird stuff happens in this town and yeah she basically gets sort of sucked into the mystery of this house and she ends up working at this house mostly to help her brother her mom um had passed away years ago and so she's sort of been like the mom to her brother for so long and she needs to make money and so she starts working at this house and she starts uncovering like the mystery about that and there's Mysteries attached to the town attached to her mother who died kind of mysteriously she has a lot of PTSD from her mother's death she ends up meeting the air of the house Arthur who they have a sort of like antagonistic sort of relationship you also get chapters from him where you're sort of realizing that there's more to this house than you think so this has everything um again sort of this like Gothic horror element we have a sentient house I love a sentient house I love a sentient house I love a sentient Forest uh there is history attached to uh you know like capitalism and like slavery and just horrible abuse of power by people in power that magic gets sort of attached to and like Vengeance and things Starling house is also attached this Legacy of um children's books that are very creepy because one of the former inhabitants wrote those books and so then there's this element of like fairy tale and what's real and what's not so alexie harell when she does like dark fairy tales attached to also like history in a way perfect perfect because I also really liked ones in future witches which had the same element um in ways so yeah this has everything that I was destined to love and then there's also this like budding romance between these two that builds up in a very like interesting and believable way like if you sort of like the oh this would kind of be grumpy grumpy if you kind of like a grumpy grumpy pairing this is them black cat Doberman kind of energy I guess yeah yes this can get a little dark because again Gothic horror kind of elements so there's triggers in here for death of family members drowning self harm like self harm related to like magic and stuff lots of blood body horror type stuff so yeah but if you can hang with all of that I really loved this I thought I was going to love it from the synopsis I was not disappointed give this five five stars perfect for spooky season perfect for any season and the last book that I read in October was unfortunately a disappointment which was ogres by Adrian chowski this was one of the novellas for the Hugo award I do have a full wrap up of responding to the Hugo Awards I think I had posted my predictions and then I have to like still do my responses I know I'm very late in all this but ogres is a Nolla that follows a character who is living in a it seems like the future where there are ogres who are basically in charge of all of the humans but there's some mysterious things about humans where they're very short they can't eat meat without getting sick and like ogres are sort of seen as their gods um and something happens with this main character where he like accidentally Gets In conflict with an ogre family and everything kind of goes from there and it becomes a sort of like Rebellion aspect this had elements of things that I'm like okay I've sort of seen the story before this felt very much like red rising in a lot of ways um I think Adrian chowski is a really good writer but it just had things that I've like I've seen this before and it felt just very like not satisfying like there were elements of like things that were revealed again very sort of like sci-fi e type stuff but again felt very like dystopian Red Rising but it didn't feel like it added anything super different um it didn't really like relate to the characters much or like really feel for them a ton just because it felt like a story I'd heard before told differently so yeah just kind of like fine uh I mean not even fine like kind of bad like I didn't enjoy it uh so I gave it to out of five stars again because Adrian shakow is like a pretty decent writer there's like elements of that that were kind of interesting but overall the plot was just like a little Bland for me so yeah those are the books I read in October so comment below let me know what you read in October I know we're a little again we're a little behind we're almost done with November filming this like the day after Thanksgiving so I get it but let me know how your October reading went and I I'm promise I promise I'm CCH up thank you all for watching and I'll see all you guys soon bye\n"