• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About Me
    • Connect With Me
    • Request An Honest Review
    • Beta Reading Requests
    • Testimonials
  • Book Review Archive
    • Book Review Archive
    • Audiobook Review Archive
    • Spooky Children’s Book Review Archive
  • Interview Archive
  • Referral Links
  • Podcast Recs
  • Policies
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Bloglovin
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter

Erica Robyn Reads

a horror book review blog

[Wrap-Up] October 2020

November 1, 2020      Erica Robyn      8 Comments

Oh October! This is my favorite month. While it flew by, I still had a wonderful month overall.

We got a lot done around the house again this month! The two biggest projects were getting 8 trees cut down and replacing the supports in our basement.

I also hung up new artwork in my office/library and I’m so in love with how this turned out:

My major highlight of the month was that I did something that was WAY out of my comfort zone and I still can’t believe it! I got to talk to two of my favorite podcasters and one of my favorite authors, Hunter Shea, on the Dead Headspace podcast! After the show, I also got to chat with the podcast hosts for a bit. I love these guys so very much! The episode launched October 22nd.

This month I was also finally able to get some answers as to why I’ve been so darn exhausted all the time. I think I hit an all time low this month… I took a week of vacation where I thought I was going to be able to recover, but it seemed to just get worse and worse. I’ve been sleeping for 8-10 hours a night, and throughout the day, I could lay down and fall asleep at any moment. My bloodwork showed that I have Hashimoto’s, so I’m going to talk to a specialist soon. In the meantime, I’ve started researching to see what I can to lifestyle and diet-wise.

This finally made me take a step back and revaluate things. One huge step was putting in my notice at my second job. For the first time in years, I will soon have just one job, other than my project based photography work of course. This was not an easy decision and all, and I still feel like I’m in a bit of a mourning period. I love my boss and all the work I do for her, but I definitely need to cut back and have fewer plates spinning.

My Reading Breakdown for October:

  • 5 Stars – 9
    • A Bright Enchanted Suffering by Eric LaRocca
    • Autumncrow by Cameron Chaney
    • Comanche by Brett Riley
    • Dead Meat: Day 5 by Nick Clausen
    • Food Fright by Nico Bell
    • Ghost Mine by Hunter Shea
    • Halloween Season by Lucy A. Snyder
    • The Little Kitten by Nicola Killen
    • Misfits by Hunter Shea
  • 4 Stars – 2
    • Eddie & The Lizard Man by Stefan Liner and Robin Liner, Illustrated by Josef Liner
    • Exploring Dark Short Fiction #5: A Primer to Han Song edited by Eric J. Guignard
  • 3 Stars – 0
  • 2 Stars – 0
  • 1 Star – 0
  • DNF – 0

Monthly Musings

Watching:

Scare Me (2020 Film)- 4/5
YES! This was SUCH a good horror comedy!! I did not expect it to go where it kept twisting and turning! I highly recommend this one!

Re-Animator (1985 Film) – 1/5
When am I going to learn… anything Lovecraft I need to pass on. Jesus Christ. This one had decent gore filled effects, but everything else was awful.

Hubie Halloween (2020 Film) | Netflix – 2/5
I’m just not a huge fan of this type of comedy. I gave this a go with my husband. One scene made us laugh REALLY hard (the scene with the black cat that makes a facial expression), but I didn’t care much for the rest.

The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020 Series) | Netflix – 2/5
This was okay. I enjoyed it well enough while we were watching but I wouldn’t rewatch or recommend it. I loved the actors though. They did an amazing job.

Halloween (1978 Film) | Shudder – 5/5
I cannot believe it took me this long to get to this series! I LOVED THIS ONE SO MUCH!

Halloween II (1981 Film) | Shudder – 5/5
I’m a huge fan of how this merge seamlessly from the first film! Another intense one!

Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (1982 Film) | Amazon Rental – 4/5
While taking a sharp turn that I wasn’t expecting, I still had a lot of fun watching this one!

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988 Film) | Amazon Rental – 4/5
Ooooh boy! This one was intense!

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989 Film) | Shudder – 5/5
I LOVE THIS ONE!

Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995 Film) | Shudder – 5/5
LOVE LOVE LOVE this one!

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998 Film) | AMC On Demand – 5/5
I loved this one so much! Phew, did this one get brutal!!

Halloween Resurrection (2002 Film) | AMC On Demand – 4/5
I loved this one, but the shaky camera movements forced me to look away quite a bit because it was making me wicked nauseous.

Ginger Snaps (2000 Film) | Shudder – 4/5
This was mush more gore-filled than I was expecting it to be! A solid werewolf film!

Creepshow (1982 Anthology) – 5/5
I LOVED this horror comedy anthology film so much! Seeing Stephen King in the second story ruled, and in the third, what a cast! Phew, this was quite the collection of tales! I would definitely return to some of these tales.

House Of Wax (2005 Film) | Shudder – 5/5
My god I forgot how much I loved this movie! What a cast, and that SOUNDTRACK! But man the body horror here is difficult to watch. Even so, it’s got my favorite death out of any horror movie!

