The better to see you, my dear

Fuck that dip-shit. If he's the romantic interest I'm gonna be so disappointed

Had a couple crazy weeks, so this is my first Halloween Bingo book, and I just realized I have no idea where to place it.

Should work for Suspense or Supernatural, right?

Several stray thoughts I had while choosing the tags for this one:

It's not really romance-done-right. While the title is scrupulous, there is little romance to all the types of "loves" (because there is always that doubt, of what is and is not love, what is selfish use, or abuse, and whether that frontier is concrete) weaved into the tapestry of the story. Most are too real or too fantastical, or grotesque (and still real, maybe more so), and the ways they happen are written just so; with all the anxiety, the terror, hesitation, thoughtlessness, doubts, crudity or day-to-day boredom that merits the occasion.

Wanted to tick better-than-expected but I still don't know why I am surprised by his writing.

This one is not magical-realism. Actually, leaving aside One Hundred Years of Solitude , I don't know that any of his other books would fit that one. Might be the grandiose, nearly mythic proportions of the stories he pieces together in his novels.

It is an odd and frankly ambitious book. It immerses you into the story by way of an octogenarian last chapter no less, and after it wraps you in, tells you how two seventy-somethings traveled through 50 years of other loves to re-meet as lovers. It meanders through the years and the relationships, and the depictions when gathered turn into a tapestry that is nothing less than epic in scope.

I can't say that I truly liked any of the characters, and yet, maybe I loved them all, in their terrible intensities. They are certainly memorable.

As always, I take off my hat to his opening and closing sentences, to the strange feats and acrobatics he manages from the language, to the way he depicts the shiny and the rotten side by side, making something amazing and nostalgic of a nature core of reality.

I've just realized I've not yet posted my tentative picks for this round of Bingo. Some of the squares could use a bit more love and options, so I'd welcome suggestions (Stranger Things, I'm looking at you)

13: Small gods - Terry Pratchett ; The Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold ; The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield ; Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz ; Year One - Nora Roberts ; Six of Crows - Leigh Bardugo 

Doomsday: The Road - Cormac McCarthy ; Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood ; Swan Song - Robert R. McCammon

Grave or Graveyard: I'm thinking of using a Transfiguration Spell into: A Grim Tale: Beauty - Robin McKinley ; Daughter of the Forest - Juliet Marillier ; Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik ; The Hazel Wood - Melissa Albert 

Suspence: The Ivy Tree - Mary Stewart ; The African Queen - C.S. Forester ; The Ugly Duckling - Iris Johansen 

Stranger Things: Help?

--------------

Gothic: The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins ; The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins ; The Mysteries of Udolpho - Ann Radcliffe ; Bleak House - Charles Dickens 

Dystopian Hellscape: The Minority Report - Philip K. Dick ; Parable of the Sower - Octavia E. Butler ; V for Vendetta - David Lloyd,Alan Moore

It was a dark and stormy night: The Mysteries of Udolpho - Ann Radcliffe ; Bleak House - Charles Dickens

Sleepy Hollow: The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne ; A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving ; The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories - H.P. Lovecraft 

Cryptozoologist: The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - Patricia A. McKillip ; Dragonflight - Anne McCaffrey ; The BFG - Roald Dahl ; Metamorphoses - Ovid 

-------------

Diverse Voices: Something by Octavia Butler or Tanarive Due; The Decagon House Murders - Yukito Ayatsuji ; Beloved - Toni Morrison

Halloween: My second transfiguration turns this into Supernatural: Hell House - Richard Matheson ; Mort - Terry Pratchett ; The Hunger - Alma Katsu 

Free Space

Slasher Stories: Third and last spell to Film at 11: that I'm likely to fill in as the humor strikes

Dead Lands: The Girl with All the Gifts - M.R. Carey  Blood Games - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro  Feed - Mira Grant  The Forest of Hands and Teeth - Carrie Ryan 

----------------------

Darkest London: The Secret Adversary - Agatha Christie ; Murder Must Advertise - Dorothy L. Sayers ; Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz ; The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins 

Classic Horror: Uncle Silas - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu  In a Glass Darkly - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 

