It’s Friday once again, Boils and Ghouls… but yet, I’m not feeling that TGIF! energy this week…
Energy levels have been sporadic and unmanageable, leading to some of this summer’s blog posts being a little unstructured and unscheduled, to even being postponed. I even debated on whether I should write a post at all today, given how I currently feel, but carving out a creepy corner on the interwebz, to exist and enter a creative flow state, recharges my soul beyond belief and I really want you, the reader, to know that 🫶🏻
So I’d like to keep some of my embers burning to fuel this blog, in order to keep cultivating and maintaining this space we’ve created together, to summon our souls (and love for all things spooky), morbidly!
Entering Mercury Retrograde With aN Attitude 🦁
With today being the first day Mercury enters the microwave… to retrieve the Gatorade… during this Retrograde, I thought about the attitude I plan on taking to approach these next few weeks of self-reflection.
Refresh & Refocus
And while Mercury remains in this state until August 11th, I thought this would be the ultimate time to refresh and refocus some of my creative ideas, since this retrograde seems to be centered around self-growth (as we soon enter Leo szn 🦁)
Mercury retrograde 2025 in Leo is a space to reflect on the narratives, perspectives, thought forms, and ideas in our minds that keep us from our most authentic and liberated expression of who we are. Leo expresses its essence brilliantly because that is what it means to be alive. It reminds us that we each have a unique radiance, a spark unlike anyone else’s, and to dim that would not only create a disservice to ourselves and to every other human but disconnect us from life itself. – Yoga Journal
But before we chit-chat about that, let’s shine a spotlight on…
Friday’s Fashion Icon🤩
Follow Hanna on Pinterest for more whimsical OOTD inspo ✨
I’ve been trying my best to recharge my energy, whenever possible, and refocus myself on nurturing my basic needsto get out of deep slumps… however, it’s been seemingly harder to truly focus on what I need lately. And now with a few weeks of energetic chaos on the way, the overwhelming noise will only get louder…
So it’s truly the best time to focus on proper self-care habits and kick that new attitude into motion, and I have a few ideas curating in my mind on how I’ll connect with nature, practice mindful meditation and engage in creative expression, to mention just a few 🔮
And to continue summoning good vibes to end tonight’s short n’ spooky post, I’ve actually been refreshing some of my presence online to accurately reflect the creepy, chic vibes and boost some of those dark, moody feels 🔮
Refresh your inbox with weekly doses of morbid curiosity…
⛤ Revamped my NetGalley Bio
Plus I read their Book Advocate Toolkit to improve my reviews and chances at receiving even more ARCs in my future…
Just really need to avoid going on those Request sprees when I see all those new Horror titles being released, you know, to keep my Feedback Ratio high 🫣
⛤ Created new graphics using Canvafor our Upcoming Morbid Curiosities in August + updated the ones for my first August Buddy Reads with my pals on Fable…
stay tuned- coming soon to the blog 👀
Drop a 🕷️ if you’ve read this post & don’t forget to subscribe to the blog to keep connected to our creepy corner 🕸️
[…] almost like my soul is recharging (even though Mercury is cookin’ in the Microwave until the 11th of August 🙃) when I think about this upcoming Spooky Szn… and I’m so […]
This will be a different and unique blog post tonight, Boils and Ghouls, and I hope that’s quite alright with all you lovely souls…
With our world’s current vibe check being in the 🚽 and my mass amount of NetGalley backlogs coming for me quickly, I thought I’d try a different blog style tonight, by answering a writing prompt suggested by WordPress ✍🏻
In my personal opinion, and possibly through my most recent experiences, I would have to say what gets better with age would be gaining perspective & facing your fears 😱
While I might host a Horror blog, run a few Horror book clubs, and consume way too much Horror content…
also subscribe to be notified of new blog posts ☝🏻
When I was growing up, I was and have literally been afraid of everything!
(and I know you might be thinking that cannot be possible! I simply ask you to trust this ghostly apparition before you form your opinion on my statement 🫣)
Growing Up Morbidly Curious ☠️
Maybe it was my creative and wild imagination… or again, let’s call it what it is… morbid curiosity to know absolutely everything about anything, but I managed to scare myself into oblivion as a child with my fascination to consume the vast expansiveness of human knowledge (i.e., the good, the bad, the dark, disturbed and morbid, etc.)
