I recently participated in a spooky Halloween readathon called Strangeathon. The challenge was to read fourteen books in two weeks which I didn’t manage at all because I was working on passing my theory driving test (I passed!) I did manage a fair few of the challenges though so I thought I would do a quick wrap up post. I’m not really going to talk about the books because I talked about most of them in my October wrap up so if you want to know more you can take a little look here!

Challenge #2 – Thriller Killer: Read a thrilling book
I picked up a little penguin classic of Shirley Jackson’s The Missing Girl and two other tales. These were thrilling unsettling tales that I absolutely flew through and I enjoyed them. Overall rating for this one was 3/5 stars.

Challenge #3 – Halloween Icon: Read a book with something iconic to Halloween on the cover
For this I read Strange Ink by Gary Kemble. It has a skeleton on the cover and it was dark and gripping and a really well done thriller. You can take a look at my full review for it here! I gave it 4/5 stars.

Challenge #6 – Horror Monster: Read a book with a creature that is often the villain
For this I read The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein as Frankenstein’s Monster is often a horror monster. I absolutely loved this book and it was one of my favourites of last months reading. I gave it 5/5 stars.

Challenge #8 – Tales From the Grave: Read a short story collection
For this I picked up some classic Edgar Allan Poe tales in The Murders In the Rue Morgue. These three tales are seen as the forerunner to well known detective stories by the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle. They were really fascinating and I gave them 3/5 stars.

Challenge #9 – Setting Fun: Read a book with a spooky location
For this challenge I completed Strange Places by Katherine Arden which was a spooky fun ghost story that I completely adored. It’s set on a haunted farm which I thought was a pretty spooky location and I gave it 5/5 stars.

Challenge #10 – Blood Red: Read a book with a red or orange cover
I had originally planned to read Last Time I Lied but I ended up reading Spellbound by Cate Tiernan which has an orangey/red cover. I’ve really been enjoying revisiting this fun witchy series and gave it 5/5 stars.

Challenge #11 – Darkness Within: Read a book in darker conditions that normal
I picked up Bram Stoker’s Dracula for this because I haven’t read it in so long. I ended up reading it on the Kindle and pretty much only read a few chapters in bed each night in the dark so that definitely counted as darker conditions than normal.

Challenge #12 – Striking Title: Read a book based purely on the title
Without a doubt I had to read The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton. The title really drew my eye and I was really excited to read this witchy tale. I enjoyed it but I didn’t connect with the characters as much as I’d hoped so I only gave this 3/5 stars.

Challenge #14 – The F-Up: Read a book that has nothing to do with Halloween
I ended up reading Sleeper: Red Storm by J. D. Fennell for this as I had a blog tour review coming up for it. I really enjoyed this action packed spy thriller and it had nothing Halloweeny about it so it fit the bill really well and I gave it 4/5 stars.

So I completed nine out of the fourteen challenges and I’m pretty pleased with that! Did you participate in any readathons in October? If you did what did you read?