Spook Week #4 | The Porcelain Doll

Hello bookworms! This week, I'm trying something new that I call "Spook Week." What it means is basically that each day of this week, I write a ghost story here on this blog. The story will either be true, meaning it's something that I or someone I know have gone through, or it's false, meaning I made it up. In my Instagram story (senseandbookibility) I'll do a poll each day, asking if the story of that day is true or false. Then, at the end of the day, I will let you know if the story was, in fact, true or false. Lastly, I just want to say that this is something I do for fun, both because I love ghost stories and because I love the engagement in the bookish community and I hope that this is something that you will enjoy as well. 

Let the spooky story begin... 

The Porcelain Doll

I opened the birthday present from my Mom, pulled off the floral wrapping. When I saw what was inside, a smile appeared on my face. It was a beautiful porcelain doll, with pale skin and the lightest curly blonde hair. She wore a white wedding dress, decorated with pink flowers. I loved this doll and played around with it the next couple of days. My Mom told me that she looked like me, but I just thought it was the blonde hair that was similar. 

One day, everyone in my family was out. My Mom was grocery shopping and my brother was with friends. I was at the age where I could stay home, but Mom didn't want to leave me for too long. I had refused to go to the supermarket because I wanted to play with my dolls. As soon as Mom left, that's exactly what I did. I loved pretending that they were princesses and that they were going to attend a tea party. 

After about an hour I got very hungry, so I left the porcelain doll on my bed, and went to the kitchen. I took a yogurt and a spoon and went back into my bedroom. I got very confused when I walked into the room, because the doll wasn't laying in my bed anymore, but on the floor. I thought that it might have fallen down and didn't think much more about that. Instead, I continued playing.

When my Mom got home, she wanted me to help her unpack the groceries and called for me. I took the doll with me, but my Mom told me to put her away for now, so I placed her on the stairs. It took a while, helping Mom in the kitchen. We took the dishes as well, and I helped her with dinner. My brother got home and we all ate and talked about the day. My brother had played soccer with his friends, both for fun and to practice for the upcoming game next weekend. Time flew by and before we knew it, it was already getting dark. The night always seemed to come faster in autumn. 

When I walked to the stairs to pick up the doll, she was gone. I felt a chill going through me. I looked everywhere for her, in my room, in the kitchen, in the living room, the bathroom, in panic. Then, I went upstairs and looked into my brother's room and there she was, laying on his bed. I was very confused and spooked by this. I didn't understand how she could move to a different place, without someone moving her. I asked my Mom and my brother if they had moved the doll, but they swore that they hadn't. I also thought about earlier that day, when she suddenly laid on the floor instead of on my bed. I started wondering if the doll had it's own life or something, even though I knew that was impossible. But then how did this happen? 

Photo by Fancycrave on Unsplash

Spook Week #3 | The Haunted Forest

Happy Halloween! This week, I'm trying something new that I call "Spook Week." What it means is basically that each day of this week, I write a ghost story here on this blog. The story will either be true, meaning it's something that I or someone I know have gone through, or it's false, meaning I made it up. In my Instagram story (senseandbookibility) I'll do a poll each day, asking if the story of that day is true or false. Then, at the end of the day, I will let you know if the story was, in fact, true or false. Lastly, I just want to say that this is something I do for fun, both because I love ghost stories and because I love the engagement in the bookish community and I hope that this is something that you will enjoy as well. 

Let the third spooky story begin... 

The Haunted Forest

My friends and I had been discussing haunted places for a long time and really wanted to visit one on Halloween. We all love ghost stories and anything supernatural, so this was going to be amazing. 

On Halloween day, I started to pack my things. I needed supplies, like a flashlight, a blanket, some snacks, and a camera. I did not know how long we would stay, so I thought it was better so be prepared. I zipped the bag, got a message from a friend that the ride was here, and ran out to the car. Then, we drove to a forest. The haunted forest that we were headed to was said to drive people mad and the scream of these people can be heard deep in the forest. We did not truly believe in the supernatural. It was just something fun to do during the spooky season. 

We parked in front of the forest, grabbed our bags, and started walking. The forest was big and the leaves had already fallen off most of the trees. There was still daylight outside, which made it look like a completely normal forest. I kept a small distance from my friends for a while, just to breath this forest in and try to feel if it's really haunted. I did not know what I was doing, of course, but I liked to pretend that I knew these things. 

I looked at the tree crowns and noticed that it was getting dark already. Then, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I tensed and slowly turned around. A friend started laughing at how scared I looked and took away the hand. We continued to scare each other and laugh on the way to wherever we were heading. 