There’s that adorably cute saying that states,
Curiosity killed the cat.
but what the saying should state for some (and I put myself in this category) is that it can kill your confidence 😖
I don’t know about others’ lived experiences, but it felt like seeking out things & experiencing them for the first time was the catalyst for unlocking a new fear of something (i.e., someone, some place? …) and that continued to eat away at my confidence to be adaptable, agile & open-minded to any and all opportunities I might like to try going forward… ultimately, turning me into a scaredy cat (heh, full circle moment with the wordplay from our example 🙈)
Especially if there was any intense or extremely negative emotions surrounding the event 🚨 it would be an instant fear and demotion to my self-esteem!
Over time, I’ve appreciated the duality of curiosity…
When I was younger, being curious felt like a bad thing because I was developing all these fears that were counter-intuitive to my ambitions and desires in life. And I would often get mad at myself being so easily defeated or swayed by my intrusive thoughts into believing these fears are permanent; that they are mine forever (to keep and to cherish…) but that’s just anxiety lying to you!
As I got older, I started to realize there’s something to appreciate in that curiosity, to expose your soul to new, even frightening experiences, many times over, in order to adjust or gain your own perspective of the situation instead of being immediately fearful and closed off to ever trying it again.
A very popular and known method to reduce your fears (and phobias) is though exposure therapy, by “facing your fears” repeatedly to get over them. And I think this really holds a lot of weight for the morbidly curious later in life. In fact, even the neuro-spicy, such as myself, like to handle various amounts of repetition to get the grasp of a task before diving deep into it (or maybe that’s my recovering perfectionism talking.)
(Also, I’m not a medical professional. I’m just offering my own personal take on exposure therapy)
🔪 The First cut is the Deepest 🎶
First exposures suck, with most anything… especially if they’ve created a dark impression that’s hard to get rid of.
But over time, through countless attempts and perseverance (and maybe a few seances and exorcisms…) it gets lighter, easier, better…
And I like to credit that to the perspective that comes with age, the duality it allows us to witness and evaluate, in order to understand that you really need to go through an experience (and all the sensations the experience is giving you) to grow through one!
Now I no longer view my curiosity as a bad thing or in a negative light, it’s no longer just a marker for areas that I feel uncertain or haven’t unexplored… it’s a navigation tool for unlocking insights and reflections into my authentic desires and personal outcomes I can successfully achieve… if I harness the forceful powers this curious energy emits and radiates!
I guess what I’m truly saying, to bring ‘er all back to today’s WordPress Daily Prompt is that over time, and with age, facing your fears gets easier to handle and you regain your inner strength and confidence when you realize that you’ve never lost it to begin with. But that has certainly come, and gotten better… with age.
Also, here are some books to check out that have really helped me face some of my fears over time 🫣
Drop a 😨 if you’ve read this post, or submit your own response in the comments 👀
(and let me know if you would like more of this blog format in the foreseeable future 🤓)
I’m still in awe that we have entered July and the latter portion of 2k25, but isn’t that just like time to be fleeting? Feels like I blinked and we were only just welcoming summer…
So how about we recap last month’s reads to get more morbid with it!
I make jokes but in actuality, there’s a lot of darkness around us lately in the world. And it’s truly up to our empowered spirits to cast light on the darkness, to balance it out (so we can enjoy our morbid curiosities with protective guards in place…)
June Theme: 🌈 Summertime Sadness
Speaking of shedding light on the darkness… I cleverly themed last month’s reading list after our lovely summer goddess Lana Del Ray’s song 🥀
And I think the books I gathered to read last month really captured those emo vibes 💔 (whether directly or indirectly through topics or the general mood conveyed throughout the pages…)
I love using the Fable app to prepare monthly reading lists, and to share them with my fellow fantastic Fablers on the app to get hyped for the upcoming scares or fascinations I’m about to experience…
If you happen to be an avid reader and want more social in your book life, Fable is definitely the app to seek out 👀
Book Reviews
📖=physical/ebook 🎧=audiobook
All Systems Red by Martha Wells (2017)
Format: Audiobook 🎧
“In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.”
A highly anticipated book to read (and TV show to watch 👀) last month within the Novel Cinema 🍿 book club on Fable and boy, I was giggling throughout this incredibly written, witty sci-fi!
Rating:💀💀💀💀💀
Deadly Dolls by Elizabeth Dearnley (2024)
[ 🗣️Thank you to Independent Publishers Group & Netgalley for the ARC] Format: ebook 📖
“Dolls, mannequins, humanoid toys and dummies are the quintessential symbols of the uncanny, referenced by Freud in his foundational essay on the phenomenon of the familiar-turned-unsettling, and remaining a terrifying recurring menace of horror media today.”
