Halloween Bag of Reviews
Last updated: 1 day, 3 hours ago
Intro
This is my first Bag Of Reviews post! And what better place to start than with Halloween? There are so many classic Halloween novellas that I can just easily burn through to get a bunch of content into one review. I would like to try to do this style of reviews more often instead of plaster my blog with a bunch of smaller reviews. I'll still keep the big books to full fledged reviews that I have been doing. Such as the World of the White Rat Series in November will all have their own review. I hope this works out, let me know what you all think!
Call of Cthulhu
By H. P. Lovecraft
Book 20 of 2026
This is my first experience with lovecraftian story telling. And oh boy I was not ready! I don't even know what to say about this guy. His prose is almost musical, and his vocabulary is extensive. I was enthralled with the writing and will probably read more of his works, but I'll need to bring a dictionary with me for the next one.
The story itself was pretty cool too. I have always heard of Cthulhu, but to actually experience it was really fun. The story is told by Francis Wayland Thurston who inherits Cthulhu research from his grand-uncle. Francis reads the research and continues to follow the leads. This leads him to a sailor who recounts his experience of seeing Cthulhu (an ancient non terrestrial being) unleashed on the Earth and then imprisoned after ramming their yacht into Cthulhu's head.
Carmilla
By J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Book 23 of 2026
Full disclosure, I have read this one before and enjoyed it.
Reading it has been just as enjoyable as the first time. The writing is exquisite and the story is rich albeit a bit ... concise or condensed. Which does make sense since it is only a novella. I do so enjoy this story of how Carmilla is basically a serial killer; she targets victims, has an elaborate plan of attack, and seduces and kills them over time. For being a vampire for such a length of time though, I find that her naming convention for herself could use some work. Merely using anagrams of her original name is a little silly. Also I feel like she should have travelled away from her home but maybe she couldn't go far from her burial place. I'm not sure if it mentioned that or not.
I have enjoyed Le Fanu's writing and I would like to explore more of his books. AI has suggested that I read The House by the Churchyard, Uncle Silas, and Green Tea to experience more of his best writing. And yes, I did confer with AI about this because who else am I going to talk to about these things. Join my (Discord)[https://discord.gg/TtwEHkr5RT] so I can stop talking to AI :P I am really interested in reading the first suggestion, The House by the Churchyard, as it's supposed to Le Fanu's grand epic, victorian mystery: "A masterclass in claustrophobic tension, paranoia, and the creeping dread of being trapped with someone you suspect wants you dead" (AI). I've added it to my TBR. No idea when I'll get to it though.
The 2019 Movie
This move was so boring! I had to put it on 1.5 speed just to make it feel like things were happening. Very slow movie. And it was not a very good adaptation. They added so much to the movie that wasn't in the book, such as: more story for Mrs Fontaine, Laura being left handed and that being the summoning of the devil. Things were changed, such as the setting being moved from Styrian castle to rural England, and the meeting and naming of Carmilla. And a lot was straight up removed, such as much of the vampire related plotlines (Carmilla pretty much wasn't a vampire in this)... Kind of a big thing to remove in a Vampire movie.
As a coming of age, sexual discovery, period piece.... it was alright. As an adaptation of Carmilla the Novella, they did a poor job of it and I can not recommend it.
The Vampyre
By John William Polidori
Book 24 of 2026
This one predates Carmilla and AI says it is the starting point of turning vampires from undead monsters into the sophisticated and dangerous beings that we see in Carmilla and Dracula, which just makes me want to read even older Vampire stories! I am in a classic reading kick lately and I am loving it! I find it so interesting to read about how much we have and have not changed over the course of written history. No matter how the technology and lifestyle change, we are still just people living in and trying to make sense of this world.
The Preface to this book is absolutely amazing! Mary Shelly, John Polidori, and Lord Byron were all in a room together on the same night. The night in which Mary Shelly started writing Frankenstein. The night in which John started writing The Vampyre which changed the existence of vampires. And Lord Byron is the father of Ada Lovelace, being named the first programmer. So much talent and history in one room!
The story itself follows Aubrey and Lord Ruthvan as they meet in London and then head to Greece and Athens when Lord Ruthven dies. Before he does he swears Aubrey to secrecy about his death. Aubrey goes back to London and finds Lord Ruthven there, very much alive. Aubrey falls into a dark depression and despair type of deal because he can't tell anyone about Ruthven. Just before Aubreyis Oath expires, Ruthven marries and drains his sister and Aubrey dies from the stress of it all.
I have been considering the implications of rewriting or even gamifying this story, but I am really struggling with the concept of the oath. No one in the modern age would take an oath so far as to die over the stress of it. So I think that would need to be changed to some sort of vampiric mind control or bribery. I think it would be a good test of writing to modernize this story, especially since so few people have.
Sleepy Hollow
By Washington Irvine
Book 25 of 2026
My first thoughts on this is that when they first describe the Headless Horseman, I picture Christopher Walken's portrayal in the 1999 movie almost spot on. And when they describe Ichabod, I picture the 1949 Disney portrayal almost 100%. I'm going to have to rewatch both of those.
The book was mostly really good. The middle was a bit thick on unnecessary descriptions of food and I almost put the thing down at that point. But otherwise it was great. Ichabod is such a great character design; he is no hero, he is comical, and he is fallible. At the end of the day I want to feel sorry for him but I also don't; he brought so much of that on himself. I loved the setting and how Irvine was able to describe the setting and the creepiness. I would totally recommend this book for a halloween read, might need to do some skimming for the food part though.
The 1949 Disney Cartoon
I watched this movie (is it a movie? only half hour.) last night with my daughter. She was bored. But oh my god. This has to be one of the best book to screen adaptations I have ever seen. It's like 95% accurate and completely embodies the book's story. I think the only thing they really took out was alluding to Brom being the headless horseman at the end of the book. Otherwise it was spot on. I am so happy that I watched that again and it will be going into my annual halloween rotation!
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
By Robert Louis Stevenson
Book 21 of 2026
This was fantastic! Another book that is from an older time when English was harder for us modern people to understand. The story's main point of view was from Dr. Jekyll's lawyer and not Jekyll himself. I thought the duality of Jekyll & Hyde was fascinating; oftentimes, they are portrayed as completely separate entities, but in this story it's more like they are the same person but at different ends of the good & evil spectrum.
There are so many screen adaptations to this story. We watched the 1931 version because my research indicated that this was the "gold standard" for any future screen adaptations. It was also a fantastic movie. Although they changed a lot. They shifted the main point of view from the lawyer to Jekyll and they added love interests for both Jekyll and Hyde. It was really uncomfortable for me to watch how Hyde treated Ivy but at the same time it really showed how much of a monster he is.
There is another movie, a 1990 version with Michael Cain as Dr. Jekyll that I want to watch next.
Conclusion
I read a bunch of great books this month, and watched a bunch of great movies. There were so many more I wanted to read for Halloween. If I could recommend just one of these books for someone to read this month, it would probably have to be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The original story is just golden. And as for a movie, I would recommend 1999 Sleepy Hollow with Christopher Walken and Johnny Depp. That movie is pure halloween for me! (Although at the time of writing this, I still have not seen it this year).
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