We were starting to get pretty deep into the forest now. The wind was getting colder and the night was getting closer. We picked a place to sit down for a while. I put my giant blanket on the ground and we sat in quiet, just listening. The dark really made the forest look different than it had before. I was starting to get creeped out by the feeling of being here. My head had started to ache and I was very tired. We didn't want to sleep here, so we decided to walk some more. We were pretty disappointed that nothing had happened but started walking back to the car anyway. This time, I was in the back, walking behind everyone. I felt a cold wind passing by and I tried to warm my hands by rubbing them together. All that could be heard was the crunching of leaves and mud under our feet and the wind grabbing the trees in a dance. Suddenly, a chill ran through me and I froze. I didn't know if I imagined it or not, but I heard a scream. It wasn't loud, but soft instead, and far away. I looked at my friends, that kept walking, and decided that I had just imagined it. 

The distance between us and the car was getting smaller and I felt relieved by the thought of leaving this place. Nothing had really happened, except for the feeling of not being allowed to walk in that forest, the chilly wind, and my imagined scream. 

When we got home, my friends started talking again and it was only then that I first realized how quiet they had been before. They explained that they had gotten the feeling of not being wanted there and one of them claimed to have heard a scream. I didn't know what to believe. I came up with the reasonable explanation that the situation might have caused us to imagine things that weren't real. There was only one thing I was sure of though, to never go back into that forest ever again in order to find out.

Photo by Jack Cain on Unsplash

Spook Week #2 | Chilly Nights

Hello, bookworms. This week, I'm trying something new that I call "Spook Week." What it means is basically that each day of this week, I write a ghost story here on this blog. The story will either be true, meaning it's something that I or someone I know have gone through, or it's false, meaning I made it up. In my Instagram story (senseandbookibility) I'll do a poll each day, asking if the story of that day is true or false. Then, at the end of the day, I will let you know if the story was, in fact, true or false. Lastly, I just want to say that this is something I do for fun, both because I love ghost stories and because I love the engagement in the bookish community and I hope that this is something that you will enjoy as well. 

Let the second spooky story begin... 

Chilly Nights

The wind screamed into the pitch black night. I woke up from a nightmare and sat up in terror, breathing like I had just ran a marathon. My eyes wandered around in the bedroom, looking at the strange shapes of the furnitures. Then, I realized how dry my throat was and slipped my feet into some slippers, wrapped a dressing gown around my cold body and went downstairs. I walked slowly to try not to wake anyone up. When I reached the ground floor, I felt a chilling wind grabbing me for just a second, before it was gone again. I held my breath and continued into the kitchen. Boxes of random kitchen supplies still stood all around the floor. We had just moved into this house and hadn't had the time to unback yet. I searched the cabinets for a clean glass and poured some cold water.

Suddenly, I felt the same cold wind again. This time it was as if someone was watching me. I turned around but saw nothing. I had watched a lot of horror movies, so maybe that's why I always feel like I have to watch my back when I'm sourrounded by darkness. I shrugged my shoulders, headed upstairs for my room, and didn't think about it again... until the next day. 

In the morning, my family had a conversation at the breakfast table about how it had been such a warm night and that they opened a window to let som air in, to be able to sleep. I thought it was strange, because it had been very cold in my opinion. 

The next night, something woke me up. I couldn't put my finger on what though. My hands searched for the phone placed at my bedside table and put the flash light on. A small stream of light appeared and I held my phone in different areas in my room, but saw nothing. Maybe it was just a bad dream again, I thought, but couldn't go back to sleep. Instead, I went downstairs to take a glass of water. A chilling wind grabbed me as I reached the bottom floor. My feet wandered into the kitchen, where I saw a glass of water neatly standing on the counter. That's weird, I thought. Everyone always cleanes up after themselves. Maybe someone put it there, because they know I always need a glass of water during the nights? 

Then I felt it again, someone watching me. This is silly, I thought, and turned around, but saw nothing. I felt like I needed to make sure it was actually nothing, because maybe there was someone there, maybe someone had snuck in from my parent's or my brother's open windows. I searched through the ground floor; the living room, the hallway, and the bathroom, but there was nothing there. Soon, I gave up and crawled into my bed again.

At the breakfast table the next morning, I told my family what had happend during the night and asked who put the glass of water there for me. Everyone seemed surprised by this and claimed to have slept all night long. I didn't want to trust my family, but I knew that they would never lie about something like this...

Spook Week #1 | Monday Anxiety

Hello, bookworms. This week, I'm trying something new that I call "Spook Week." What it means is basically that each day of this week, I write a ghost story here on this blog. The story will either be true, meaning it's something that I or someone I know have gone through, or it's false, meaning I made it up. In my Instagram story (senseandbookibility) I'll do a poll each day, asking if the story of that day is true or false. Then, at the end of the day, I will let you know if the story was, in fact, true or false. Lastly, I just want to say that this is just something I do for fun, both because I love ghost stories and because I love the engagement in the bookish community and I hope that this is something that you will enjoy as well.

