Welcome to Litsy!

I usually try to watch a spooky movie every night during the month of October, but here are the 10 I'm most excited to watch! I always love doing a Halloween re-watch each Spooky Season 🎃👻 🧡

#scarathlon #scarathlonwatchlist #scarathlon2023 #mischiefandmayhem @PuddleJumper

+20 points for sharing my Watch List
+1 point for participation post

= 21 early bird points 🌸

This is a reread for me, and I think I loved it more this time around.

Shirley Jackson is a goddess of her craft, and the way she spins a story, building the atmosphere and suspense, is pure perfection.

The dysfunction of this family and the relationship between the sisters makes this a great read that will mess with your head in all the best ways.

Fall vibes 🍂🍁🎃

Could only be described as creepy in a whimsical way. Kinda boring and I did expect something scarier or spookier to happen bc of the creepy cover. But I liked the relationship between the sisters, it redeemed the book for me

This is a great read, quite creepy and chilling. The sisters Constance and Mary Katherine are both great characters. From reading it feels like Mary Katherine is 12 or 13, but she is 18, I think. The sinister feelings of the villagers to the Blackwood family are great, and the cover really tells you all you need to know about it. This is my second Shirley Jackson book and definitely will read more.

In June for the past couple of years I have started posting my favorite reads so far of the year. For the rest of the month I will be posting my 15 favorite reads that I have read so far. These will be posted in the chronological order in which I read them.
With the completion of We Have Always Lived etc, there is only 1 unread title in Jackson's bibliography for me. I have said for years that she is a favorite & this is Jackson at her (cont)

These are two books I bought today! #books

Book: Tagged*White Teeth*Who Will Run the Frog Hospital*White Is For Witching*White Noise*What We See When We Read*War of the Worlds*Wind-Up Bird Chronicle*Wind in the Willows*Wuthering Heights
Author: V. Woolf*J. Wyndham*J. Winterson*J. Williams*C. Whitehead
Movie/TV: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane*Wages of Fear*Westside Story (Spielberg)*Walker (starring Ed Harris)*Wicker Man ('73)
Singer/Band: Wilco*Warpaint
Song: (cont.)

😳Jan 7th 2023

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I think Jackson is becoming a favorite author; her stories never let me down!

What a perfect start to the year with a perfect little book. This was fabulous! Even better that I only picked it up a few days ago at a secondhand book shop for $3. It‘s been on my tbr list for sooooooo long.
I loved everything about this one and was so relieved that Jonas was not harmed, anything but that! 🐈‍⬛
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“I was pretending that I did not speak their language; on the moon we spoke a soft, liquid tongue, and sang in the starlight, looking down on the dead dried world.”

Remembering Shirley Jackson on her birthday today. Honoured to share a birthday with such a brilliant mind.

Perfect Halloween reading. Great writing ensures a sense of something sinister on its way, a constant building of ominous energy. The ending was unexpected but it wasn‘t the explosive conclusion I think it deserved. 7/10

Another haunting story where the house is an integral part (character) of the story. Merricat and Constance are bigger introverts than I am! #whoknew And, to top it off, one's a murderer! Or is she? The stuff that hauntings are made for.“

Favorite Quote: “I'm going to put death in all their food and watch them die.“

Time for the annual rereading of this unsettling gem by Shirley Jackson, one of my favorites.
🖤🖤🖤

This was my first time reading this classic horror. It was very creepy and atmospheric. Merricat's narration is unnerving as she describes the life she lives with her sister and uncle after the rest of her family was poisoned years ago and the villager's reaction to their presence.
#Scarathlon2022 #TeamMonsterMash @StayCurious #31by31 @Catsandbooks #Spookoween2022 @TheSpineView #Pointsathon @DieAReader @GHABI4ROSES #AutumnAtoZ W @Texreader

This strange gem of a book, one of my favorites, features a sugar bowl one should avoid! #poison #scarathalon22 #photoprompt #TeamSlaughter

#OminousOctober #Day13 #Orange A creepy family story in a classic Penguin edition. #Scarathlon #TeamSlaughter 6pts

Sad and creepy, yet darkly funny at times.
Perfect for October.
#TeamSlaughter #scarathlon

🦇 These are my top picks of must read books for spooky season. What would you add? 🦇

One of my favorites (and a perfect October read, in my opinion). I love the cover art on this edition with Merricat holding Jonas. 🐈‍⬛

#OminousOctober #Cat
@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

My September #2022ReadingBracket pick @chasjjlee -

Moving on to October reads now -

Make a great day everyone 🎃

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was my second time reading this favorite! I read the Penguin Vitae edition this time. Just an amazing story about small town communities and a major insight into the two halves of Shirley Jackson‘s own personality. Very much recommend this one!