Modern Noir: Mystic River - Dennis Lehane  Shutter Island - Dennis Lehane 

American Horror Story: Flowers in the Attic - V.C. Andrews 

Spellbound: The Pillars of the World - Anne Bishop  Taliesin - Stephen R. Lawhead 

--------------------------

Creepy Carnivals: Full Tilt - Neal Shusterman  NOS4A2 - Joe Hill  The Prestige - Christopher Priest  Caraval - Stephanie Garber 

Aliens: Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut  Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke  All You Need Is Kill - Hiroshi Sakurazaka  Sundiver - David Brin 

Amatheur Sleuth: El nombre de la rosa - Umberto Eco  Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz  

Stone Cold Horror: Let the Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist  Snowblind (Dark Iceland) - Ragnar Jónasson 

Vampires: Blood Games - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro 

Smiled at some bits, laughed at others, and loved the mare most of all.

I liked the part about being told only your own story and the detail of the torn back. Oh, and the Pevensies' cameo (reading carefully, there are these minuscule hints of Susan being different than the other three too).

Whenever I read another of his books, It's like I rediscover the weird ways he uses words and how damn good the writing paints things in your head. I don't know how well that's is captured in translation though. Like:

.... la ayudó a acostarse en una cama de sábanos tersas y almohadas de plumas que le infundieron de pronto el pánico instantáneo de la felicidad.

... porque su pretendida era la más preciada de una familia típica de la región: una cábila intrincada de mujeres bravas y hombres de corazón tierno y gatillo fácil, perturbados hasta la demencia por el sentido del honor.

Which are two bits from the same page.

Also, I love how the daily made grandiose resonates with our family legacy stories. I mean, the little tortures that culminate in an absent bar of soap that almost terminates a marriage of 30 years? A man holding a torch for 50? Dying for a parrot? Keeping an affair secret for decades just because? It hits something close to funny, like there is an implausible and grotesque air to them, but in the end you laugh because goodness, did the elders of your family have stories to share in lazy afternoons.

Christ, yes!! I'm counting the days for this one, and it's getting released just for Bingo. I've reached the conclusion I'm seriously addicted to this writing team. There is no other way for me to be this exited about a book with a teenage protagonist at this point.

I like my horror reads to be absolutely chilling and of the mind-fuck variety, so I'd say very scary for any title here.

It - Stephen King : Beyond how inherently scary a concept a boggart is, and one written by King at that, what terrified me in this book is the truth of how helpless children are against adults, their power and their belief in other adults. It's always that scene where Bev is running from her not-dad, and no adult even stopping, because it rings so creepily real.

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov : I don't get why anyone would mistake this one for a romance. Ever. That's the ickiest, most compelling and therefore scariest, unreliable narrator of literature. Real horror.

Misery - Stephen King : This one gave me palpitations. It gets violent and there are lasting consequences.

Ponies - Kij Johnson : Maybe horror is not the genre one would put it, but this little does cause horror. I never read it again, but I still feel like crying when I remember it.

6/25 female authors

I'm focusing on new-to-me for the most part, but there is a mix.

A

Katherine Addison: The Goblin Emperor

Ann Aguirre: Enclave (08/07)

Katherine Arden: The Bear and the Nightingale (05/23)

Tomi Adeyemi: Children of Blood and Bone

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Half of a Yellow Sun

Sarah Addison Allen: The Peach Keeper

Julia Alvarez: En el tiempo de las Mariposas

B

Leigh Bardugo: Ruin and Rising

Katherine Blake: The Interior Life

Liliana Bodoc: Los días del Fuego

Charlotte Brontë: Shirley and Villete have been there some 10 years on my tbr but I've been procrastinating because I did not care for Jane Eyre when I was a teen.

Lois McMaster Bujold: I owe to myself to try her. Almost did for Bingo (twice), but couldn't get my hands on one of her books on time.

Octavia E. Butler: Ditto

Fanny Burney

C

Trudi Canavan

Rae Carson

Angela Carter: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

Joy Chant: Red Moon and Black Mountain

Jo Clayton: Diadem from the Stars

Susan Cooper: Over Sea, Under Stone

D

Pamela Dean: The Secret Country

Daphne Du Maurier: The Birds (01/20)

Diane Duane: The Door into Fire

Tananarive Due: My Soul to Keep

Marguerite Duras: The Lover (*grimace* I did not care for her shorter work, but since I own it...)

