I don’t know why, but I find it such a challenge to find books that really give off autumn vibes! I think a part of that is because I tend to focus on the cover art for seasonal vibes, and it’s surprisingly difficult to find covers that really scream fall to me. When I think of autumn vibes, I tend to think of falling leaves or books that give Halloween vibes, but somehow, neither of those have been very common lately. Looking back on my Autumn Vibes post from last year, I seem to have commented along the same lines about it being so difficult to find options! I don’t really know why this is the case, since autumn-themed covers tend to be some of my favourites.
Top 5 Wednesday is a meme created by Gingerreadslainey on Youtube, and is now hosted by Sam at ThoughtsOnTomes. The official GoodReads group with the weekly topics can be found here.
1) The Monsters We Make by Kali White
This is the first book I noticed on my TBR that immediately screamed fall to me, both because of the orange sky and the skeletal tree. This book is set in August 1984, and focuses on a small town where the local paperboy has gone missing. Hours later, a 12-year-old boy named Sammy who is also a paperboy hurries home with a terrible secret. His older sister is worried by the disappearance and notices that the case is similar to an earlier disappearance of another boy in another town, and thinks that the parallels could be the start of an award-winning essay that might be her chance to leave the small town. At the same time, Officer Dale Goodkind is haunted the all the cases of missing boys and is determined to find out what really happened. This book is technically set in the summer, but something about it still gives me very strong fall vibes. I tend to read a lot of thrillers around this time of year, and I think the cover art definitely helps make this book seem like an autumn book.
2) Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power
This book gives me strong autumn vibes because of the orange cover and the plants remind me of a corn maze, which is a fun autumn activity. This book is about a girl named Margot who has never had the answers to her questions about her family’s past, until she finds a photograph that points her to a town called Phalene. Margot soon learns that her mother left that town for a reason, and now that she is there, she may not be able to leave. I was initially a little on the fence about whether I even wanted to read this one, but the more that I hear about it, the more interesting it seems. I’ve heard great things about Rory Power’s debut, Wilder Girls, although I’m even more on the fence about that one, especially since I heard that it involves some body horror. This book definitely seems a lot more up my alley, and the cover definitely gives me autumn vibes.
3) His & Hers by Alice Feeney
This book gave me autumn vibes more along the Halloween side. I have not yet read anything by Alice Feeney, but she is at the top of my list as an author to try next year. This book is her latest thriller, which focuses on a TV presenter named Anna who is asked to cover a murder in her hometown. Anna is reluctant to go back there, but when she learns that the victim is her childhood friend, she decides she can’t avoid it. DCI Jack Harper is the detective working on the case, and decides not to tell anyone that he knew the victim too, until he realizes that he has become a suspect in his own case. The book alternates between Anna and Jack’s perspectives as the case unfolds. This sounds like such an interesting thriller, and I tend to love the whole trope of a person returning to their hometown. I’m definitely intending to pick up at least one of Alice Feeney’s books next year, and I think this is the one that interests me the most right now.
4) Mayhem by Estelle Laure
This is another book set in the 1980s, and that I chose for this list mostly because of the cover art. This book is about a girl named Mayhem Brayburn, who has always thought there was something a bit off about her mother Roxy. When her stepfather finally goes too far, Mayhem and Roxy flee to California, which seems to hold the answer to all of Mayhem’s questions about her family and herself. While there, she meets the kids who live with her aunt, which opens the door to magic that runs through the women in her family, and soon gets wrapped up in the search for a man who has been kidnapping girls from the local beach. To be honest, I didn’t know that much about this book when I first added it to my TBR, but now that I’ve read the synopsis more thoroughly, it sounds pretty interesting, and definitely gives me fall vibes. I tend to read a lot of books that involve magic toward the fall, especially toward Halloween.
5) The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street by Lindsay Currie
This is another book that I chose because the cover gave me Halloween vibes. It is a middle grade book about a girl named Tessa who is unhappy to be moving from Florida to Chicago, especially when weird things start happening in her new house. She starts to hear odd noises, sees drawings that appear out of nowhere, and her brother’s doll cries real tears. Tessa soon realizes that someone is trying to communicate with her, and sets out with some friends to figure out what the secret is behind her creepy new house. This is another book that I didn’t remember much about. It’s been on my TBR since last October, but I’d mostly forgotten about it. It is definitely one that gives me autumn vibes because I love to read creepy books or books that involve the paranormal around this time of year. I don’t know how scary this one would actually be since it’s middle grade, but it sounds very interesting anyway!
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