#31daysofda — Public Fediverse posts

Oct. 31: Happy #Halloween 🎃

#DarkAcademia novel: WHEN ALL THE GIRLS ARE SLEEPING by Emily Arsenault (2021)

Quote:
Most of the girls had simply heard the same things about the Winter Girl over their years at Windham that I had: that her name might be Sarah. That she haunted in January or February. That she knocked on doors... One girl said something I hadn’t heard before, though: *Some girls say that she’s looking for her replacement. That she’s tired of being a ghost, that she’ll strangle or smother you in your bed if you’re not careful. And then* you’re *the ghost.*

#Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Bookstodon

32/32

Oct. 30

#DarkAcademia novel: DON'T FORGET THE GIRL by Rebecca McKanna (2023)

Quote:
Sometimes it seems like an answer – any answer – to what happened to Abby that night is what Bree needs to move on.

… for one second, she sees *the* moment in exact detail: Abby crying under the statue of the Black Angel in her Hermione Halloween costume, snowflakes collecting on her coppery hair. Chelsea and Bree watching her, not putting their arms around her, letting her walk away. Her footprints in the snow leading down that blacktop path. The last trace of her they ever saw.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA

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Oct. 29

#DarkAcademia novel: FRATERNITY by Andy Mientus (2022)

Quote: …a Perfect Storm:

1. Allow terrible, unholy powers to find their way into the hands of children. See that those children only half-translate their conjurations, missing key protective details.

2. Have them perform those conjurations at the very height of autumn, the dying of the year, when the veil between worlds is at its thinnest. Make sure they are coming to the work not soberly but at an emotional breaking point, dripping blood, hungry for violence. Aim their violence at another child.

3. Pray for those children.
Terrible consequences await them.

#31DaysOfDA 30/32

Oct. 28

#DarkAcademia novel: ALL THESE BEAUTIFUL STRANGERS by Elizabeth Klehfoth (2018)

Quote:
There was a story on campus about a student who had died many years ago—so long ago that no one remembered anymore what his name was or how he had died exactly, but there were reports every now and again of a sighting of his ghost.... I always thought about the ghost when I was walking around campus at night by myself. I imagined seeing a white smear in the corner of my vision, but every time I turned my head, there was nothing there.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween

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Oct. 27

#DarkAcademia novel: THE OTHER LIVES OF MISS EMILY WHITE by A. J. Elwood (2023)

Quote:
*It’s a ghost… a ghost of* her.

I saw her again, standing in the entrance hall, dripping to the parquet; her hair a damp rope, her face pale, her eyes cast into darkness. I pushed my blanket away as if it were a shroud, smothering and heavy, weighting me into a grave. I felt cold right through.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween #Horror

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Oct. 26

#DarkAcademia novel: A STUDY IN DROWNING by Ava Reid (2023)

Quote:
And Effy had walked right into the center of it, into this sinking house at the edge of the world.... When Effy was able to move her numb legs again, she ran down the stairs and hurled herself out the door, into the blackness of the night, heart pounding like church bells. She was not afraid of the ghost. But she was horribly, wretchedly afraid of whatever had killed the woman it had once been.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween #Horror

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Oct. 25

#DarkAcademia novel: THE SEA OF LOST GIRLS by Carol Goodman (2020)

Quote:
I freeze and listen. It could just be the wind in the trees or the mournful sigh of the tide retreating over the rocks below the coastal path, but then, peering through the fog, I catch a glimpse of something white that looks like a girl running... I remember the ghosts who are said to haunt these woods.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween

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Oct. 24

#DarkAcademia novel: THE RAVENS by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige (2020)

Quote:
That was when she noticed the single tarot card positioned nearly at the head of her bare mattress, as if placed there by a careful hand.

It was the Death card her mother had given her.

The skeleton leered up at her with a gruesome smile, and for a moment, it almost looked like the eyes glowed red. Vivi shivered, despite knowing that it was a trick of the light. *I told you. Westerly isn’t a safe place, not for people like you…*

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween

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Oct. 23

#DarkAcademia novel: THE RAISING by Laura Kasischke (2011)

Quote:
It was truly autumn. The sun had clearly slipped a few notches down on the horizon, and the light on the leaves was amber now, not white, not even golden, as it had been the week before, and a breeze seemed to be pouring through the centuries-old window of Godwin Honors Hall despite the fact they were all closed. That cold breeze seemed to pour in a steady stream down the hallway, bathing her.

“I know you’re an expert on death,” the boy said to her, “and dying, and the undead.”

