Fall is many things in our culture. Here in Canada, it’s the baseball playoffs and start of hockey season. It’s our social new year. And in the bookish world, it’s “Spooky Season.” Today I’d like to talk about some of my favourite Spooky Season reads from past years, and what I’ve been reading lately. But first, the roundup.
Roundup
Music
While last week’s new releases were dominated by deluxe editions, none of which moved the needle much for me, after some digging, I did find, and enjoy, new albums from the likes of Remi Wolf (Mud, which blends contemporary country and pop sounds very successfully), Jess Williamson (A Mile South of Heaven, which has a more traditionally country sound), and Troye Sivan’s (She’s the Best, an album made for the club). Yesterday turned out to be an embarrassment of musical riches. To start off with, there were two hotly anticipated albums: Dopamine Chamber, by Fontaines D.C., and The Girl of Your Dreams by Ashe. Both are excellent and will get a lot of play from me in the weeks to come. (Apparently Ashe is becoming pretty popular among youth right now; I selfishly hope this will bring them to the album she released last year with Finneas as The Favors, The Dream, which was a surprising hit for me.) But please check out the list below because there was a lot of great music yesterday!
Albums
- Mud (Remi Wolf)
- A Mile South of Heaven (Jess Williamson)
- She’s the Best (Troye Sivan)
- Dopamine Chamber (Fontaines D.C.)
- JOY II (Rhye)
- the greatest album of all time (Sophie Stel)
- The Girl of Your Dreams (Ashe)
- Magic for a While (Florrie)
Songs
- “Dead Sea” (Gatlin)
- “Take the World” (Spoons)
- “Memories” (Charlotte Cardin)
- “High Heels and Blue Jeans” (Jess Williamson)
- “One Man” (Fontaines D.C.)
- “Blood Brothers” (Bleachers)
- “Love Bomb” (Ashe)
Reading
- Centroeuropa (Vicente Luis Mora, 2020)
- Adam, Mine (K. Ancrum, 2026)
- A Short Stay in Hell (Steven L. Peck, 2012)
- The Sorceress of Sky Serpents (Eden Robinson, 2026 🇨🇦)
- Red Doc> (Anne Carson, 2013 🇨🇦)
- The Birthing Tree (Amanda Peters, 2026 🇨🇦)
- Reading the Bible on Turtle Island (Daniel Zacharias and T. Christopher Hoklotubbe, 2025)
- Magnifica Humanitas (Pope Leo XIV, 2026)
Focus on: Spooky Season Reading
In the bookish world, October, and the Fall more generally, is commonly known as ‘Spooky Season’, when readers gravitate towards books dealing with witchy, paranormal, or frightening themes, either seriously or ‘just for fun.’ I don’t read a lot of either horror or thrillers, which are the paradigmatic genres of the season, I do try to engage the spirit of the season as I’m able. Here are some of my favourite Spooky Season reads:
Fun
- The Ghoul of Windydown Vale, by Jake Burt (2022)
- The Polter-Ghost Problem, by Betsy Uhrig (2018)
- The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest, by Aubrey Hartman (2025)
Scary or Unsettling
- Strange Pictures, by Uketsu (2022)
- What Mother Won’t Tell Me, by Ivar Leon Menger (2022, transl. 2024)
- Wylding Hall, by Elizabeth Hand (2015)
- Taaqtumi, by various writers from Canada’s Arctic (2019)
- Indian Burial Ground, by Nick Medina (2024)
- The Night Wanderer, by Drew Hayden Taylor (2007)
- Fraternity, by Andy Mientus (2022)
- Dead Eleven, by Jimmy Juliano (2023)
- Starling House, by Alix E. Harrow (2023)
- Mister Magic, by Kiersten White (2023)
- The Comfort of Strangers, by Ian MacEwan (1981)
- Centroeuropa (Vicente Luis Mora, 2020)
- Adam, Mine (K. Ancrum, 2026)
- Fragments of Horror (Junji Ito, 2014)
