My October 2026 Reads
HOW have we gotten to November?!?!? Time really does go by faster as you get older. Since it is November 1st, it is time to share what I read in October. I listened to one short story, three novellas by the same author, and two novels. All were audiobooks. I did also have one DNF.
Here are the books I listened to. They are listed in the order that I finished them:
Wedlocked by Hillary Frank- 4 stars
Wicker by Ursula Wills- 4 stars (short story)
The Babysitter by Tanisha Stewart- 4 stars (novella)
Dire Bound by Sable Sorensen- 5 stars
The Student by Tanisha Stewart- 2.5 stars (novella)
The Hitchhiker by Tanisha Stewart- 4 stars (novella)
I can say “Thank you!” to the Facebook Algorithm for ‘introducing’ me to Tanisha Stewart! I got quite a few of her books for free with my Audible account. I listened to three of hers in October and can’t wait to listen to more!
Yes, Wicker is the short story that has become a movie where the lady’s husband is made from wicker. And the Wicker Husband is played by Alexander Skarsgård. The trailer for the film makes it look all smutty, but there actually IS a story. My review will be coming soon!
I did have one DNF: Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. I tried the audiobook twice. Both times I made it a little over 3 hours 45 minutes out of 11.5 hours. I realized I did not have any idea what was going on and I was not going to keep going after trying twice. This was just not a book for me.
My ‘top rated read’ was Dire Bound by Sable Sorensen. And I think this might be the series to turn me on to the Romantasy genre! I am on a wait list for the second one from the library. I am currently 12th in line for the audiobook. I did skip over the smutty parts, I just don’t need all the in-depth details.
My ‘lowest rated read’ was The Student by Tanisha Stewart. This novella just did not work for me. My review for it and her other two novellas I listened to were all posted this past week.
October was a good month, and maybe one day very soon I can find my reading mojo and get back to reading physical and kindle books! I miss reading!
What did YOU read in October?
Author Spotlight: Kirill Khrestinin
Happy Halloween! Today I bring you an Author Spotlight for Kirill Khrestinin. He has written six novels and created one film that he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in! I will feature three of his his novels today and the film which is called The Ghost From Hovrino. Since today is Halloween this would be the perfect time to give it a watch! I’ll also share my review on the film.
Kirill Khrestinin is a Russian-born novelist and filmmaker. He has published six books: the crime novels Down by the Spiral and Via Dolorosa, the psychological horror companions Dear AI, I Killed Her and Mythos, and two novels set in the same Kentucky prison, Mary Falcon and Cosmic Sadness, written from his years as a corrections officer. In 2011 he wrote, directed, produced and starred in the found-footage horror film The Ghost From Hovrino, released in 2012 and now on Prime Video. He hosts a podcast three times a week on AI, Western civilization, and human behavior, now at 165 episodes. More can be found at his website.
In the spirit of Halloween, Let’s start with the film:
The Ghost From Hovrino
Nobody can escape. Only their camera can tell what happened.
On 11/11/11, a young filmmaker takes three friends into a vast Russian forest to film the legend of a ghost fed by pagan sorcerers. Then he digs up a grave.
Written, Directed, Produced, and Featuring by Kirill Khrestinin
2012 | 80 minutes | Russian with English subtitles
Horror · Found footage
Movie Synopsis: Presented as a tape recovered from an abandoned SUV, The Ghost From Hovrino follows a young filmmaker making a documentary about a legend: in a forest near Ryazan, pagan sorcerers once sacrificed people to a ghost, and people still vanish there. Ignoring his girlfriend’s warnings, he takes three friends into the winter woods on 11/11/11. They find a small grave. He digs it up.
From the making of the film: Kirill shot the film with no budget: “I had a camera. I had several people who’d work for sandwiches and coffee.” The Blair Witch Project was his inspiration. He improvised the forest scenes day after day, “Thinking of old Russian sorcerers, improvising their graves, their rituals.” In his words: “To be fair, a winter forest is pretty scary on its own already.”
Watch the trailer here:
The Ghost From Hovrino
Genre: Found-Footage Horror (Russian Folk Horror)
Film Released: February 6, 2012 (Filmed in 2011 in a Russian winter forest)
Film Runtime: 1 hour 20 minutes
Date Watched: October 29, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Jessica’s Review:
It has been a long time since I have watched The Blair Witch Project, but having watched The Ghost From Hovrino, it got me in the mood to watch the film that helped to inspire Ghost. In fact in some ways The Ghost from Hovrino could be called the Russian Blair Witch Project!
You can see how Blair Witch inspired Ghost, and at times it seemingly pays homage to Witch. Ghost is a found footage style film, so from the beginning we know what will happen to our unfortunate friend group. The beginning of Ghost gives us the background of the forest and you can see the horror in locals eyes when they tell what they seemingly know. We also get to see the men’s friendship and even have some humor before the friends reach the forest. I was surprised to find myself laughing at times as I was expecting just a scare fest. Khrestinin makes sure we get to know and like these characters, and we also see ‘boys being boys’ is just the same in Russia as it can be in the USA.
Despite pleas from his girlfriend, Kirill and friends go into the forest. They also come across a grave, and decide to see just what is buried there… BAD IDEA boys!
Ghost is creepy where it should be and scenes are not rushed. For a short film we get everything we needed. Even though we know the ending going in, Ghost has its own twist to the found footage genre and I enjoyed this film. This film was filmed with one camera, one light, and a lot of love to form its own story.
Just be careful going into unknown woods and things you may come across… And just DON’T go digging up graves!
What is this!?!? Watch The Ghost From Hovrino to find out!
The Ghost From Hovrino is available on Prime here.
The Novels:
Down by the Spiral
Published: March 20, 2025
172 pages
Johnny Felis has two days to find $450,000. Crazy Ronny has a recipe.
