October TBR: Hocus Pocus Readathon Edition

As per tradition, at least the tradition of the last four years ago, I will be taking part in a Halloween/Hocus Pocus themed readathon! This readathon is one of my favorites and I will link to the website at the end of this post but here, in the body of the post, I am going to tell you what books I plan to read and what prompt they fulfill.

For the readathon there are three teams: Team Sanderson Sisters, Team Trick or Treaters, and Team Undead. I have actually chosen a different team each year but will be returning to Team Sanderson Sisters this year basically just because I like their prompts best. There is a particular book that everyone who participates is supposed to read and then seven different prompts per team with a few little extras.

Here are the prompts!

1. Read a witchy book or a book with magical characters!
   • Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
   • I am choosing to read a book that I’ve actually owned for several years now. It was on my birthday wish list when it was new back in 2020. It’s all about Latinx culture and brujo and brujo magic and is also about trans representation, mystery, and romance and just sounds like an all around cute little Halloween-y type story to read.
2. Read a cookbook or a book with food on the cover.
   • The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
     • I’ve really been getting into Grady Hendrix’s creepy books lately and I’ve also owned this one for awhile.
     • With peaches on the cover and the promise of blood I thought it would fit perfectly for the spooky season.
3. Read a coming of age novel.
   • The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
   • There’s a lot of discussion about what does and does not qualify as a coming of age novel. This one was on a list that I found and the trilogy has been on my TBR for quite some time as well.
   • It’s all about the fae!
   • Yet another book that I’ve owned for awhile and haven’t managed to get to yet.
   • (Honestly, I think October is just going to be a month for me to finally read books that I actually own. Maybe I should just do that the whole rest of the year too.)
4. Read a book about siblings, or read a book about a group of friends.
   • The Sacrifice Box by Martin Stewart
   • I found this one on a list of books to read if you were missing Stranger Things and it’s all about a group of friends that reunite after having drifted apart so it fits the bill about friend groups. Only it’s supposed to be a little bit creepy and haunting so yet another fit for the spooky season.
   • Guess what I’m going to add now? Yep, I own this one too.
5. Read a book about magic and curses, or read a book from the perspective of the villain.
   • The Wicked King by Holly Black
   • This trilogy is all about magic and villainous characters so yay!
   • (And I have a boxed set of this trilogy that I’ve had for awhile, so yes once again, I own this book.)
6. Read a book about a necromancer, or a book about the undead.
   • Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
   • This series is literally about sexy necromancers so this gives me the perfect excuse to read it.
   • Also, guess how long it’s been on my Kindle?
7. To celebrate, watch the movie! Hocus Pocus or Hocus Pocus 2!

And a couple little extra things because each team in this readathon has an additional strength and weakness just to make it a little more interesting.

Strength: You can steal a prompt from another team and switch it with one of your own! ( I chose NOT to do this.)

Weakness: For the first five days of the readathon, you can only read at night. (I usually have two or more books going at once, so if I want to read earlier in the day on those days, I’ll read something else.)