"I'm so glad to live in a world where there are Octobers..."— L.M Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
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She is HERE, y’all. She is HERE.
The air: cooler, thin, electric.
Leaves: crinkly underfoot.
Halloween decorations: UP.
The ordinary: touched by enchantment.
The light: chiaroscuro, slanted, theatrical, faintly candlelit.
As we wind our way into October, we find that this (in my humble opinion) most precious of all months offers us bibliophiles the opportunity to dive into titles more delectable than a pillowcase full of candy; titles that flicker with mystery, magic, and language that smells of smoke and cider.
PS. This month also brings a few of my favorite reads ever, so I dontwannabebossybut: enjoy.
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1. "The Night Circus" by Erin Mortgenstern
Mortgenstern’s prose dances like the illusory tents of the circus itself, weaving a dreamlike, intoxicating atmosphere of wonder and mystery. Two rival magicians, bound by a centuries-old pact, use a fantastical circus as their battleground. The novel’s structure is non-linear, its rich, poetic language rendering each scene as a delicate, sparkling tableau. The prose itself feels like silk and smoke — perfect for curling up under a blanket with a cup of something spiced. And for those who prefer to listen, the audiobook narrated by Jim Dale is a marvel: his voice makes every illusion shimmer.
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2. AFFINITY by Sarah Waters
For séances, secrets, and International Lesbian Day (October 8).
In the flickering candlelight of Victorian London, Sarah Waters weaves a tale of spiritualism, obsession, and forbidden desire. Affinity follows a grieving gentlewoman who begins volunteering at a women’s prison and becomes entranced by one of its inmates — a medium who may or may not possess real powers. It’s the perfect October novel: gothic without gaudiness, erotic without excess, and as psychologically charged as a room before a storm. Read it around October 8, International Lesbian Day, and toast to all the brilliant, defiant women who have made their way through the world in the dark and left the door ajar for others.
__________
3. THE MASTER AND MARGARITA by Mikhail Bulgakov
For devils, love, and chaos in the moonlight.
When autumn deepens and your appetite for strangeness peaks, The Master and Margarita delivers deliriously. A talking black cat, a satanic ball, a mysterious writer, and a love story that defies time and death — Bulgakov’s novel is one of the great surreal masterpieces of the 20th century. It’s wild, funny, terrifying, and transcendent, like Faust rewritten by a trickster. Read it when you want your October literature to crackle with wit and metaphysical rebellion — a book that reminds you that good and evil have always danced together under the harvest moon.
__________
4. Goblin market by Christina Rossetti
Or, a case for WHY YOU SHOULD NOT READ POE THIS OCTOBER. Y'all. Let’s be brave enough to say it: Edgar Allan Poe is, in many estimations—including my own and Harold Bloom’s—a terrible writer. Ponderous, purple, self-serious to the point of parody, his stories creak under the weight of their own gloom. His idea of horror is to yell “Madness!” at the reader until they believe him. Instead, let us turn to Christina Rossetti, who understood the gothic heart not as a chamber of screams, but as a mirror of longing and temptation. Her long poem “Goblin Market” (1862) is sensual, eerie, and profoundly moral — a tale of two sisters, strange fruit, and the peril of yielding to desire. It’s haunting without hysteria, musical without melodrama, and genuinely moving. Read it aloud on a cool evening, and you’ll see why restraint, rhythm, and imagination can conjure more ghosts than any beating heart beneath a floorboard ever could.
__________
5. Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters
The perfect companion for the season of slow decay, Spoon River Anthology gives voice to the dead of a small American town. Each poem, an epitaph; each speaker, a confession. It’s eerie without being macabre—a meditation on how memory, gossip, and regret intertwine. Reading it in September feels like strolling through a graveyard of stories, listening to the leaves whisper what the living won’t say aloud.
__________
October invites a special kind of reading: not for information or accomplishment, but for enchantment. It is the month that reminds us stories were once spells, that reading was once an act of summoning. Whether you prefer circuses of dreams, séances of the heart, or moral tales whispered in meter, these books promise company in the gathering dark.
2. AFFINITY by Sarah Waters
For séances, secrets, and International Lesbian Day (October 8).
In the flickering candlelight of Victorian London, Sarah Waters weaves a tale of spiritualism, obsession, and forbidden desire. Affinity follows a grieving gentlewoman who begins volunteering at a women’s prison and becomes entranced by one of its inmates — a medium who may or may not possess real powers. It’s the perfect October novel: gothic without gaudiness, erotic without excess, and as psychologically charged as a room before a storm. Read it around October 8, International Lesbian Day, and toast to all the brilliant, defiant women who have made their way through the world in the dark and left the door ajar for others.
__________
3. THE MASTER AND MARGARITA by Mikhail Bulgakov
For devils, love, and chaos in the moonlight.
When autumn deepens and your appetite for strangeness peaks, The Master and Margarita delivers deliriously. A talking black cat, a satanic ball, a mysterious writer, and a love story that defies time and death — Bulgakov’s novel is one of the great surreal masterpieces of the 20th century. It’s wild, funny, terrifying, and transcendent, like Faust rewritten by a trickster. Read it when you want your October literature to crackle with wit and metaphysical rebellion — a book that reminds you that good and evil have always danced together under the harvest moon.
__________
4. Goblin market by Christina Rossetti
Or, a case for WHY YOU SHOULD NOT READ POE THIS OCTOBER. Y'all. Let’s be brave enough to say it: Edgar Allan Poe is, in many estimations—including my own and Harold Bloom’s—a terrible writer. Ponderous, purple, self-serious to the point of parody, his stories creak under the weight of their own gloom. His idea of horror is to yell “Madness!” at the reader until they believe him. Instead, let us turn to Christina Rossetti, who understood the gothic heart not as a chamber of screams, but as a mirror of longing and temptation. Her long poem “Goblin Market” (1862) is sensual, eerie, and profoundly moral — a tale of two sisters, strange fruit, and the peril of yielding to desire. It’s haunting without hysteria, musical without melodrama, and genuinely moving. Read it aloud on a cool evening, and you’ll see why restraint, rhythm, and imagination can conjure more ghosts than any beating heart beneath a floorboard ever could.
__________
5. Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters
The perfect companion for the season of slow decay, Spoon River Anthology gives voice to the dead of a small American town. Each poem, an epitaph; each speaker, a confession. It’s eerie without being macabre—a meditation on how memory, gossip, and regret intertwine. Reading it in September feels like strolling through a graveyard of stories, listening to the leaves whisper what the living won’t say aloud.
__________
October invites a special kind of reading: not for information or accomplishment, but for enchantment. It is the month that reminds us stories were once spells, that reading was once an act of summoning. Whether you prefer circuses of dreams, séances of the heart, or moral tales whispered in meter, these books promise company in the gathering dark.
So light a candle. Pour something warm. Open the window just enough for the night air to slip in. The stories are waiting, and they know your name.
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