Halloween Gift & Reading Guide Part 1
Halloween is my favorite holiday! I love all things witchy and spooky. I look forward to Halloween all year. I start planning my costume and how I want to decorate the house in August. I always do too much, but the great thing about Halloween is that it is a perfect time to go over the top.
An important part of our Halloween celebrations is reading all the spooky stories I can get my hands on. All month long I will be sharing some of my favorites and recommendations to help get you in the Halloween spirit. I’ve divided the guide into two parts, the second to be released in a few weeks. All of the books listed here are currently available on the Seaside Books online shop.
Children’s Books
Have You Seen the Dublin Vampire by Una Woods
Have you seen the Dublin Vampire by Una Woods is one of my favorite Halloween-y children’s books. My daughter Hickory loves this book too and reviewed it on our Instagram page. did a review of it over on our Instagram page. You can check out her thoughts here.
This book tells the story of the friendly Dublin Vampire as he heads out into the night to visit Bram Stoker's hometown of Dublin and it’s recognizable landmarks.
The people around him are far too busy to notice the Vampire but little readers will enjoy identifying him and his bat companion in the colorful illustrations. This is a great storybook to read together with young children and would be appropriate for young readers aged 7-10.
Young Adult Fiction
Savage Her Reply by Dierdre Sullivan
We recently finished reading this book as a family. The dark, fairytale themes make it a great pick for young adult readers looking to get in the mood for Halloween. This book is a retelling of the Children of Lir from the perspective of Aífe, the witch who turns the children into swans for 900 years.
Aífe marries Lir, a king with four children by his previous wife, Aífe's older sister. Jealous of his affection for his children, Aífe turns them into swans and suffers a curse of her own as a consequence.
I was familiar with this fairytale, but it was so unique to hear it from the perspective of the “bad guy” in the story. Especially since Sullivan writes the character and her situation with nuance and explores the guilt felt by this complex character.
All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’Donoghue
In our house, Tarot and oracle cards are an all-year-round activity, but many people choose Halloween as a time to explore this ancient tradition. Tarot is at the heart of All Our Hidden Gifts, which follows Maeve Chambers whose life changes when she discovers a dusty tarot set. We are told:
“Maeve Chambers doesn't have much going for her. Not only does she feel like the sole idiot in a family of geniuses, but she also managed to drive away her best friend Lily a year ago.
But when she finds a pack of dusty old tarot cards at school and begins to give scarily accurate readings to the girls in her class, she realizes she's found her gift at last. Things are looking up - until she discovers a strange card in the deck that definitely shouldn't be there. And two days after she convinces her ex-best friend to have a reading, Lily disappears.
Can Maeve, her new friend Fiona and Lily's brother Roe find her? And will Maeve's new gift be enough to bring Lily back, before she's gone for good?”
This book is excellent and the cover is beautiful. I will likely have a review of this book coming later this month.
Fiction
Dinner Party: A Tragedy by Sarah Gilmartin
Some of the scariest stories are the ones that bubble under the surface and tell eerie stories about regular people who have experienced horrific things. Dinner Party: A Tragedy follows Kate who has taught herself to be careful, to be meticulous. To mark the anniversary of a death in the family, she plans a dinner party – from the fancy table settings to the perfect Baked Alaska waiting in the freezer. Yet by the end of the night, old tensions have flared, the guests have fled, and Kate is spinning out of control.
But all we have is ourselves, her father once said, all we have is family.
Set between the 1990s and the present day, from a farmhouse in Carlow to Trinity College, Dublin, Dinner Party is a dark, sharply observed debut that thrillingly unravels into family secrets and tragedy. As the past catches up with the present, Kate learns why, despite everything, we can’t help returning home.
This story is unsettling and gripping as we unfold the drama and trauma held within one Irish family.
I Want to Know That I Will Be Okay by Dierdre Sullivan
This short story collection is full of dark and suspenseful stories that play with elements of magical realism and horror. I loved this book so much, I wrote an entire blog post about it. You can check that out here for my full thoughts. This collection explores the trauma and power that reside in women’s bodies:
“A teenage girl tries to fit in at a party held in a haunted house, with unexpected and disastrous consequences. A mother and daughter run a thriving online business selling antique dolls, while their customers get more than they bargained for. And after a stillbirth, a young woman discovers that there is something bizarre and wondrous growing inside of her.
With empathy and invention, Sullivan effortlessly blends genres in stories that are by turns strange and exquisite. This is the second book recommendation in this guide from Dierdre Sullivan on this list. I love an author that isn’t afraid to explore the dark and supernatural.
Nonfiction
Foster’s Books of Irish Murder by Allen Foster
This is a great pick for true crime and history fans, this book explores some of Ireland’s most curious murder mysteries both infamous and lesser-known. Foster’s Book of Irish Murder is full of victims and monsters, heroic detectives and false leads, killers escaping justice, and mysterious unsolved cases.
From the murder of a teacher in his schoolyard and an ambush by dancing masked men, to the Sherlock Holmes-like investigation into the death of WWII veteran James McParland, and many more! Uncover the details behind strange cases, such as how an afternoon slice of cake led to James Finnegan’s demise, how one man’s dream led to a mysterious death being solved, and how a woman’s corpse seemingly fell from the sky in Clare.