news | Friday October 31, 2025

Happy Halloween from Talonbooks!

Happy Halloween, Talonites! Whether you like to lean into the horror, creepy-crawly ambience of the season, to don a creative, extravagant costume, or just enjoy bulk buying miniature chocolate bars on sale, we hope this day delivers on whatever autumnal vibes you love the most.

At Talon, we like an eerie read to mark the thinning of the veil. Whether you want to dig into a novel, a poetry collection, or get theatrical with a play, we have something spooky for your TBR pile.

1. Jump Scare by Daniel Zomparelli

Using horror movies as a vehicle, the poems in Jump Scare dig deep into mental health, neurodivergence, grief, dreams, monstrosity, sexuality, pop culture, queer consumer culture, and the commodification of identity.

2. Medusa by Martine Desjardins, translated by Oana Avasilichioaei

This gothic novel is, as the title might suggest, inspired the beloved myth of Medusa. Driven from her family home, Medusa – whose eyes are so horrible her gaze repel women and petrify men – is locked up in the Athenæum, an institute for young “malformed” girls, which stands on the shores of a lake infested with jellyfish. Medusa is a provocative story of women’s body shame and men’s body shaming, phallocratic oppression, and the power of femininity.

3. Zora, A Cruel Tale by Philippe Arseneault, translated by Fred A. Reed and David Homel

The winner of the 2013 Robert-Cliche Prize, Zora, A Cruel Tale is a gothic fantasy tale of the macabre and the bizarre, of black magicians and alchemists, and of the life and times of Zora Marjanna Lavanko, the daughter of a brutish tripe-dresser who dies for love. This surreal novel is set in the murky fictional domain of the Fredavian Forest, in the very real province of Karelia, then a part of the Grand Duchy of Finland, in the closing years of the nineteenth century. Violent, cruel, and unusual, it’s a perfect work with which to embrace the unsettling.

4. The Mystery Play by Josh MacDonald

The Mystery Play is a detective story, a ghost story, and a memory play. A supernatural chiller of rattling cupboards, overnight séances, and spectral possessions, this play has readers following crime-solving Sister Vivian Salter, a flinty, fifty-ish Catholic nun forced into the role of amateur sleuth.

Happy Halloween and happy reading, everyone!