Olive oil. Green peppers. The parts of Johnny he’d prefer to keep attached.
Their sure thing is dead, and Johnny and his best friend Vincent are left with a body in the trunk and a debt they cannot pay. Somewhere in Los Angeles, there must be a way out. Johnny’s answer is another fight, another loan, another deal with someone they should never have met.
Their new fighter is a Russian with a taste for vodka and an alarming idea of what counts as training. His Ukrainian wife knows the price of a favor. And Vincent has fallen in love with precisely the wrong woman.
The money gets bigger. So do the mistakes. Johnny can talk his way into almost anything. Getting out is becoming a problem.
Everybody wants a better life. Johnny wants one more chance to get rich first.
Down by the Spiral is a viciously funny crime novel of brutal violence, sexual misadventure, and the American dream pursued one disastrous decision at a time.
Buy Your Copy on Amazon.
Via Dolorosa
Published: August 26, 2026
312 Pages
Some roads only open at the bottom.
Laura Jones leaves her grandfather’s Arizona ranch for Los Angeles, certain her real life is waiting there. She wants to be an actress. She finds a man who knows how to keep that dream alive—and how to use it against her. Then another man arrives, wearing a police uniform.
Harry Dolan knows what his partner is. He has helped make it possible. At home, his fifteen-year-old daughter needs him, his marriage is disintegrating, and the violence he excuses on the streets is never far from his own front door.
Back in the desert, Laura’s grandfather has a Purple Heart, a shotgun and a past he rarely speaks about. He knows how to fight. What fighting can save is another question.
Their lives collide in a world where pain becomes an excuse, love becomes possession, and people ask God for mercy while denying it to one another.
Via Dolorosa is a brutal literary crime novel about the damage people inherit, the damage they choose to inflict, and the possibility of faith when every comfortable answer has failed. Violent, profane and unflinching, it asks what remains of love when suffering gives you every reason to become cruel.
Buy Your Copy on Amazon.
Mary Falcon
Published: May 31, 2026
188 pages
On Mary Falcon’s night shift, a sentence can follow you out of prison.
At thirty-five, the captain knows how to keep a Kentucky prison running. She knows its rules, its blind spots, and which men will follow an order without asking what happens afterward. Five years after losing her husband and children, punishing monsters gives her something grief has taken away: a reason to get up.
Sergeant Albert Lansky understands. A Russian widower with a criminal past, he has his own dead to carry and his own reasons for standing beside her. Between them, violence needs little explanation. Tenderness is more dangerous.
As an Internal Affairs investigation closes in and the loyalties of the night shift begin to fracture, Mary risks losing the life she has built around revenge. And her attachment to Lansky gives her something she cannot bear to lose.
Who is safe when the person deciding who deserves punishment needs something for herself?
Mary Falcon is a literary noir tragedy of grief, desire, brutal violence and gallows humor, written by a former corrections officer. Russian tragedy wears a Kentucky uniform.
Buy Your Copy on Amazon.
Contact Kirill:
Website
Substack
Goodreads
You Tube
Instagram
Podcast on Spotify
Podcast on Apple Podcasts
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Audiobook Review: The Hitchhiker by Tanisha Stewart
The Hitchhiker
Series: The Red Series
Author: Tanisha Stewart
Narrator: J.R. Mason
Published: August 21, 2025
Audiobook: 3 hours 59 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: October 23-25, 2026
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
They call it stranger danger for a reason… The Hitchhiker is a pulse pounding psychological thriller by the bestselling author of Everybody Ain’t Your Friend and The Quiet Ones series.
When Vanessa Thompson agrees to fly across the country to meet her online crush, she never imagines she’s walking straight into a killer’s trap. Kidnapped and tortured by a sadistic predator, Vanessa endures unspeakable horrors as the clock ticks down on her survival. With only seven days before her captor’s deadly countdown ends, every breath could be her last.
As investigators search for a woman who seems to have vanished without a trace, Vanessa faces a desperate battle against time itself. Trapped in a nightmare where hope fades with each passing hour, she must find the strength to outsmart a monster – or become another missing person who never makes it home.
Jessica’s Review:
The Hitchhiker was the third novella in The Red Series I listened to by Tanisha Stewart, and so far, it is my favorite! The Hitchhiker is fast paced and disturbing as Hell! It does not come off as a novella, but it was also a complete story in the span of just a four hour listen. Please note that there is some graphic violence/ torture that might be disturbing to some readers.
This novella gives a word of caution to “Stranger Danger”! And I find this a bit ironic coming from the reviewer who just last month did a ‘Stranger Photo Session’… The Hitchhiker is also a cautionary tale of being careful of just who and where you meet your ‘online friends’ or ‘online romance partner’.
So much happens right from the beginning of this novella and yet again, Ms. Stewart goes in a direction I would never have anticipated! We have Vanessa who flies across the country to meet her online crush/relationship of over two years. And she ends up in a terror situation. The past also comes into play with the characters, and we see just how the past affects the present.
J.R. Mason returns as narrator and she did a fantastic job. This was one narration that worked for me! In addition to her narration there were again sounds effects which also enhanced the story. The only negative I experienced also occurred in The Babysitter audiobook regarding editing: Some chapters ended and immediately the next chapter started without the narrator seemingly taking a breath. Fortunately this did not happen for every chapter.
I did have an issue with the title of the novella, as hitchhiking was not a part of the story. There was a very small part where there were car issues, and Vanessa getting picked up. For me a different title for this novella would have been better.
I do want to listen to more of The Red Series. Since these are novellas, I will have to wait until they are on sale as I don’t want to use an Audible credit for a short listen. I will also look at other novels that Ms. Stewart has written.
I am very happy that the Facebook algorithm introduced me to Ms. Stewart’s writings!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK