Thriller October V2 Wrap Up

Thank you thank you to everyone that participated in the second year of Thriller October! I had so much fun hosting. I loved seeing all your creative responses to the photo prompts and so many of you completed the full bingo board! Winners will be announced via instagram today!

I have hosted 4 readathons now and I’ve learned so much about what works and what doesn’t each time. This month I tried hosting a bunch of book giveaways and I really liked that but I’m not sure everyone did. I’m going to be asking for feedback in my stories on instagram today about the readathon, what you liked and didn’t like and I would appreciate any feedback here as well.

I managed to read 8 books through the month and I’m posting a mini review of each of them below if you want to check that out!

Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier: I am terrible at reading classics. I almost always find them too slow and don’t like the characters. And that was the case again with this one. I thought it was going to be very gothic and creepy and have a ghost story element and I was seriously disappointed. The plot was good, I like the story but I didn’t really get into the book until the last 150 pages, and with a 400 page book that’s a slowwwww lead up to some good stuff. 3/5 stars.

When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole: Alyssa is a well known romance writer and this was her first dip into the thriller genre. I really liked this book, but the most thrilling part was the ending, the rest was just very suspenseful. This book sucked me in and had me reading all night to finish at 1 am. But don’t go into it thinking it’s scary. There was also an eye-opening historical aspect to the one about the gentrification of a previously Black neighbourhood by a group of white people, backed by a pharma company. Overall a great book by a strong Black female writer. 4/5 stars.

Don’t Look For Me by Wendy Walker: This was my first WW and she did not disappoint. The story was written from two perspectives, the mother being held captive and the daughter looking for her. The timeline jumps around a lot but it’s clearly stated where you are and easy to follow. The thrill was there, the creeping me out factor was definitely there, and I also stayed up way too late to finish this one. 5/5 stars.

The Wicked Hour by Alice Blanchard: This is the second book in a series with the main character Detective Natalie Lockhart it releases December 1. The first book is called Trace of Evil. I used this book as my witchy book prompt because the main town in the series, Burning Lake, has covens of modern day witches, they practice Wicca and it’s a common theme in both books. Natalie is a strong female character, even though she suffers a lot of trauma in book one. She’s still an excellent detective and she is on the hunt for another murderer in book 2. Overall another great police procedural from Blanchard. 4/5 stars.

The Invited by Jennifer McMahon: I really liked this one! I basically read it in two days and stayed up late the second day to finish it. It’s got witches and ghosts and a town filled with rumours of ghost sightings and people practicing witchcraft. I loved the main character Helen because she was a history buff and very relatable to me. She also was very open minded and didn’t freak out the first time she saw a ghost in her house, she just watched her to see what she would do. So chill. I highly recommend this thriller if you like ghost stories and books with a little bit of witchy magic. 4.5/5 stars.

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite: Set in Lagos, Nigeria this one follows the lives of two sisters. Ayoola is a serial killer, killing her boyfriends when she’s done with them, and Kerode cleans up the mess. But when Ayoola meets Kerode’s crush and goes on a date with him things get complicated. This was a great little thriller, short chapters and a fun plot. I flew through it and would recommend to any beginner thriller or more mild thriller fans. 3.5/5 stars.

One by One by Ruth Ware: This was the book I chose for my favourite thriller author. This was a thriller set at a mountain ski chalet. A company retreat goes all together, there’s an avalanche and they get stuck together in the chalet. Then they start dying one by one and no one can figure out who the murderer is. This was a fast pace read with short chapters again. I think that is key for me to read a thriller quickly. I found this one a little predictable but I still really enjoyed it. 4/5 stars.