🌟🌟 I have always loved Shirley Jackson‘s style is dark and atmospheric much like her other books. I found Merricat an interesting character study in someone who suffers from mental health from abuse. The reactions from the townsfolk who were really the true monsters here was appalling. That‘s is where the true horror lies in this reading.

However this one didn‘t drop the jaw as her other books have for me.

fav book @ my fav spot

#BookSpinBingo
#ReadSpooky2022 @teebe
Perfectly written story. There was a tension throughout the story (what will happen next) and a creepiness, not scary but creepy - Merricat and Constance and Uncle are a family that loves one another but must work around each others psychological issues (see below for the rest)

#BFC2022
#BookSpinBingo

@wanderinglynn @TheAromaofBooks

Make a great day everyone 😎

Here is my #BookSpinBingo for the month - thanks for hosting @TheAromaofBooks

I don't re-read often - some Stephen King, Harry Potter series (but one re-read of this will be enough) and occasionally a classic (one that I haven't read since high school or college - like Jane Eyre or To Kill a Mockingbird) - #littenswanttoknow Thanks for the tag @Eggs

Make a great day everyone 🙂

#FirstLineFridays

“My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood.”

I have skipped letter V and for #letterW another shoutout to Shirley Jackson.

#AlphabetGame

#alphabetgame @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

📕 One of my favourite books of all time, Jackson is a favourite author of mine, her books never disappoint 📕

My first Shirley Jackson novel and I loved her writing. Thank you for recommending it Cathy. The story and characters were so well drawn I felt I was living in the castle. Such an unusual story too. Rare to find something that surprises.

Wow We Have Always Lived in the Castle is such a powerful short novel! An atmospheric Gothic thriller..with 2 young women left alone after all other members of the family are murdered..disliked by the community they live in..tragic, strange, and fascinating to read about the author who who suffered from agoraphobia and other physical and mental conditions..and died at 48!
And onto a book about the wife TS Eliot written by a great Aussie author!

A sunny reading spot this morning. I‘m starting this Shirley Jackson classic which has been on my reading pile for so long. Hope you are getting some reading time today🤞🏼🙂📖
#autumndayinaustralia

A quietly disturbing book with some unsettling home made witch craft. Merricat and Constance have their own world, full of rules and regulations, that at least make sense them. Constance cooks for safety and to preserve their sensibilities. Merricat protects by leaving totems buried in the ground. Cousin Charles appears and upsets their own world as well as the apple cart, glorious.

I've read this spooky little walk down Unreality Lane before but listening to it is so much more satisfying! These two remind me a little of the Beales of Grey Gardens, especially towards the end. How are haunted houses created? Step into Blackwood House and find out....

🤩

Those poor sisters!

Listened to this on audio and loved it. Narrated by Bernadette Dunne who had the perfect voice for it IMO. I didn‘t realise it was such a short book - only 5 and 1/2 hours audio. Jackson does a great job of creating perfectly formed and peculiar characters and setting, and then ratcheting up the tension. Constance and Mary Kat are unforgettable and Constance will forever be saying “Silly Mary Kat” in my brain 💕💕 5 stars.

I really adored Merricat even if she was a little nuts. This was such a weird and increasingly uncomfortable read. Definitely didn‘t expect where it ended. I really enjoyed this though. Has anyone seen the Netflix movie? Is it worth seeing?

This was my #DoubleSpin

Also completed one of my goals for #joyousreadathon

No matter how many times I read this book I always find something new to love. 5/5 stars.

11-24-21: My 119th finished book of 2021! The sad story of the Blackwood sisters, Mary Katherine and Constance, who live with their ill uncle, Julian. The rest of their family is dead, poisoned, but by whom? The villagers despise the girls, who live a quiet life outside of town, but the sisters adore each other. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 👍🏼📖#️⃣1️⃣1️⃣9️⃣

I‘m not exactly sure what I read but I enjoyed it the whole time!!

For a grand total of 2100.6 points earned over the whole month of October, and I believe that‘s a new record for me!

#scarathlon #scarathlon2021 #teamhendrix