halloween approaches!

pretty sure it's my favorite holiday + final spooky reading recommendations

Hi friend,

My favorite holiday fast approaches. I don’t know what it is about Halloween, but I have a lot of very tender and sweet memories of this holiday.

Like the time I got left behind by the neighbor kids and got scared trick-or-treating alone after just two houses, so after I ran home crying and saying I didn’t want to go out anymore, my dad took me down the street and back up the other side to get all the Reese’s and Butterfingers we could find, warmed up my freezing hands on the walk home, and then we watched The Mummy together. He lit a big fire in our fireplace—the first one that year. I washed the Morticia Addams off of my face and gave him all my Almond Joys.

Or the time in sixth grade, when I dressed as a princess in a blue ball gown, and the boy I had a crush on kissed me on the cheek in his G.I. Joe costume on the steps of our portable at the elementary school.

Or the time, over a decade later, I went to a Halloween party with my grad school friends and we all dressed in “high school” theme. I got to dress up like a witchy punk goth girl—a style I admired so much but was terrified to try for myself as a teenager—and drink green jungle juice (who put absinthe in there?!) in a red solo cup.

Then there are the more recent Halloweens. The last few years, I’ve cultivated little practices and rituals and traditions for myself. Like watching Over the Garden Wall when it’s dark and cold outside. Like making sure I have a tin full of that pumpkin spice tea from Trader Joe’s, and drinking it with a splash of real cream. Making my best taco soup with homemade cornbread. Playing zombie video games. Watching and rewatching my favorites: The Shining, What Lies Beneath, Clue, and Young Frankenstein. Having Practical Magic or Hocus Pocus on pretty much around the clock.

I also, as you know, reading my favorite spooky stories. Like the Shirley Jackson novels we’re in the midst of together right now (I’m hoping to finish both this weekend!) and Coraline on Halloween day.

This month, I also read I Am Legend by Richard Matheson for the very first time, and I highly recommend it. It’s creepy!!! It’s got great vampire lore, which inspired me to watch Interview with a Vampire for the first time, immediately upon finishing the novella. Now, I’ve got all the Twilight movies on deck for an early November marathon (Team Bella!). Of course, I’ll have to rewatch the Will Smith I Am Legend film, at some point, to round out the experience. (But, as is so often true, the book was better.)

I also watched Doctor Sleep—the sequel to The Shining—and I absolutely loved it. Ewan McGregor is so incredible as grown-up Danny and Rebecca Ferguson is always fantastic, even if I found the steampunk top hat a little distracting. Feeling inspired, I picked up more King to read this winter, including his massive apocalypse novel, The Stand.

This weekend, my partner and I watched the first two Harry Potter films back-to-back and reveled in the nostalgia of them—and of the incredible performances by Richard Harris and Alan Rickman, even in the early films before the rest of the story had been published. I feel that if Harris had remained our Dumbledore for the entire film series, we’d have had a profoundly different film series. Michael Gambon took on the role after Harris’s passing, and that’s where we start to get the more devious and secretive Albus—the one who makes a bit more sense, characterization-wise, as we reach the later books. I can’t help but wonder how Harris would’ve played Dumbledore in, say, the big battle at the Ministry or the major reveals in book 7. Curious indeed!

The rain is pouring outside today, a dusky grey fills the sky, and I can’t help but think that the universe decided to finally give me the weather I’ve been craving all month long, because its finally Halloween.

As we round out a month of spooky reading, and look ahead to the final weeks of our fall syllabus, I’d love to know about any unexpected treasures you’ve happened upon this month.

Was there anything new you read or watched for Halloween this year that you loved?

Happy Halloween!