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween

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Oct. 22

#DarkAcademia novel: GOOD GIRLS LIE by J.T. Ellison (2019)

Quote:
“So seriously, you never walk the arboretum path alone. Even if it’s not haunted, it’s creepy and not safe. It’s outside the walls.” This last is said with such earnestness I simply nod.

“Outside the walls equals not safe alone. Got it.”

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween

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Oct. 21

#DarkAcademia novel: THE NAME OF THE STAR by Maureen Johnson (2012)

Quote:
*Keep calm and carry on.* Also, stay in and hide because the Ripper is coming.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween

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Oct. 20

#DarkAcademia novel: THE WHISPERING DARK by Kelly Andrew (2022)

Quote:
She’d heard of Godbole. Everyone had. It was a highly prestigious yet controversial program, a magnet for those who dabbled in the occult.

… And so, on a bluebird day in September, she packed up her things and she went. To conquer the world, and maybe some others. To prove that she could.

She took a breath and she took a step.

And the shadows followed.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween

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Oct. 19

#DarkAcademia novel: THE GOOD GIRLS by Claire Eliza Bartlett (2020)

From the cover:
secrets and lies, then somebody dies

Quote:
The end of my life starts here.

A rainy, sodden autumn has turned the river below into a roaring monster. Rocks jut out like jagged teeth, jet black against frothy white. My blood sings as the weathered wood sags behind me—someone has followed me onto the tiny bridge over Anna’s Run….

Legends say Anna’s Run takes one unlucky sacrifice every year. The wind wraps around my neck like a cord.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween

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Oct. 18

#DarkAcademia novel: RIVER OF ASHES by Alexandrea Weis and Lucas Astor (2022)

Quote:
The stars weren’t twinkling, and there was no moon. Perfect.

He cut across the field of high grass. Not far from the cells, the lone howl of a dog stopped him in his tracks. Silence. Seconds ticked by, but the only sounds were the chirp of the crickets and the occasional croak of frogs.

*When the dogs appear, death is near.*

He chuckled. Maybe the dogs knew what he had planned.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween #Horror

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Oct. 17

#DarkAcademia novel: THE SOCIETY FOR SOULLESS GIRLS by Laura Steven (2022)

Quote:
The page was exactly as I last saw it, with one tiny, significant exception: the droplet of blood in the bottom right corner....

The sight made me smile. Someone had tried to perform the ritual. I knew it in my bones. There was someone at Carvell as intrigued by the occult as I was. For some reason, this knowledge bolstered me.

In a moment, the decision was made. I was going to attempt the ritual too.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween #Horror

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Oct. 16

#DarkAcademia novel: MISSING CLARISSA by Ripley Jones (2023)

Quote:
Everyone from Oreville knows the story of Clarissa. Her living ghost haunts the long rain-dark winters alongside the looming specters of Washington’s grim army of infamous serial killers and litany of missing girls…. Clarissa Campbell, who vanished so completely that no one has found a trace of her – not the full investigative force of the Oreville police department, not legions of armchair sleuths and online obsessives, not television news crews or magazine reporters or Clarissa’s friends and family.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween

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Oct. 15

#DarkAcademia novel: THE IT GIRL by Ruth Ware (2020)

Quote:
Afterwards, it was the door she would remember. *It was open,* she kept saying to the police. *I should have known something was wrong.*

... Dr. Myers’s door was closed, as it always was. But the other door, her door, was open. That was the last thing she remembered. She should have known something was wrong.

But she suspected nothing at all.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween #Horror

16/32

Oct. 14

#DarkAcademia novel: DON'T BREATHE A WORD by Jordyn Taylor (2021)

Quote:
“Yesterday” starts to play again from the beginning, but it’s a hell of a lot eerier as it becomes the backdrop to the story I typed on the next slide: “In 1962, Hardwick sent a small group of students underground to test a nuclear fallout shelter. Six went down, but only five survived…”

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween #Horror

15/32

Oct. 13

#DarkAcademia novel: SUMMER SONS by Lee Mandelo (2021)

Quote:
“This is where it gets interesting. The second son loves this girl so much he decides to step onto an unholy path. Now the story varies, but in the one my mama told me, he makes a deal. He takes his youngest sister, goes to a crossroad on the property past the witching hour, and he waits until some evil comes to him. He looks that evil square in the face and offers it his sister in return for his wife.”

... “He kills his sister,” Sam guessed.

