Now, I know we’re halfway through November already, but I just remembered we’d not discussed Halloween this year on The BBB. Let’s change that now.

What did we read?

Kate and I both read Dracula in October (spilling over into November for Kate) and we had polar opinions on it! Here is my review for what I deem a new favourite and Kate thinks took up a little too much of her time.

DRACULA by Bram Stoker

Becca’s review:

I loved this so much, and I don’t really like old books set in the 1800s or even early 1900s. But I wanted to read this classic and it was on my 100 books scratch poster, so I gave it a go. So glad I did, I read it really quickly and enjoyed every second of it.

It starts with Jonathon Harker going on a work trip to Transylvania to stay with a client of his firm, Count Dracula. He is warned on his way there by many people he passes, but he has a job to do and goes anyway. Once there he is charmed by Count Dracula and enjoys his company, although slightly odd – he never sees him eat, and he is only awake during the night – he seems harmless enough, if a bit eccentric.

When Harker doesn’t return to his fiancé and job, back in London, people start to get worried. Eventually he does return, but he is a broken man and cannot function properly anymore. With help from his friends he starts to get better and all seems to be on the up until he sees, one day, Count Dracula in London.

Plenty of other bits happen, it’s a very detailed story, with so many threads, but overall the theme I found most prevalent was that of friendship.

Jonathon Harker, his fiancé Mina, her good friend Lucy and her husband Arthur, their friends Jon and Quincey and of course the infamous Dr Van Helsing – all work together to get rid of the blood sucking vampire known as Count Dracula. Traipsing across Europe to find and destroy him, it is an adventure like none I have read before.

I’ve never been interested in watching the film, and I don’t think I want to watch it now. The book was just fantastic and I can see myself re reading it in the future. A worthy classic.

Another book I read over Hallowen month was The Exorcist. Again I absolutely loved it! (I don’t think I could pay Kate enough money to try that one out!) Here’s what I thought:

THE EXORCIST by William Peter Blatty

Becca’s review:

I’d wanted to read THE EXORCIST for quite a while, and was thrilled to get it this year as a bookswap with a mate. I read it in spooky month so I had the right feels around me and I’m actually really glad I did – it helped with the atmosphere.

I think everyone knows the main premise of the book – a girl gets possessed by the devil and an exorcist comes to get rid of it. That’s pretty much it. But so much more.

Regan is an 11 year old girl who lives with her actress mum in a big house near where her mum is shooting a movie. They’ve got a couple of housekeepers and a nanny/tutor and everyone gets along just fine. After a little while, and Regan having a few games on the Ouija board, Chris, her mum, starts to notice odd things happening – like furniture moving inexplicable, or Regan’s room being ice cold even with the heating on. She doesn’t think too much of it, until the symptoms start to get pretty extreme and it’s time to call in the exorcist.

I love this book, and the thing I loved about it was the thing that was running through the book the whole time; Chris’s love for her daughter. She has such an unconditional, all consuming love for her daughter and will stop at nothing to get her better and back to the way she was mean to be. Everything she does, she does for her, and you can see her anguish and hopelessness throughout the book. You can feel her heart breaking and her world crashing down because her daughter is so ‘unwell’. I think this was the biggest surprise and the best thing about this book.

It was scary – at first – but after the initial scare it happens again and is a little less so. Also, I have seen the film so knew kind of what was going to happen in terms of the horrible bits. Although I was hoping for a few more scares, I wasn’t disappointed enough to let it hamper my enjoyment.

Overall a fantastic horror book, and I think I would read this one again!

What did we do?

Kate and I have a tradition each Halloween where we watch terrible mock horror films and have fireworks in my garden. We eat crappy foods and switch all the lights off – thus making sure no pesky kids knock on the door wanting sweets 🙂

This year our film of choice was – ZOMBEAVERS – if you’ve not heard of it, which you won’t have, don’t look it up. It was as terrible as it sounds. We loved it! We tried KILLER SOFA after that and didn’t even manage to get half way through it was so bad- but in a different way to Zombeavers.

Did we dress up? No. We didn’t. Sometimes we do, and sometimes we don’t – it’s not a requisite for our nights of ghoulish fun.

What’s next?

Well next on the reading agenda is all things Christmas! Of course I’ll be reading my usual thrillers and Kate will be reading her usual fantasy – but what we both have in common in the book world is our love of a great Christmas book. I’m currently reading ALWAYS, IN DECEMBER by Emily Stone from Headline (Thanks to them for our gifted copy). So far so good, but watch out on the blog for a review nearer to Christmas.

We’ve got other Christmas books lined up for the season and can’t wait to dive into them. If you have any recommendations we’d love to hear them.

So, that was Halloween, and we are now firmly into Christmas so wrap up warm everyone and get cosy with a mug of hot choc and a festive read or two while we count down the days until the big day!!! Let us know what you did for Halloween in the comments? If you’ve read either of our Halloween reads? What you thought? Or just let us know what you’re reading now.

Chat soon and happy reading!

Becca and Kate

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