E

Phyllis Eisenstein: Sorcerer's Son

George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans): Middlemarch keeps popping up (Chist, it's massive)

Kate Elliott: King's Dragon

Sylvia Engdahi: Enchantress from the Stars

F

Karen Joy Fowler: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Cornelia Funke: Inkspell (we bought the whole series! Further heartbreak here I come)

G

Elizabeth Gaskell: Wives and Daughters

Jessica Day George: Dragon Flight

Molly Gloss: The Dazzle of Day

Lisa Goldstein

Mira Grant

H

Jenny Han: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Cynthia Hand: Unearthly

Victoria Hanley: The Seer and the Sword

Kristin Hannah

Georgette Heyer

Robin Hobb (Megan Lindholm)

Alice Hoffman

I

J

Elfriede Jelinek: The Piano Teacher

N.K. Jemisin

Diana Wynne Jones: Howl's Moving Castle

K

Phyllis Ann Karr: The Idylls of the Queen

M.M. Kaye: The Far Pavillions

Maggie Shen King: An Excess Male

Barbara Kingsolver: The Poisonwood Bible

Nancy Kress: Beggars in Spain

Ellen Kushner: Swordspoint 

L

Mercedes Lackey: Arrows of the Queen

Selma Lagerlöf: (Nobel)

Marghanita Laski: The Victorian Chaise Longue

Clarice Lispector: I think mom added one of her books to our library

Guadalupe Loaeza: Las Niñas Bien

Ann Leckie: Ancillary Justice

Megan Lindholm (Robin Hobb)

M

Juliet Marillier: I've heard so amazing things about her, and fantasy is my love

Carson McCullers: scared to, but have The Heart is a Lonely Hunter somewhere around

Collen McCullough: The Thorn Birds (... yeah, another scary prospect)

Sandra McDonald: The Outback Stars

Vonda N. McIntyre: Starfarers (08/18) (Dreamsnake might get kicked to next year)

Toni Morrison: Funny thing here: I've had it on my "author to try" list for a long while, but thought her male

Anchee Min: Empress Orchid

Kanae Minato: Confessions

Miyuki Miyabe: Crossfire

Judith Moffett: Pennterra

Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Blue Castle

Ann McCaffrey: Dragonflight

N

Linda Nagata: Vast

Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveler's Wife

Anais Nin: Delta of Venus has been waving at me, but... another massive one

Amelie Nothomb: another on mom's wish-list that I can't remember if we bought

Naomi Novik

O

Joyce Carol Oates: Bellefleur is one I took a stab at when I was 14 and never finished. Might rectify this year (and how did I come to the conclusion Joyce was a male name then? maybe my brain associated James Joyce?)

Yoko Ogawa: Revenge... Or maybe The Housekeeper and the Professor

Lauren Oliver: Liesl & Po

Wendy Orr: Nim's Island

P

Ann Patchett: Bel Canto

Katherine Paterson: Bridge to Terabithia... if I'm feeling brave or wanting a good bawl

Barbara Paul: Pillars of Salt

Elizabeth Peters (Barbara Mertz): Crocodile on the Sandbank (Amelia Peabody 1)

Rachel Pollack: Unquenchable Fire

Eleanor Porter: Pollyana (05/08)

Katherine Anne Porter

Barbara Pym: Excellent Women

Q

Amanda Quick

R

Ann Radcliffe: The Mysteries of Udolpho

Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea

Veronica Rossi: Never finished her saga. Might go for it if in the mood for YA

Mary Doria Russell: The Sparrow

Carrie Ryan: The Forest of Hands and Teeth

S

Jessica Amanda Salmonson: Tomoe Gozen

Sofia Samatar: Stranger in Olondria (read a short story of hers in Clarkesworld magazine, and oh, my!)

Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis (reading)

Dorothy L. Sayers

Alice Sebold: maybe. The Lovely Bones did a lot of noise

Lisa See: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (some group discussed a buddy read when I was still on goodreads, and the movie renewed my interest)

Mary Shepard: Mary Poppins

Betty Smith: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Dodie Smith: I Capture the Castle

Wen Spencer

Mary Stewart: The Crystal Cave

T

Amy Tan

Josephine Tey: Brat Farrar was brought to my attention during the games, and will read as soon as I can get a copy

Megan Whalen Turner: The Thief

U

V

Catherynn M. Valente: In the Night Garden is one I want to buy and savor

Sara Varon: Robot Dreams

Joan D. Vinge: The Snow Queen

W

Sarah Waters

Winifred Watson: Mrs Petigrew Lives for a Day

Martha Wells: All Systems Red (03/27) Artificial Condition (03/13)

Edith Wharton: pure author faith (even if she rips my heart)

Connie Willis: keeps popping up on my radar

Virginia Woolf: sure I have a couple of hers back at home

Y

Banana Yoshimoto: Kitchen is a book that keeps popping up and haven't gotten to yet

Jane Yolen: I had Tam Lin on my list, but reading up on her... over 365 books! Woman!

Marguerite Yourcenar: Have Memories of Hadrian on my bed-table

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Z

Other Original Languages

Julia Alvarez: En el tiempo de las Mariposas

Jorge Amado: Gabriela, Clavo y Canela

Aristophanes: Lysistrata

Roberto Arlt: Los 7 locos

Honoré de Balzac: Pere Goriot

Erique Barrios: Civilizaciones internas (leyendo)

Simone de Beauvoir: El segundo sexo

Liliana Bodoc: Los días del Fuego

Ítalo Calvino: Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore

Fernándo de Rojas: La Celestina (this one I have on hand, but it's such an archaic Spanish, it gave me head-aches the one time I attempted it. We'll see)

Marguerite Duras: L'Amant

José María Eça de Queirós: El Crímen del Padre Amaro

Umberto Eco: El Nombre de la Rosa (bought it too, will have leisure to read)

Gabriel García Marquez: El amor en los tiempos de Cólera (08/29)

Juan Ramón Jiménez: Platero y Yo (leyendo)

Yasunari Kawabata: Snow Country (07/19)

Clarice Lispector:

Cixin Liu: The Three-Body Problem

Guadalupe Loaeza: Las Niñas Bien

Facundo Manes: Usar el Cerebro

Kanae Minato: Confessions

Miyuki Miyabe: Crossfire

Haruki Murakami: Kafka en la Orilla

Kezaburo Oe: Memushiri kouchi (Pluck the Bud and Destroy the Offspring)

Yoko Ogawa: Revenge

Ovid: Metamorphoses

Tulsidas, Ramayana

Banana Yoshimoto: Kitchen

Marguerite Yourcenar: Memorias de Adriano

... Those are over a 100 books I'm hyped to read... doubling my challenge already... Lol, I always bite more than I can chew

I still take the wide range of the cast as the best part of this.

If you take the "scientists car-jack a self-sustaining space base and go exploring" plot thing away. Because you can't say that isn't all-around BAMF and likely the main reason why one would land in this series. (Oddly enough, it was not my case, but the fact that it was listed in a Tor article about books with older women in a central part of the plot).

And that's a maybe... I still like the fact that is scientists, mostly older, and mostly women characters, that compose the cast on a freaking space heist. For science!

Anyway, that comes late in the book. Mostly, we build on the political climate and the personal motivations that lead to that situation, and if you want action packed and get bothered by very flawed characters the book will loose you before then. I felt like shaking most of the people inside those pages more than once, and enjoyed myself immensely.

I though there was a lot of unbelievable political naivete in the alien contact expert (wouldn't you have to be good at politics, social studies and what-not for that?) and some stereotyping is going on that makes the whole feel a bit pulpy. But it's good pulp and I'm still wavering between four and five stars.

So far I'm loving the widely diverse cast and relationships, and all the way characters rub awkward, sometimes awesome, sometimes sweet, often making me impatient (and in Griffith's case, like wanting to maul him till death) and all around very human.

