The October Country is a collection of mostly horror and thriller stories from the mind of acclaimed American writer, Ray Bradbury.

With it being spooky season and all, I wanted to line up several horror-based reads for the month of October. Many of those I follow on Goodreads and Instagram often list The October Country as one of their favorites to read this time of year, so how could I pass up?

I’ve also been in a bit of a reading slump lately and what better way to break that slouch than a collection of short stories that can be read in one sitting? While this definitely seemed to help, it wasn’t quite as good as I expected.

The October Country is packed with weird tales of horror and the fantastic. While many of them didn’t really click with me, there were a select few that absolutely blew me away. Both The Emissary and The Lake were two of the finest short stories I’ve read in recent memory – I actually re-read The Lake as soon as I finished the book.

There were some other solid entries like The Scythe, a story about a man and his family who stumble upon an old farm house only to find that they’ve inherited it. All is well and good until the father uncovers the secret sinister consequences of tending the wheat fields. I also enjoyed The Small Assassin, a story about a woman who believes her newborn is trying to kill her.

I did find some of the stories a little on the corny side and some that really felt their age, but given how much I enjoyed a handful of them, I would recommend grabbing this one from your library.