Ghost Ship (2002 Film) | AMC On Demand – 5/5
God I love this movie!! That opening scene is nuts.

The Crazies (2010 Film) | AMC On Demand – 5/5
Maybe not the best moving to watching while we’re still in a pandemic… But this one is so darn good.

Village of the Damned (1995 Film) | AMC On Demand – 4/5
I can’t believe I have never watched this one! Especially where Kirstie Alley is in it!

Cursed Films (2020 Documentary Series) | Shudder – 4/5
Phew, the last episode in this series was difficult to watch. I had no idea about the awful accident that happened on set of The Twilight Zone movie!

Friday the 13th (1980) | AMC On Demand – 3/5
After watching this one, I was very confused as to why this is such a hit with horror fans. Then we realized that the version we watched was edited, so we didn’t see most of the deaths… D’oh. Even so, I didn’t love this one, but I’m curious to see where the tale goes.

Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) | AMC On Demand – 2/5
I’m calling it with this series. Maybe I’ll try again later, but I did not care for this one.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) | AMC On Demand – 5/5
I LOVED THIS SO MUCH. Ugh man I can’t believe it took me this long to watch!

A Nightmare on Elm Street  2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) | AMC On Demand – 4/5
This one was fun! I loved the main actress and how determined she was to have her boyfriend fight back!

A Nightmare on Elm Street  3: Dream Warriors | Amazon Rental (1987) – 5/5
I LOVED this one!! Man this one was extra dark. I’m not sure if the first two I had watched were edited in any way since I watched a TV version. But the puppet scene of this one…that is something I will never forget. There was a bit too much spinning in this one for me, but I loved the plot and all of the characters. Patricia Arquette was wonderful!

A Nightmare on Elm Street  4: The Dream Master (1988) | AMC On Demand – 5/5
SUCH a fun one! I loved this one so much. Though I am bummed to see Patricia Arquette wasn’t back here. 

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 : The Dream Child (1989) | AMC On Demand – 4/5
Oh my, this one was quite bizarre! Not my favorite of the bunch, but still great.

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) | AMC On Demand- 3/5
That first dream sequence, oh my goodness! This one was very heavy with the comedy element of the comedy horror, and light on the horror.

Playing:

Nothing this month.

Drinking:

I have a new favorite beer to keep an eye out for!! Founders Green Zebra. This was SO darn good.

This month I got to go to a wonderful beer release event with some friends and tried their new sour!

This month I was given a lovely bottle of wine. I’m very picky about wine, but this one was wonderful to have a glass here and there throughout the month.

Listening to:

I’ve been getting caught up on my podcasts again! I fell wicked behind.

Speaking of podcasts, click below to listen to the episode of Dead Headspace that I guest hosted on with an interview with Hunter Shea!

Also in October, my shout out for Creature by Hunter Shea was included in Episode 79: Halloween Freezer Book Special of the Books In The Freezer podcast!

In the bookish community:

My blurb was featured on part of the amazing What’s In a Name? series hosted by Lauren Becker of Shooting Stars Mag. Check it out here!

THE CHALK MAN BY CJ TUDOR IS GOING TO BE A SIX PART SERIES ON BBC!!

This comment just made my month! 🙂

Monthly bookish related haul:

My Flame Tree Press order from the 4th of July finally arrived! I was also sent a TON of review copies both from Flame Tree and for upcoming blog tours!

My favorite bookish photos this month:

Autumncrow by Cameron Chaney book photo by Erica Robyn Reads
Food Fright by Nico Bell book photo by Erica Robyn Reads
Misfits by Hunter Shea book photo by Erica Robyn Reads

In case you missed it:

  • Feature: Dead Headspace Guest Hosting
  • 6 November 2020 Book Releases I Can’t Wait To Read
  • October 2020 Night Worms Unboxing
  • [Wrap-Up] September 2020

Looking forward to: 

November isn’t my favorite month but I’m looking forward to practicing some things that my therapist has given me assignments for. I’ve been focusing mostly on not letting my perfectionist tendencies get the best of me with little things and cutting back on how much I have on my plate.

Thanks for reading!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Angela says

    November 1, 2020 at 7:59 pm

    I’m glad you’ve gotten some health answers and are taking steps to improve your daily life!

    Reply
    • Erica Robyn says

      November 3, 2020 at 9:10 pm

      Thank you! <3 <3 I cannot wait to talk to the specialist and hopefully start feeling better soon!

      Reply
  2. ShootingStarsMag says

    November 2, 2020 at 7:37 am

    I’m glad that you finally have some health answers – hopefully you can find things that will help and make you feel better. I’m sorry to hear you had to let go of your second job though since you love it so much. I’m sure it’ll be good in the long run, but it’s still a bummer!

    Congrats on co-hosting the podcast. How fun! And that Twitter comment from the author is so fab!!! And aw, thanks for linking up to my post!! I love hearing stories behind blog names. 🙂

    -Lauren

    Reply
    • Erica Robyn says

      November 3, 2020 at 9:12 pm

      <3 <3 Thank you! I'm still definitely in the mourning period as I'm transitioning out of the job, but I know you're exactly right! Once I'm officially done I'm sure I'll need a bit to get over it and then I will be fine :)

      And right?! I still can't believe it!! And of course! I love that series that you're hosting so much!