And there are these bits:

“Every time the argument about evolution comes along again, I start wondering what would happen if it were true that god invented fossils to fool us with. What if god’s got a sense of humor? If I were god, I’d plant a few fossils that wouldn’t fit into the scheme, just for fun.”
“And that’s what these are? Does that mean you’re playing god?”
“Artists always play god,” Crimson said.
“Don’t you believe in evolution?”
“That’s a tough word, ‘believe.’ Believing, and knowing what the truth is — you’re talking about two different things. Human beings are perfectly capable of believing one thing metaphorically, and accepting evidence for a completely different hypothesis. That’s the simplest definition of faith that I know. It’s the people who don’t have any faith, who can’t tell the difference between metaphor and reality, who want to force you to believe one thing only.”

That had me laughing and remembering Good Omens, and also parallels some of my vaguely agnostic thoughts.

Or things like this:

Under ordinary circumstances, they would never have had a hope of buying their house. Nobody living on ordinary incomes — even three ordinary incomes — could afford to buy property.

Which is wildly unfunny by how real it is.

I'm really looking forward to the over the top drama this is bound to be filled with. I suspect it will be an experience akin to The Castle of Otranto, that I'll want to both laugh and grimace at the same time a lot, and enjoy it for exactly the same reasons it ought to be despised.
 

Some of these will be obvious or widely read already, but...

Dark Academia:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Dystopian Hellscape:

1984 by George Orwell

The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Matched by Ally Condie

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

International Woman of Mystery:

Psych:

In the Woods by Tana French

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest by Ken Kessey

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Truly Terrifying: Since I don't read much non-fiction, I'll skip this one.

Paint it Black:

Stranger Things: Guys? I am in need of suggestions for this one. The only ones I can think from the parallel world aspect (and have already read those) are:

IterWorld by Neal Gaiman and Michael Reaves.

The Langoliers by Stephen King

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

Film at 11:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Dracula by Bram Stocker

The Shining by Stephen King

Pet Sametary by Stephen King

Misery by Stephen King

It by Stephen King

The Green Mile by Stephen King

Sphere by Michael Crichton

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg

Stardust by Neal Gaiman

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

The Princess Bride

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by Scott Fitzgerald

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis

Peter Pan by JM Barrie

The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum

The War of the Worlds by HG Wells

The Day of the Triffids by Wyndham

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

I am Legend by Richard Matheson

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

Jaws by Peter Benchley

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

So many more... this list from Goodreads has books that have been turned into movies

King of Fear: Most of the titles I see look like the page turning variety, and I'm likely to read several, but lord, some of those look... not good. That said, beyond the few semi classics sprinkled around, I'd steer towards these:

The Secret Place by Tana French
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Gravity by Tess Gerritsen

Since I'm such a fan of fairy-tale retellings, magic, and weird wee creatures, it is little surprise that these would turn up to be my favourites.

I'm also partial to those squares that push me to fulfill my yearly reading projects and clean up the long languishing titles of my tbr

Joining the Halloween Bing pre-party a bit on the late side, but having a blast with all the traffic on my feed. Now, let's see:

Mystery or Horror?: Horror all the way

Vampires, Werewolves, Zombies or Other?: I'm partial to Witches, though the hodgepodges where everything simmers on the same pot are mighty fun.

Favourite Ghostly Tales:

The Everlost Series by Neal Shusterman and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. They are all written for that nebulous gap between children books and adult, and they are the that perfect balance of cruel and kind that often becomes emotional.

Favourites from Halloween Bingos Past:

Lol! This might get long.

It took me 1 page to realize I had a new favourite author with Nights at the Circus, by Angela Carter. Naomi Novik's His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire #1) amply jumped my expectation's bar. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt surprised me by how engrossed I got into a book where there is not exactly something like a plot.

The year before last, I was happy to find that Murder on the Orient Express and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie are as good as promised. And horrified by how excellent and still current The Crucible by Arthur Miller is. I was also surprised by The Haunting of Hill House, after what I felt was a lackluster experience with Shirley Jackson's We've Always Lived in the Castle, and so very glad that I took the game's reviews to heart. Joyland by Stephen King ended up being a campy and perfectly nostalgic read. I also read The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin, that while polarizing, is still my favourite of hers (well, maybe fighting for top with Four Ways to Forgiveness)

Favourite Series with Supernatural Elements:

Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews. Takes a couple of books to find some polish, but they are immensely entertaining. On a darker bent, I quite liked the Darkfever Series by Karen Marie Moning, but they are more of a problematic-elements guilty pleasure.

