Book Reviews: October 2026

It’s October, so I’m doing my horror-themed read as usual, except this year, the books are more horror-adjacent than straight-up horror. It’s a fun variation of a theme, so here we go:

Dead Beat by Leigh Bardugo:

This is the most “traditional” Halloween read of the bunch. It’s the finale of the Ninth House trilogy, but it’s been three years since I read the previous installment (Hell Bent), so I had to re-read that just to follow what’s going on in this one – never a good sign (it’s also why I only managed three books this month. Basically, I read 4 books, but one of them is a re-read). Anyway, this one follows our heroes as they try to close the gates of Hell (which they left open after their adventures in Hell Bent) and stop demons from taking over the world, while also figuring out what the secret magical societies of Yale are doing behind the scenes. It’s… just OK. The pacing is all over the place – it drags in some places and rushes in others; the ending feels really, really easy after the literal Hell the characters went through in the previous books; and even though I’ve spent the last 2 books screaming for the two leads to get together, when they do get together here, it feels very anticlimactic to me. (Apparently, it was supposed to be a 7-book series that got condensed into 3 books, which explains some of the weird pacing.) The wrap-up is satisfying enough, but ultimately it’s a disappointment. 3/5

Mourner for Hire by Caitlin Moss:

A romance about a woman hired to attend strangers’ funerals sounds like the perfect Halloween read, which is why I picked this up (and the FMC’s job is not that weird – in our culture, we do have something called “hired mourner” who would show up at funerals crying their eyes out to show off how beloved the deceased was.) Unfortunately, this one suffers from a case of having too many ideas – first, the two leads almost have a one-night stand; then the MMC finds out FMC is a mourner for hire contracted to attend his mother’s funeral and thinks she’s a con artist; then the mother puts the FMC in her will and hires her to renovate the family’s beach cottage (this one really has me scratching my head, I guess the author runs out of ways for the two leads to spend time together); then the mother is also a ghost haunting the FMC, forcing her to uphold her end of the contract. It’s too much. Plus, it’s very insta-love, which I hate, and it also makes the hostility between the two leads feel very forced. Plus, it’s so repetitive – they keep snapping and sneering at each other for over 2/3 of the book without anything happening, and then it all gets resolved just like that. I wish the book had just stuck with the “mourner for hire” idea and tossed everything else. 1.5/5

Morbidly Curious by Coltan Scrivner:

This is a bit different – a non-fiction book that explains the science behind our love for horror. It’s interesting stuff, but the writing feels repetitive. The author’s thesis is that our “morbid curiosity” is vital to our survival as a species, but he never really goes deeper than that and explains why we seek out horror not only to learn from it, but also for enjoyment and entertainment. Plus, the writing is kind of dry – not dry as in academic and technical, but dry as in boring. 2/5