      Reply
  3. Olivia-Savannah Roach says

    November 3, 2020 at 3:40 am

    Wow! I love that you read only five and four star books last month, with most of them being five. And yay for watching lots of spooky things! It’s good that you managed to figure out why you are always exhausted but yes, cutting down and stepping back is so hard. Especially when you love what you do 🙁

    Reply
    • Erica Robyn says

      November 3, 2020 at 9:26 pm

      <3 <3

      Reply
  4. Lauren @ Always Me says

    November 5, 2020 at 9:23 pm

    Looks like you got in a lot of great horror movies! I hate to admit it, but I’ve only ever seen the first two Halloween movies…

    Reply
    • Erica Robyn says

      November 23, 2020 at 6:10 pm

      I sure did! I’ve been slacking a bit this month so far, but I’m so grateful for all the movies I was able to watch! 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Hello there!

Erica Robyn of Erica Robyn Reads
I run on hot tea, good books, and loud music. She/Her.
 

Search This Blog

Sign Up For Post Notifications


Loading

Recent Popular Posts

  • [Book Review] Try Again by Wesley Southard
  • [Book Review] Shades of the Black Stone by Wile E. Young
  • 7 July 2022 Book Releases I Can’t Wait To Read
  • [Book Review] The Razorblades in my Head by Donnie Goodman
  • [Book Review] H is for Hell Anthology

An Easy Guide to Locating Horror Reviews Without Losing Your Mind created by Lori of Barks At The Ghouls
Shirley's Book Blogger List
Ultimate List of the Best Book Review Blogs by Kindlepreneur

Categories

ericarobynreads

Sickness Is In Season by Aiden Merchant has everyt Sickness Is In Season by Aiden Merchant has everything a horror fan craves! From light and spooky, to full-blown spine-chilling terror, this collection of short stories is a killer mix.

No matter what your personal favorite sub-genre of horror is, you’ll be sure to find something that sinks its teeth into you within this collection!

#supporthorror #promotehorror #sicknessisinseason #aidenmerchant #crossroadspresss #horrorbookrecs #horrorshortstories #horrorbookstagram
My April book haul 😍🖤🙌 My April book haul 😍🖤🙌
NH friends! Don’t miss the book event with @greg NH friends! Don’t miss the book event with @gregorybastianelli.author tonight in Exeter at @waterstreetbooks! 

I’m SO peeved my back pain flared up and I can’t drive out… but I am so excited that Waterstreet Books sent a signed copy my way! 😍

I can’t wait to see photos from the event!!
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling is a totally The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling is a totally captivating but nerve-wracking tale that is certainly not for those that fear tight spaces… While reading this tale, I felt so horribly claustrophobic. But I couldn’t stop. I had to find out what happened next!

#supporthorror #promotehorror #ladiesofhorrorfiction #horrorbookstagram #horrorbookrecs #theluminousdead #caitlinstarling
The Workshop of Filthy Creation by Richard Gadz is The Workshop of Filthy Creation by Richard Gadz is a chilling gothic horror story about what it means to be human. In these pages, you will see plenty of the darkness that humanity can create, but you will also see the light!

Ready to dive into a dark and dreary tale about gruesome medical practices set in Victorian London? Go pick up The Workshop of Filthy Creation today! I can’t wait for you all to meet Maria!

#supporthorror #promotehorror #gothichorrorreads #horrorbookrecs #theworkshopoffilthycreation #richardgadz #horrorbookstagram
Max is one of the most hilarious people that I fol Max is one of the most hilarious people that I follow on Twitter! I originally learned who he was after seeing him participate in the KillerCon 2020 Virtual Event. I went to follow him and his publishing house, Perpetual Motion Machine (that he runs with Lori Michelle), immediately after his reading.

Within the PMM publishing house, they also have the imprint, Ghoulish Books, which launched in January of 2022. Max’s latest book, Maggots Screaming!, launched today April 12th, 2022 from that imprint. In celebration, I’m so excited to be sharing this interview with Max!

Check out the full interview on my blog today! 

#horrorauthor #horrorauthorinterview #maxboothiii #supporthorror #promotehorror
Diaries of the Damned by Ivan Radev is a collectio Diaries of the Damned by Ivan Radev is a collection of tales that span numerous dark fears. But as always, even in the darkness, there’s a bit of light.

In the foreword, the author warns that this is a book of fears, and boy does he play on fears wonderfully! Each tale is presented to readers in the first person to really get readers in the characters shoes. Please use caution here when you dive in. The author does not shy away from the darkness.

Phew, this read will take readers on quite the journey! It was the perfect read for a dark and rainy spring weekend.

#bookreview #horrorbookreview #horrorbookstagram #diariesofthedamned #IvanRadev #horrorbooks
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2022 Erica Robyn Reads