Favourite Seasonal Covers:

Favourite Halloween Bingo Authors:

Since I always end up picking at least one more book, Stephen King. If I search for number of entries during the game, John Wyndham and Agatha Christie too. And Illona Andrews, because I'm always up for a re-read.

All of the new squares (and scares) have been revealed, and I got these posts put together over the past few days, so I'm ready to reveal ALL OF THE SQUARES!

Buckle up, butter cup.

A note on book lists: where we have already got a working book list, I've linked to it. However, word of clarification: the rules have changed a bit in the last 3 years - so not every book on the booklists is necessarily a horror, supernatural, mystery or suspense book. If it shows up on a booklist it has been approved for game play on that space and is "grandfathered in" to eligibility.

The new categories don't have a book list associated with them yet.

I am going to do this in three posts, because they are going to be very long! You've seen the 9 new squares:

1. Dark Academia: Any mystery, suspense, supernatural or horror that takes place at a school - high school, college, boarding school, etc.

2. Dystopian Hellscape: This is a multi-genre square! Any book that relates to the fictional depiction of a dystopian society, such as The Handmaid's Tale or The Hunger Games, would qualify! 

3. International Woman of Mystery: This one is fairly obvious and is a twist on the "Terrifying Women" of years past - the only question is what does "international" mean? Basically, it means international to you - the reader. I'm in the U.S., so "international" means women mystery authors from Europe, South America, Asia, etc...

4. Psych: Psychological thrillers, plot twists and suspense, unreliable narrators and other mind-fuckery. And, as an aside, any Halloween Bingo book that takes place within or related to an insane asylum, haunted or otherwise, would qualify!

5. Truly Terrifying: Non-fiction that has elements of suspense, horror or mystery, including true crime, both contemporary and historical. Examples would be The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, or The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson. If you have another idea, run it by me - just remember that it has to fit into the general Halloween Bingo criteria of mystery, suspense, horror or supernatural!

6. Paint It Black: Any book with a cover that is primarily black or has the word black in the title, was written by a black author, or relates to rock and roll music.

7. Stranger Things: this is a twist on the past 80's Horror square with elements of the television show  - any horror that has supernatural elements, portal/parallel universes, government plots gone awry or is set or was written in the 1980's. 

8. Film at 11:  The idea for this new space comes courtesy of Linda Hilton! Generally, in order to qualify for Halloween bingo, all books must fit into one of the general genres of horror, mystery, suspense or supernatural. This space is filled by any Halloween bingo book that has been adapted to film or television. For extra fun, you can watch the adaptation - although this is an optional add on!

9. King of Fear: You can read anything written by Stephen King or Joe Hill, or recommended by Stephen King (as long as the recommendation is otherwise eligible for Halloween Bingo). 

The "horror" squares:

10. Genre: Horror: Anything that qualifies as horror. Book list linked here.

11. Southern Gothic: horror set in the Southern part of the United States; Book list linked here

12. Modern Masters of Horror: horror published in or after 2000. Book list linked here. See horror booklist - notes identify sub-categories.

13. Fear Street: 1980's and 1990's vintage pulp-style series horror, targeted to teens, such as Point Horror, Fear Street and horror fiction that is written/published primarily for a YA or MG audience. Examples would include The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey. Book list linked here

14. Terror in a Small Town: any horror book where the action primarily occurs in a small town or village. Examples would include: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, It by Stephen King. Book list linked here

15. Slasher Stories: books that share the tropes of classic slasher movies: teen characters, indestructible killers and/or multiple victims. Book list linked here

16. Classic Horror: horror fiction that was published prior to 1980; Book list linked here

17. American Horror Story: horror set in the United States. See horror booklist - notes identify sub-categories.

19. Stone Cold Horror: this is a late addition because I had too much YA horror, so I combined a couple of categories into Fear Street & needed something else for the horror genre! Horror that takes place primarily in a winter/cold/snow type setting.