Ella Saint
With Halloween on the rise, if a lighthearted, spooky mystery is what you seek this season, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna is the perfect pick. The book follows the story of Mika Moon, one of the few witches in Britain, who has to conceal her powers and avoid other witches so their powers do not blend and garner unwanted attention. Being an orphan, Mika is comfortable with being alone and she abides by the rules - with one small exception: an online account where she publishes videos posing as a witch. No one will take it seriously - or so she thinks…
For those craving a darker, more supernatural horror, Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi delves into the paranormal as the protagonist, Jamie Warren, spends more than two decades running from darkness. Haunted by a traumatic childhood and the guilt of leaving his brother behind, a series of unusual events reunites the two siblings and their childhood friends. None of them can deny the sense of fate that appears to have brought them back together.
But if horror is definitely not your genre, perhaps the small-town spicy romance in The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore will be more to your liking. Winner of the TikTok Shop Book of the Year 2024, this cozy read explores the budding relationship between Jeanie, the new owner of the Pumpkin Spice cafe, and a town local called Logan.
Asa Beckett
The 1965 novel Stoner, written by John Williams. He tells the simple story of William Stoner, born onto a farm at the turn of the 19th century, then rejecting his family’s ideals and becoming an English lecturer. We follow Stoner from his admittance to university, all the way through to his final reflections on life in the face of death
At first it would seem this book would be dull, and on the face of it the narrative is uneventful. However, as the book progresses, the very regular events of William Stoner’s life paint a picture that resonates with us all, asking us to regard our own outlook and approach to life with a new sense of care and tenderness. The genius of Stoner is how John Williams subtly transforms the average man into a testament of how we should recognise the triumph, loss, and most importantly meaning, in the small things on this journey we all go on.
Noelia Fernández Pérez - Sports Sub-Editor
What’s fall without a small-town romance? Exactly, nothing. But what if we mix small-town romance with cowboys? Then, we have the perfect autumn combination.
My obsession with The Chestnut Spring Series by Elsie Silver started when one of my friends lent me the first book. Let’s say that I finished it in one day… After this, I read the remaining four in the next few weeks.
They are fast-paced books that touch on diverse romantic tropes, such as fake engagements, found families or a single dad falling for the nanny. It sounds cliché, I know, but the way they are written makes you so attached to the characters.
This series follows the Eaton family and its close friends. They are normal people with normal lives who live on a ranch in Chestnut Springs, Alberta, Canada. Throughout the five books, you discover the struggles that each character has, and somehow, you connect with them.
If I had to choose my favourite, I would say it’s the third one. Powerless follows Jasper Gervais, a professional hockey player, and Sloane Winthrop, a prima ballerina forced to do whatever her rich dad tells her to do. What I find fascinating about this book is how two people in a relationship rely on each other to resolve their problems. I hope I can experience that someday.
Keira Gratton - Arts Sub-Editor
As someone who loves to hate The Secret History, this autumn I'm instead here to recommend anything but dark academia. A fun trope on the surface, the genre is so steeped in racial prejudice and weird power fantasies that I can't read a page without making faces. If I hear one more word about how cute Henry and Camilla are...
Instead, if you're still looking for a gothic read to satisfy your academic complex, try Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. Our determined protagonist Catherine spends her stay away from Fullerton poking around rotting wings of an old castle and pushing on the doors of locked rooms. When her obsession with the supernatural starts to take priority even over her adoration for General Tilney's son, you'll start to question whether you're narrator was as reliable as you thought.
And if gothic suspense or period literature aren't you're thing, you could try Satoshi Yagisawa's Days at the Morisaki Bookshop. A cosy translated fiction set in Jimbocho, Tokyo, we watch the seasons progress as Takako languishes in her uncle's bookstore/apartment after a devastating breakup. The setting in Tokyo's iconic book town and roster of complex characters will make your seasonal burnout feel so much more normal, and remind you that new people are hiding where you least expect them.
