Happy Hallowe’en! I Welcome to the dark parts of the year, when the veils between worlds of living and dead are thin, not to mention the withering days and incessant rain. We’ll fetch the nutmeg, spice our pumpkins, light candles, remember the dead, and eat.
Stories
Usually at Hallowe’en, we sprawl on the sofas and chairs around the fire, tell creepy pasta stories, and reminisce about old tales like The Goose Girl by Brothers Grimm — the absolute horror of what happens to Falada… or newer ones such as The Mother of Giants by Kirsty Logan (A Portable Shelter)
“There was a woman who loved her baby. But love is not food” –already, I’m afraid. (Kirsty Logan has written Things We Say in the Dark, and Now She is Witch, but this story is the one that chills me.)
For me, horror lives in love lost, loneliness, and the things we do. This Hallowe’en, I’ll be reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (because I never did before). Also, from the embarrassingly longstanding and huge TBR, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. Meanwhile the kids are reading Slugs by Shaun Hutson, which is hilarious.
And Bake Off. Always.
TM Upchurch 