A collection of absolutely traumatizing stories about the toys that terrified us as children…
Rating:💀💀💀💀
The Only Safe Place Left is the Dark by Warren Wagner (2023)
Format: Paperback 📖
“There’s a raw, primordial scream echoing from each and every page of Warren Wagner’s The Only Safe Place Left is the Dark . It’s the scream of an exciting and impressive new voice in horror fiction. Deceptively clever and ferociously brutal, Wagner’s astonishing novella is a testament to LGBTQ+ survival against all odds-a gruesome, blood-soaked celebration of queerness.” – Eric LaRocca
When I saw this book while browsing online at Little Ghosts Bookstore, I knew I needed to add it to my collection (and would love to see a screen adaptation of this novella 👀)
Rating:💀💀💀💀💀
Subscribe to the blog for more haunted monthly recaps…
We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets (2021)
Format: eBook 📖
“For readers of Leila Slimani’s The Perfect Nanny or Ling Ma’s Severance: a tight, propulsive, chilling novel by a rising international star about a group of young colleagues working as social media content monitors—reviewers of violent or illegal videos for an unnamed megacorporation—who convince themselves they’re in control . . . until the violence strikes closer to home.”
Since first discovering the existence of this book while browsing Book Outlet Canada last year, immediately my attention was grabbed and I knew I HAD to read it…
Rating:💀💀💀💀
Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh (2022)
Format: Hardcover + Audiobook 📖🎧
“In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test, in a spellbinding novel that represents Ottessa Moshfegh’s most exciting leap yet.”
A read last month with the Weird and Unsettling book club that was my first taste of Ottessa Moshfegh’s fever dream-like nightmares that will leave you with your jaw on the floor.
Rating:💀💀💀💀
The Mean Ones by Tatiana Schlote-Boone (2025)
[ 🗣️Thank you to Creature Publishing & Netgalley for the ARC] Format: eBook 📖
“Midsommar meets The Final Girl Support Group in this horror novel about a woman who survived cult killings as a child and is striving to be “normal,” but a spontaneous trip into the woods and the voices in her head keep pulling her to the dark side.”
When I first saw the cover and read the brief description comparing this one to the film Midsommar, I was sold!!! 🤩
Rating:💀💀💀💀
Foreclosure Gothic by Harris Lahti (2025)
[ 🗣️Thank you to Astra Publishing House & Netgalley for the ARC] Format: eBook 📖
“A multigenerational and deeply autobiographical gothic tale of Hollywood dreams and upstate New York reality.”
I’m sorry, but is this not the BEST cover art you’ve seen?! And as you guessed it, my morbid curiosity peaked with this one 👀
To see my reviews for Chlorine and I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness, check out last month’s recap post.
I might have been a little too ambitious last month with adding 10+ books originally to my June TBR (while having to finish a few from May’s) but I’m extremely proud of the progress that I made and I’m excited for these next few months to get outside more often to read and soak up that natural vitamin D…
If you’d like to see what other books I’ve read, creep my books 👀
plus consider possessing your inbox with NEW blog updates…
High and Low vibes of June
I found June was one of my best months for reads 🙏🏻 and I’m so glad I was able to achieve most of my monthly TBR (with the exception of Sour Cherry, Incidents Around the House & 120Murders that will end up in July’s Monthly Recap 🏖️… so make sure you’ve subscribed above to be notified ☝🏻)
✨ VIBED THE HIGHEST WITH…
Chlorine by Jade Song (2023)
Why did this book exceed my expectations?
While this was technically included in last month’s recap post and not rated as highly as others I’ve recently read, I still think about the story constantly…
I had been eagerly awaiting to read this book with the Morbid Mavens over in the Mor(e)bid Curiosities 💀 book club for so long, so the anticipation really built up the experience (and the book itself did not disappoint either with the body horror elements.)
I almost want to go back and annotate those beautiful sapphic quotes that still make my soul swoon! 🥰
☠️ HIT MY LOWEST Vibe WITH…
Foreclosure Gothic by Harris Lahti (2025)
What happened during the reading experience?
I’m such a sucker for captivating cover art and going into a book completely blind (with the exception of gathering a bit about the genre and author’s background) and when I saw this cover, I instantly thought of my favorite morbid YouTube channels and those “Scariest Footage caught on Doorbell Cameras!” videos.
And maybe that was a little misguided of me to believe this book would be a Horror-focused story with a Gothic touch… (I mean, there were scary elements within the story, but not with what I took from the cover art) so that would be my only issue. The book, story and experience was great and I would still recommend this book if you want an intriguing multi-generational telling of family bonds & struggles (which could be Horror to some…)
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