October Reading Recommendations

Patricia Leslie
Nov 10
4 min read

It’s time for my October Reading Recommendations recap!

Four book covers. Left to right: The Lost bookshop cover depicts four shelves of a bookcase with a miniature yellow house tucked in between books on the shelf 2nd from top. around the books are vines with green and yellow leaves. The Lost boy cover is a cream background with silhouettes of a boy, a hook and a smaller figure sitting on top of the hook. Veil cover background is dark and moody woods with a ghostly bride in the foreground. The Lepers Garden cover is a light blue background with a red rose through the title and illustrated roses in four corners. — *The Lost Bookshop* by Evie Woods, *Lost Boy* by Christina Henry, *Veil* by Jeff Clulow, *The Leper's Garden and other contagions* by Jeff Clulow.

Another month of great reading! My October reading recommendations are below. I post each weekly reading recs on Facebook and Instagram first so follow me there to see them as they go live.

Pile of books with The Lost bookshop on top. Cover depicts four shelves of a bookcase with a miniature yellow house tucked in between books on the shelf 2nd from top. around the books are vines with green and yellow leaves. — I loved *The Lost Bookshop* by Evie Woods.

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

⭐⭐⭐⭐

How far will you go to find your story?

The Lost Bookshop was my book club’s choice for August. Unfortunately, I was away that week and missed out but bought the book anyway. I’m so glad I did. I loved it!

Mysterious bookshop, a lost Bronte manuscript, a tree growing in the basement… What’s not to love about that!

Magical realism is a favourite genre of mine. Woods melded it with historical fiction (my other favourite genre), threw in a dual timeline and produced a riveting novel that brings in the founders of the “Shakespeare & Company” bookshop in Paris (including a couple of the famous authors noted for their regular visits), London bookdealers, Trinity University and Dublin Laneways. Each of the main characters, Opaline, Martha and Henry, move beyond their broken pasts as they search for meaning, connection and, of course, that missing bookshop and manuscript.

I would like to learn more about this mysterious bookshop and Mrs Bowden – maybe in a future publication by Evie Woods?

Themes include, love and trust, pushing boundaries, family abuse and alcoholism, and violence.

Pile of books with Lost Boy on top. cover has a cream background and depicts silhouettes of a boy, a hook and a smaller figure sitting on top of the hook. — *The Lost Boy* by Christina Henry will take you back to the beginning of the Peter Pan myth.

Lost Boy by Christina Henry

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Last week I picked up a couple of free paperbacks from Shoalhaven Libraries (who can pass up a reading freebie, I ask you?). Lost Boy was one of them and a fantastic choice! What a great adventure and backstory to the characters and landscape of Never Never Land!

I don’t want to give anything away just be prepared to start if not quite from the very beginning of the “Peter Pan” world, then at least well before the arrival of Wendy and her brothers (and forget the Disneyfied versions). This origin story of J. M. Barrie’s classic tale is a darker more disturbing tale than Mr Barrie may ever have imagined.

Peter brings boys from the “Other Place” to be his friends, have wild adventures, battle, and raid. Jamie is his first friend. The two boys played in the woods, mountains, and bays of the island for many years before they started bringing in other lost boys to join in their violent form of play.

Never Never Land (known in this story simply as ‘the Island’) is a wilder, more mysterious place than the one most of us are familiar with. Yes, still with Mermaids and Pirates but others as well. For instance, the Many-Eyed creatures who’d as soon eat you as do just about anything else.

Themes include, friendship, loyalty, betrayal, violence, loneliness, growing up.

Veil book cover background is dark and moody woods with a ghostly bride in the foreground. The surrounding illustrations features a stormy sky and sea with a tall shop on the right hands side, debris below the book and a ghostly bride figure partially covering the bottom of the book. — *Veil* by Jeff Clulow. Modern day gothic horror!

Veil by Jeff Clulow

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Jeff Clulow’s, novel, Veil, is a true gothic horror. It is all here. Spooky house with ghosts, betrayal, forbidden love, hidden stories, an insane asylum, and some truly wild weather.

Clulow brings it all to life inside the crumbling walls of Aeolus House. Perched on a cliff top above Storm Bay, the old Victorian house was once a boutique hotel designed specifically for storm watchers. It has some amazing architectural detail!

After the hotel closed, it became home to the dwindling Lacey family. Enter Suze Newman, abandoned at birth, she grew up in the foster system, unloved and unwanted. Suze has been identified as the last living Lacey family heir. With nothing to lose, she travels out to Storm Bay to claim her inheritance and discover why her mother left her.

Clulow’s writing is original and descriptive. He draws the reader into his world with ease, clarity, and some superbly crafted settings. The riddles of Suze Newmans past, her mother's insanity, and her grandfather's depravity are woven together through glimpses of a single day some thirty years ago. Glimpses that only come through the donning of a faded and ragged wedding veil.

The Lepers Garden bookcover is a light blue background with a red rose through the title and illustrated roses in four corners. It is featured at the centre of an illusatration showing a woman with long dark flowing hair, head bowed, and wearing a dark outfit. There are orange poppies hovering around her. — *The Leper's Garden and other contagions* by Jeff Clulow is an original collection of short horror stories.

The Lepers Garden: and other Contagions by Jeff Clulow

⭐⭐⭐

The Lepers Garden: and other Contagions is a cleverly written, and quite original, collection of short stories. Each of the eleven stories is unique with settings ranging from Hong Kong to Victorian London and various locations in between.

Author, Jeff Clulow explores dark romance, grief, war, fear, PTSD, weird science, demon-possessed books, revenge, and otherworldly love. The collection is a mix of supernatural, horror, and historical, each story separate from the other, each its own clever twist on a theme.

I want to tell you more, but I think it’s best you discover these creative stories for yourself. Even if you’re not “into” horror fiction, do give The Lepers Garden a try. It’s not all horror all the time and could be the start of you widening your reading horizons.

If you enjoyed my October Reading Recs Recap, subscribe for all my reviews as they're posted and follow me on social media.

Facebook and Instagram