i’m a week late with the post but it is here finally! october was a very eventful month and i got to read more mystery/thriller novels and even discovered some books i absolutely ended up loving! here is my monthly wrap-up for october:
the guest list by lucy foley was the first read of october and it was a strong start. i loved the darkness in the setting, the multiple points of view unveiling the mystery and the foley’s ability to develop multiple characters’ stories and personalities without shifting the focus of the plot or making a complete mess. it is definitely up there with my all-time favourites so i highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good dark murder mystery! the next book i read was to kill a mockingbird by harper lee. it was a very slow but sweet read. it is not the kind of book i usually enjoy reading but i enjoyed it nevertheless. 
and then there were none by agatha christie was a very underwhelming book for me with the ending being quite disappointing. the mystery was written well but it was not my favourite book by christie. the next book i read was haunting of the hill house which i’ve wanted to read forever and i finally got a chance to pick it up thanks to my book club selecting this in the spirit of october. the horror elements were really good with the house being completely creepy but i did not enjoy it as much i thought i would because of the characters. the book was very character-centric and they were not developed well enough to keep me engaged in their story. 
dark roads by chevy stevens started off absolutely amazing with a dark mystery and strong characters but quickly started spiraling downward soon after. the plot heavily starts to center around characters who were present only for a few pages about whom we know nothing about and are forced to suddenly care about them. the focus also shifts from the mystery to the romance between said secondary characters which was also quite annoying. nice girls by catherine dang was a book that aimed to focus on a murder mystery while commenting on the personalities and relationships between women. it had so much potential but in my opinion, the multiple plot points ended up making the book a little bit of a mess with poorly developed characters and a half-assed murder mystery. the protagonist was also despicable (which is something i usually do not mind as i do love unredeemable characters) but was played off as some sort of saint which made it a bit harder to continue reading. 
to break a covenant by alison ames was a super dark thriller with the plot focusing about the friendship between four teenage girls and how they find themselves involved in the mystery of the abandoned mine in their town which has a creepy magnetism that affects everyone in the town sort of possessing them the moment someone enters it. it was written very well with the mine being creepy and the relationships between the girls developed well enough for me to be completely invested in the story. under the whispering door by t. j. klune was another one of those books i usually do not enjoy due to its slow pace but ended up finding it not so bad. it provides an interesting narrative about how the main character who was a bit of an insensitive jerk and did not live his life in happiness finally learns how to live after death and how he eventually learns to be empathetic. the book was too long in my opinion with deep thoughts thrown at you with the turn of every page which was very overwhelming to the point where i was literally just waiting for it to end as i could not bring myself to continue to care about the characters for the length of the book. 
another foley book! the hunting party by lucy foley was a book i literally could not put down and ended up devouring it in one day. this book was foley’s first mystery and was frankly amazing in its ability to introduce multiple characters, flesh them out while focusing on the dark undertones behind the pretense each of them while developing a riveting mystery. similar to the guest list, this book centers on a group of friends who gather in an isolated cabin to celebrate new years slowly dropping their pretence and revealing their ugly, true selves with their getaway completely ruined when one of them gets murdered. i loved it so much and again, cannot recommend enough to mystery lovers! 
i was reading the cruel prince by holly black and all these bodies by kendare blake during the end of october but am done reading them by the time i could get this post out (now). i plan to share my thoughts about these soon so stay tuned!
did you read any of these books or are they on your tbr? post the link to your monthly wrap-up below so i can check out the books y’all read during october and maybe discover some new books!
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These sound like some great reads. I read And Then There Were None as a teenager and was so spooky back then.
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it definitely was spooky!
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