“Of course he does,” Mr. McCormick said.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween #Horror

14/32

Oct. 12

#DarkAcademia novel: VERY BAD PEOPLE by Kit Frick (2022)

Quote:
Tuesday morning, three classrooms have been ghosted. All over campus, there are whispers. *It’s happening again. And I heard they make initiates drink blood.* And *it’s just a stupid hoax.* The teachers talk too. *I bet I know who is responsible.* And *at least they’re not defacing school property.* And *there are proper channels here at Tipton.*

Three students have completed their initiation rite. Which leaves seven of us.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween

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Oct. 11

#DarkAcademia novel: SHADOW OF THE LIONS by Christopher Swann (2017)

Quote:
The missing eye was their only major flaw. A myth of swift and terrible justice falling on those who harmed the lions had shielded them further disfigurement over the years. Blackburne legend had it that the student who chiseled out the left eye as a class prank in 1947 died that same week, drowning in the Shenandoah Creek when his canoe tipped over. Since then... the lions were left alone.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween

12/32

Oct. 10

#DarkAcademia novel: MY DEAREST DARKEST by Kayla Cottingham (2022)

From the cover: You’ll never guess what’s watching in the dark...

Quote:
While all towns have their ghosts, Rainwater’s was special. They sank through its submerged sea caves and slithered up its cliffs. They bounced around its caverns and tunnels like electrical pulses in a brain, echoing memories of footsteps and laughter and screams through the ground and into the towering evergreen trees. The peninsula had a habit of keeping things long after they were gone.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween

11/32

Oct. 9

#DarkAcademia novel: THE TEMPLE HOUSE VANISHING by Rachel Donohue (2020)

Quote:
I held the skull in my hands. I imagined, for a moment, I could squeeze it and it would shatter.

I have not thought about this for many years, but now I wonder if I should not have chosen the skull. That perhaps if I had just picked a gemstone, things would have been different. I would not have become what I did. But then I remember the way I felt as they both, he and Victoria, looked at me, and I think perhaps not.

It was all inevitable.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween

10/32

Oct. 8

#DarkAcademia novel: THE BROKEN GIRLS by Simone St. James (2018)

Quote:
Written in pencil, the lines of a familiar rhyme looked back up at her: Mary Hand, Mary Hand, dead and buried under land. She’ll say she wants to be your friend. Do not let her in again!

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween

9/32

Oct. 7

#DarkAcademia novel: THE CLOISTERS Katy Hays (2022)

Quote:
Death always visited me in August. A slow and delicious month we turned into something swift and brutal. The change, quick as a card trick.

I should have seen it coming. The way the body would be laid out on the library floor, the way the gardens would be torn apart by the search. The way our jealousy, greed, and ambition were waiting to devour us all, like a snake eating its own tail. The ouroboros.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween #Halloween

8/32

Oct. 6

#DarkAcademia novel: THE HONEYS by Ryan La Sala (2022)

Quote:
I don’t fear the dark. I know the dark, and it knows me. Within it, I’m safe from the sun’s lovely illusions. I know what I’ve always known: The monsters worth fearing are the ones that are dangerous enough to hide in daylight.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween

7/32

Oct. 5

#DarkAcademia novel: PROMISE BOYS by Nick Brooks (2023)

From the cover:
Perfection. Excellence. Discipline. Murder.

Quote:
Sometimes what’s obvious takes a while to see – the person who pulls a trigger doesn’t just disappear into the dark. They are right here among us once we decide we’re ready to question everything we think we know. They’re always closer than you think.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween

6/32

Oct. 4

#DarkAcademia novel: THE NARROW by Kate Alice Marshall (2023)

From the cover:
They say what the river takes never returns. They are wrong.

Quote:
The dead aren’t meant for daylight. I’m more awake in darkness. Not more alive – it’s a fallacy to suppose I could become less dead. But I am different in the dark. More powerful.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween

5/32

Oct. 3

#DarkAcademia novel: GHOSTS OF HARVARD by Francesca Serritella (2020)

Quote:
It was the place where Eric had eaten his last meal, dreamed his last dream, taken his last breath. The sight of the red brick dormitories, a picture postcard of collegiate perfection to so many, made her heart pound. For her, it wasn’t a college, it was a haunted house.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA #31DaysOfHalloween

4/32

Oct. 2

#DarkAcademia story: “Presentation of an Intact Specimen” by @premeesaurus, from WILTED PAGES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF DARK ACADEMIA, eds. @aijiang and @Christinogle (2023)

Quote:
*Surely it is not a sin to remove a sinner from the face of the Earth to prevent future sins.... Think of the oceans of blood on his hands.*

And the tiny, tiny bit that would be on hers....

It was merely the removal of something worthless from the museum — it was *curation*.

#Gothic #Books #31DaysOfDA

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