This week I’m reading my twenty-fifth and last 2023 Halloween Bingo book but, as we’re still two and half weeks away from Halloween, I’m sticking with the Halloween theme and reading a Stephen King book that’s been on my shelf since it was published back in 2020.

For the Deadlands square in Halloween Bingo, I’m reading a young adult book that takes an unusual approach to the idea of zombies.

The Stephen King book is a collection of four novellas.

I’m looking forward to both of them.

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‘Shallow Graves’ by Kali Wallace (2016)

I’m cautious about reading Young Adult novels as I’m decades away from the target audience. I’m even more cautious about reading debut Young Adult novels but I’m intrigued by the idea of zombies who aren’t mindlessly shuffling along hoping to eat the brains of people even more ambulatorly challenged than they are. I like the revenge/vigilante starting point of this one and I’m curious to see where it goes from there.

I’m hoping for something dark and original.

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‘If It Bleeds’ by Stephen King (2020)

I bought If It Bleeds because I like Stephen King’s short fiction. It seems to me that it’s often sharper and more energetic than his long books.

The hooks for all four of these novellas appeal to me but I’m particularly interested in the title story If It Bleeds because I want to read about Holly Gibney.

I haven’t read The Outsider, the book that she first appeared in, but I’ve just finished watching HBO’s excellent TV adaptation of the story and I’d like to know more about Holly. Holly is also the title and the main character of Stephen King’s latest novel, so I’m keen to read If It Bleeds before I read Holly.

Here’s the trailer for HBO’s The Outsider. If you haven’t seen it then October is the perfect month to watch it.