Spooky season has officially come and gone, and somehow the scariest thing about October is still the number of unread books sitting on our shelves. Whoops.
But hey, want to hear something we weren’t expecting: we actually read books this month.
Rebecca finished three. Stace finished six. And before anyone starts questioning whether a 26-page short story counts as a book, we’d like to remind you that we do not discriminate based on size around here.
October brought us devastation, unexpected five-star reads, a surprisingly wholesome wicker husband, and enough questionable real estate decisions to make us seriously reconsider the intelligence of some fictional characters.
And as always, we have thoughts.
A Quick Vibe Check: Is Rebecca Back?!
After months of struggling to find her reading groove, Rebecca finally managed to finish more than one book in a month. THREE WHOLE BOOKS.
And not only that, but two of them earned five stars.
We’re hesitant to officially declare the reading slump over because, well, we’ve been burned before. But things are looking promising!!
Meanwhile, Stace finished six books, ranging from contemporary romance to historical horror, with one particularly unfortunate audiobook experience thrown in for good measure.
The ratings were all over the place this month, and we may not have knocked many books off the TBR, but we may have discovered the shortest books sometimes have the most to say. And that feels like a win!.
The Hits: Tears, Witches & a Wicker Husband
The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros
Rebecca’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Remember that book Rebecca completely forgot she was reading?
Well, she finally finished it…. and it absolutely destroyed her.
We’re talking three-minute video of uncontrollable crying. This is the kind of book hangover that makes you question why you willingly put yourself through this.
On the plus side, she loved it! The dual perspectives, the letters, the characters, and Beckett. Oh, Beckett.
Rebecca Yarros continues to prove that she knows exactly how to write a fictional man who will permanently ruin your expectations of real ones.
Five stars. A broken heart. Absolutely no regrets.
And with a movie adaptation on the horizon, we’re already discussing whether we can emotionally survive experiencing this story a second time.
The current strategy involves buying a ticket to support the movie and simply not attending.
Seems reasonable.
The Witch by Freida McFadden
Rebecca’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Is Freida back?!
Set across two timelines, including the Salem witch trials of 1692, The Witch delivers family secrets, eerie happenings, and a sprawling old estate that probably deserves its own paranormal investigation.
And according to Rebecca, it was GOOD.
Not necessarily the same explosive, jaw-dropping twists we’ve come to expect from Freida, but consistently compelling writing with an intriguing mystery, and a story that kept getting better as the pieces fell into place.
Stace, who has had a somewhat complicated relationship with Freida’s books, may even be convinced to give her another chance.
Which, honestly, might be the biggest plot twist of the month??
The Wicker Husband by Ursula Wills-Jones
Stace’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Twenty-six pages.
That’s it.
And somehow, this teeny tiny little story became Stace’s favourite read of October.
We know. We’re surprised too.
Especially considering our history with short stories, which often leave us wanting more character development and emotional connection.
But The Wicker Husband managed to accomplish something that much longer books sometimes struggle with.
It actually made us think.
What Stace expected to be a slightly ridiculous, potentially smutty story about a woman commissioning herself a husband made entirely of wicker turned out to be a thoughtful little fable about jealousy, happiness, and society’s inability to mind its own business.
There was considerably less wicker anatomy than anticipated but a whole lot more heart. And sometimes that’s better. Yes, you heard me right.
The Middle Ground: Good Books, But We Have Notes
Not every book needs to be a five-star masterpiece to be worth reading.
Sometimes a book is enjoyable, entertaining, and perfectly fine.
And sometimes it’s SO close to being amazing that the things holding it back become even more frustrating.
How to Date a Rockstar by Kylie Scott
Stace’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐½
A mysterious rock star legacy, a reclusive guitarist, an age-gap romance, and a little murder mystery on the side? What’s not to love?
This one had a little bit of everything. The characters had personality, the emotional moments hit, and there were several laugh-out-loud scenes.
Unfortunately, the ending felt like the author suddenly remembered they had somewhere else to be.
After building up so much tension throughout the story, everything wrapped up a little too quickly. It was definitely still enjoyable and worth recommending.
We just wanted a little more time with it.
Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher
Stace’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Stace is still chasing the feeling she got reading The Hollow Places.
And apparently, she’s willing to follow T. Kingfisher into an insect-infested nineteenth-century nightmare to find it.
Wolf Worm has everything you’d expect from Kingfisher’s particular brand of horror: unsettling atmosphere, hella disturbing imagery, and creatures that absolutely do not belong anywhere near human flesh. Yuckkkk.
The middle of this book was fantastic. Not notes. The beginnging and end? A whole other story. A slow start and an underwhelming conclusion kept this one from reaching its full potential, but there were still moments that delivered some serious creepy-crawly discomfort.
And considering Stace’s ongoing inability to find a book that genuinely frightens her, we’ll take what we can get.
Getting Real by Emma Chase
Stace’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Sometimes you just need a sweet contemporary romance.
A single dad, a handsome doctor, an ER nurse who’s been crushing on him forever, and a little age-gap tension?
Sure. Sign us up.
Getting Real was charming, easy to read, and enjoyable while it lasted.
But unfortunately, it didn’t leave much of a lasting impression. Nothing particularly wrong with it. But nothing particularly extraordinary either.
Just a perfectly pleasant three-star romance that has now been filed away in the increasingly overcrowded section of Stace’s brain labelled:
Books I Know I Enjoyed But Could Not Explain to You 3 Weeks Later.
The Misses: An Apology to Our Brain Cells
The Disappear by Erica Schmidt
Stace’s rating: ⭐½
Oh, this one.
Sometimes you pick up a short audiobook because you have a couple of hours left at work and just need something to keep your brain occupied.
And sometimes you finish that audiobook wondering what your brain ever did to deserve such treatment.
The Disappear promised a combination of comedy, romance, and thriller elements.
What it delivered was...
Well.
Stace’s entire review can essentially be summarized in four words:
What the actual fuck.
And not in the fun, mind-blowing, five-star plot twist kind of way.
In hindsight, the story may have worked better as a stage production than an audiobook, but as a listening experience, this one was a struggle.
One and a half stars. And we’re still not entirely sure where that extra half star came from.
Probably just for finishing it.
Featured Read: The Exorcist’s House by Nick Roberts
October’s Featured Read took us to rural West Virginia in 1994, where the Hill family makes what might be one of the most questionable home purchases in literary history.
Psychologist Daniel Hill, his wife Nora, and their teenage daughter Alice move into a rustic farmhouse hoping for a fresh start.
A beautiful countryside with a charming old house. A little family bonding through renovations. Sounds lovely, right?
WRONG.
Because hidden in the basement is a sealed room containing a boarded-up well, crucifixes, and enough warning signs to make any reasonable person immediately contact a real estate lawyer.
And that’s before the family learns about the previous owner’s rather disturbing history with exorcisms.
At what point do we collectively agree that a suspiciously sealed basement isn’t a charming renovation opportunity?
It’s a reason to LEAVE.
But thankfully, fictional characters rarely make sensible decisions.
Otherwise, we’d have considerably fewer horror novels.
The Spoiler-Free Verdict
Rebecca: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ | Stace: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Well, would you look at that.
We finally found a horror book we both really enjoyed.
Was it terrifying? Well, that depends on which sister you ask.
For Rebecca, the grotesque descriptions and deeply unsettling imagery were enough to make her question whether she’d ever want to see this story adapted for the screen.
For Stace, the horror was more complicated.
The writing was disturbing, the atmosphere was excellent, and there were definitely moments that delivered the heebie-jeebies.
But reading about something horrifying and actually being able to picture it are two very different experiences. And that difference led to an interesting conversation about how our imaginations influence the way we experience horror.
We also had some disagreements with the characters’ decision-making abilities. Because apparently discovering a mysterious, crucifix-covered well in your basement isn’t enough to convince some people to move.
THE HOUSE IS NOT WORTH IT, DANIEL.
Still, Nick Roberts managed to deliver a genuinely creepy story with plenty of unsettling moments, shifting perspectives, and a second half that was incredibly difficult to put down.
Rebecca struggled with the third-person narration initially, but once the story picked up, she finished the entire second half in one sitting.
And Stace is already eyeing the rest of the trilogy.
So yes, despite our complaints about the characters’ complete lack of survival instincts, we’d absolutely recommend this one.
If you’ve already read The Exorcist’s House, make sure to listen to our full spoiler discussion, because we have a LOT to say about what was happening in that basement.
Wrapping Up October: The TBR Is Still Winning
So October gave us:
⭐ Two five-star reads for Rebecca, who may officially be emerging from her reading slump.
⭐ A 26-page story that somehow became Stace’s favourite book of the month.
⭐ A rock star romance that needed a little more room to breathe.
⭐ Enough parasitic insects to make us deeply uncomfortable.
⭐ An audiobook we’d rather forget.
⭐ And a haunted farmhouse that has permanently changed our standards for acceptable real estate.
All things considered, it wasn’t a bad month.
We’re heading into November with some fresh reading enthusiasm, a few new additions to our already ridiculous TBRs, and the comforting knowledge that no matter how many books we finish...
We will absolutely continue buying more.
It’s a talent, really.
An expensive one.
If you picked up The Exorcist’s House with us, we’d love to know what you thought! Did it actually scare you? Would you have stayed in that farmhouse? And more importantly, WHY?
Come find us over on Instagram @mysisterstbr and tell us all about your October reads.
And listen to Episode 4.08 of My Sister’s TBR for the full reading wrap-up, all our questionable opinions, and our spoiler-filled deep dive into The Exorcist’s House.
Until next time, happy reading!
And remember...
Life is too short for a boring TBR. 📚
