Friends, can you believe it? Summerween is almost here and I am thrilled! If you don’t know, the Summerween readathon is hosted by Gabby from GabbyReads on BookTube, and it’s a readathon that takes place every summer specifically to read thriller and horror novels. This summer the readathon is running from July 5th – 12th, so there’s still plenty of time to prepare if you want to participate! This will be my 3rd Summerween and I am so excited. I look forward to it every summer (especially all the cute merch!) and I wanted to share my — not at all ambitious… — tbr with y’all!
As always, there are 5 Summerween prompts and the prompts are
- Read a book in the dark or at night
- Read a horror or thriller book
- Read a book with a sky on the cover
- Read a book you’ve owned for more than a year
- Read a novella, manga, or listen to a spooky audiobook
I have once again set a very ambitious tbr for myself, though I’m trying to think of it a little differently this year. In the past I’ve either fully completed my tbr or been like…1 or 2 books shy of completing it. This year I’m not looking to read every single book that I’m mentioning; there’s literally no way I could complete this many in the amount of time we have for Summerween combined with my work schedule. I wanted a tbr this time that would allow for mood reading and give me lots of options but will still ensure that I can complete all of the prompts. So, let’s go prompt by prompt!
I typically end up blending these two prompts since in the summertime the evenings are when I have the most time to read, and of course, we’re focusing on horror/thrillers during Summerween, so it just makes sense to combine the two!
While I’m not putting too much pressure on myself with my tbr, there are quite a few books on this list that I’m hoping to get to. I would say that one of the books I’m really hoping to get to during Summerween is my reread of The Phantom of the Opera. I last read The Phantom of the Opera 22 years ago…when I was 10 (please do not ask why I was reading Phantom when I was 10, I can’t tell you why, but I do think it explains a lot about who I am), and I’ve been meaning to reread it ever since! I have mixed feelings on the musical (I am anti-ALW all day every day) and that’s the version that I have at the forefront of my mind, so I want to reread the original story and then maybe I’ll rewatch the musical and do a compare/contrast post, who knows!
As I’m trying to read more from my physical tbr, and get that physical tbr down to 100 books by the end of the year, I’ve got a lot of books from my physical tbr on this list. Some of the ones I’m hoping to read are I’ll Be Waiting by Kelly Armstrong and Such a Bad Influence by Olivia Muenter. I’d love to read those, but I think of the books on my physical tbr that I’m going to prioritize this readathon are Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin and Famous Last Words by Gillian McAlister
And a few others that I’d like to read, or at least start during the readathon, are my reread of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, the ARC of Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham and Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson.
While the prompts “read a book in the dark or at night” and “read a horror or thriller book” are the ones that I have countless possibilities for, there’s always at least one prompt that I struggle to find something for, and this year it was two.
Oddly enough, it was hard for me to find a book to fit the prompt to read a book with a sky on the cover that I hadn’t already read or didn’t have interest in. After some searching I stumbled upon a book that I heard about a while ago that sounded interesting to me, which is Lute by Jennifer Marie Thorne. Described as an “atmospheric, unsettling folk horror novel about love, duty, and community” which sounds like something that I would love and the cover is giving me some Midsommar vibes, so obviously, I need to read it. And then literally while writing this post I realized that Tell Me What You Did by Carter Wilson has a sky on the cover, so I can also read this one for that prompt!
The other prompt that I struggled with was “read a book you’ve owned for more than a year”. I’ve realized that when it comes to horror and thriller, I tend to read them within a year or less of purchasing them, which is a good thing but it was not helpful for this prompt 🤣it took a while, but then I remembered that it has been well over a year since I bought The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert, so I’ll finally be getting around to reading it this Summerween!
I always love this prompt because I have so many options and with novellas, I can knock out multiple reads in a day which just makes me feel very accomplished and we always love that! I’ve got a few that I’d love to read that have been on my tbr for a while, including Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shriley Jackson. There’s also some novellas that are more recent to my tbr, including Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark, But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo and The Night Guest by Hildur Knutsdottier, translated by Mary Robinette Kowal.
Since these are novellas, I do think I could get to all of them throughout the readathon, but I want to prioritize the first three I listed since those have been on my tbr the longest.
I’m sure that none of you are shocked to see my very long and ambitious list of hopefuls for a week long readathon, y’all know me 🤣It’s a hefty list that I’ve created here, but I am excited to read all the books on the list, so I’m excited to see how many of them I can get it!
Are you participating in Summerween? If so, let me know in the comments and let me know what’s on your tbr!
Until next time 💜
