December 2025 ScaredyKit: Your Favorite Trope

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Are you like me and can’t get enough zombies? Or maybe you are more into ghosts, ghouls or monsters. Whatever turns your crank, from seeing strange things in mirrors to being alone in an old, dark house, December ScaredyKit is for you!

This month you choose. Have fun and enjoy your reads. Don’t forget to let us know what you going to read and how it turned out. Also, if you choose to use it, here is the link to the Wiki:

https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2025_ScaredyKIT#December

No surprise here, I am goin with zombies and will be reading Adaption by Zach Bohannon,the second in his Empty Bodies series.

ETA: Actually when I checked I realised that I have already read the next two in the series so I will be reading the 4th, entitled Open Roads.

I haven't checked my tbr yet, but I'd say it's likely I'll do ghosts or haunted houses or something similar.

I will probably read The Laughing Corpse, the second book in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K Hamilton

My favorite scary trope is “losing your grasp on reality,” in fact or by gaslighting, and specifically the subset “becoming your crazy mother.” Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough seems made to order, so that’s what I’ll be reading.

Sigh... I was going for ghosts, and there are ghosts in this story, but it's is definitely not scary!

Well, I started Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough, but I quit when it became apparent that the writing was dull and pedestrian and I just didn’t want to waste any time on it. So then I started Come Closer by Sara Gran, which was okay, but it was clearly not the “descent into madness” trope I thought it was—just a sort of dull and pedestrian demonic possession.

Then I read The Girl from Rawblood by Catriona Ward. It did not feature a “descent into madness” trope, but it was another of my favorites: self-haunting. (If you think you might read this, don’t look at the spoiler!) It wasn’t quite as good as Ward’s Last House on Needless Street, but it was her debut book, so I can forgive it for being a little uneven. Ward might become one of those authors whose books I want to read every one of.

I do want to rant about the title a little. It was originally published as Rawblood, which is a much stronger title. I also have a strong dislike of books with “Girl” in the title, especially when “Woman” is what is meant, and I generally avoid them. In this case, the protagonist Iris does start the novel as a girl, though she’s a woman by the end of the novel. What were the American publishers thinking by taking a terrific title and watering it down with a meaningless marketing word?

I reread Salem's Lot. My favorite trope here is the haunted small town, and I think King does this trope better than anyone. It was a rewarding reread. It's been a long time since I've read it, and I think a lot of it holds up.

Scary Book of Christmas Lore by Tim Rayborn ★★★½

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen…but do you recall the most petrifying Christmas figures of all? Not all children fear just a lump of coal in their stockings. Discover the terrifying Yuletide fables, folktales, and folklore that have horrified kids (and adults) for generations during the holiday season. He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake. This lighthearted song is a bit more ominous in the context of other Christmas traditions. From beasts that threaten to cook children into stew to sinister crones who snatch little ones from their beds, you won’t find any dancing sugar plums here. Outside of the heartwarming Christmas tales we all know and love, there are an abundance of frightening stories to chill all who hear them to the bone. Discover folklore from all corners of the world.

There are some familiar tales like Krampus, Gryla, and La Befana, but most of these tales and creatures were new to me.

This book contained witches, vampires, and werewolves.

Thanks to everyone for participating in December's ScaredyKit. Now we onward to 2026!

I chose Every Heart a Doorway as a genre-bender!

If you've ever wondered how Alice adjusted to the real world when she got back from Wonderland, take a peek into Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, where every child holds hope their door will open again.

I was so intrigued by the fantasy world-building that I forgot I had picked up a horror book until a body showed up. The premise is so unique, and seemed to be a sort of metaphor both for neurodivergent children of neurotypical parents and for children with trauma and/or mental illnesses — parents were spoken of both in terms of loving the child they had 'before' and not accepting the way they had changed, but also in terms like, 'their love wanted to fix her, and refused to see that she wasn't broken.' I also loved the unique characters and the way they shared details about their unique worlds. There were a few times the story got a little didactic, but my biggest complaint was that I felt the story should have been longer. Guess I'll have to pick up the next one!