I love readathons. I love the reading challenges. I love trying to make TBR’s to fit the challenges. In fact, sometimes I make TBRs for readathons I’m not even able to participate it… because I’m crazy.

This October I’m planning to participate in as many as I can, starting with the RIP (Read in Peace) readathon hosted by the Creating & Co. Book Club. This book club was started by a planner shop owner and avid reader Paige Tapley (check out her blog and YouTube channel too!). This book club hosts readathons, group reads, and challenges throughout the year so I definitely recommend checking it out!

This year the RIP readathon takes place from Monday October 8th – Sunday October 14th (so there’s still time to jump in!). There are 4 reading challenges, 4 photo challenges, and a group book. The group book is A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy #1) by Deborah Harkness. I’m not going to be picking this up because I’m not a fan of the paranormal genre and there are just so many other books I want to read this month. But here are the other challenge prompts and what I’m planning to read!

1. Book with Black on the Cover

Pretty much every book on my TBR could fit into this challenge so I chose 2 options for this – 1 audiobook and 1 short(ish) physical book.

My first option is If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio – which I picked up as an audiobook on Hoopla. I’ve been meaning to read this for so long and what better time than Halloween. From what I’ve gathered this is about a Shakespearean group that turns violent. Then 10 years later, when one of the members is released from prison, he reveals the truth about what happened. I’ve heard it’s dark and creepy, which is exactly what I want this time of year.

My other option is Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero. Scooby Doo was one of my favorite shows as a kid and this is supposed to be a campy, horror reimagining of that. This book definitely has poor reviews on Goodreads (so many in fact that Did Not Finish shows up under the books genres….). But I’m going in with minimal expectations, I just want an entertaining, quick read.

 

2. Book with Keyword in Title: Dark, Shadow, Moon, or Spell

This challenge was surprisingly difficult for me! In September I went through my Goodreads TBR and created a list of all the books I thought would be perfect for October. This list ended up with 30 books on it and NOT ONE of them contained one of these words… So I had to do a little searching but I ended up choosing The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill.

This is a middle grade fantasy about a tribe that sacrifices a child to a witch every year. But the witch is actually kind. She saves the children and takes them to families on the other side of the forest. One of the children she saves is accidentally fed moonlight and gains magical powers, so the witch decides to raise the girl herself. This seems like such a whimsical read and middle grade is always so perfect for readathons.

3. Cozy Read

Like the first challenge, almost any book on my TBR could fit into this challenge. But I decided to go with And Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena. This book is supposed to be very Clue-esque and I’m all about it. This book takes place at a cozy inn nestled in the woods. A blizzard hits and guests start to turn up dead. So now they need to find out whodunit before more people die. Seriously, all the Clue vibes.

4. Creature Feature

The last challenge was another tricky one for me as I don’t read many creature heavy books. But I ended up choosing The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman on audiobook. This is another middle grade book and the audiobook is quite short (just over 8 hours) so it’s another perfect readathon choice. This is about a young boy who wanders into a graveyard after his family is brutally murdered. He then lives there and is raised by ghosts. It seems like another dark, whimsical Halloween-y book.

Alright that’s it for my TBR this week! I normally only read 2, maybe 3, books in a week so hopefully I can squeeze all these in and finish the challenges. Let me know if you’re participating in the RIP readathon too and what you’re reading!