Let the first spooky story begin...

Monday Anxiety

It was a very ordinary Monday afternoon. I was on my way home from school, running from the bus in the rain with my backpack and bags of Christmas presents. I fumbled for my keys and when I finally found them, I unlocked the front door. Looking into the messy living room, I took off my shoes and shouted; "Hello?!" to hear if anyone was home. It was only 12:30 PM. I used to finish school early on Mondays and be the first one home. However, I heard a soft voice answer my call with a "hello". I was surprised. Is Simon already home? That's unusual, I thought. Then I shrugged my shoulders, let go of the backpack and the bags on the floor. Everything went according to my basic routine, hang the jacket, put the shoes on the shelf and make a sandwich because the food in school was.. questionable.

Anyway, I was now heading for my room. I sat for about an hour at my desk and wrote on my English essay. I heard some sounds coming from my brother's room from time to time. I took a break, wrote a little more, took another break. The noise continued. It was quite normal with the sounds because my brother usually plays computer games and he hits the keys as well as kicks on the table in frustration when something goes wrong or he loses. I called to him, "Can you please be a bit quieter? I'm trying to study here!" and hoped that it would be heard through the wall. The miserable throbbing ended hastily. "Is everything okay?" I asked. Dead silence filled the house. I assumed he didn't hear me. He used to sit with headphones on.

I turned to stare at the computer screen again and knocked a little at the table at the same time, humming to a song stuck in my head. Then I heard it. Someone knocked back, on the other side of the wall, and exactly as many knocks as I did. I even tried by knocking 5 times loud against the wall. 5 knocks were heard shortly afterward on the other side of the wall. Now he's messing around with me, I thought. What is he doing?

I tried knocking again. The same amount of knocks could be heard from my brother's room. I sighed and continued with my essay. The time was now almost 14:00 PM, which is when Simon usually gets home. And exactly as every Monday, the door opened downstairs, keys scrambled, a bag was dropped on the ground and I could hear a wondering "hello?", asking if anyone was at home. It was Simon...

Photo by Ehud Neuhaus on Unsplash

The Remnant Chronicles | Book Review (Spoiler Free!)

Author: Mary E. Pearson
Pages: 1646
My Rating: 5/5

"It can take years to mold a dream. It takes only a fraction of a second for it to be shattered."

Goodreads Description for The Kiss of Deception

Lia has survived Venda—but so has a great evil bent on the destruction of Morrighan. And only Lia can stop it.

With war on the horizon, Lia has no choice but to assume her role as First Daughter, as soldier—as leader. While she struggles to reach Morrighan and warn them, she finds herself at cross-purposes with Rafe and suspicious of Kaden, who has hunted her down.
In this conclusion to the Remnant Chronicles trilogy, traitors must be rooted out, sacrifices must be made, and impossible odds must be overcome as the future of every kingdom hangs in the balance.

Review

This is one of the best trilogies I have read for a while. It has it all, action, romance, secrets, twists and turns. When I finished the first book, I was amazed, then the second book was even better, and the third was a great finish to the series. Pearson did not disappoint at all and I'm very excited to read her other books because the writing style was very much my thing. 

I loved the characters! The character development is also great in this book series. Lia is kind of stubborn, which doesn't have to be a bad thing, because she knows what she wants and fights for that to come true. She learns a lot through these books and her independence and self-confidence grow. Rafe and Kaden, also have a great development in personality and values. In the first book, you don't know which of them is the assassin and which is the prince. That's an effective element to the first book, in my opinion, because it's constantly a guessing game. 

The trilogy contains a lot of twists and turns, a lot of hard challenges for characters, not least Lia. I think it's very well planned. By the end of the last book, I felt very attached to the characters and now I'm really going to miss them. I feel like you got to know them so well, to see their ups and downs, and still care for them. 

If you love fantasy and romance and you still haven't read this series, I highly recommend it. It's a book with great rival kingdoms, an amazing setting, loving characters, and an irresistible story. 

Jane Eyre | Book Review (Spoiler Free)

Author: Charlotte Bronte
Pages: 507
My Rating: 3/5
Published: October 16th, 1847

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will."

Goodreads Description
Fiery love, shocking twists of fate, and tragic mysteries put a lonely governess in jeopardy JANE EYRE

Orphaned as a child, Jane has felt an outcast her whole young life. Her courage is tested once again when she arrives at Thornfield Hall, where she has been hired by the brooding, proud Edward Rochester to care for his ward Adéle. Jane finds herself drawn to his troubled yet kind spirit. She falls in love. Hard.

But there is a terrifying secret inside the gloomy, forbidding Thornfield Hall. Is Rochester hiding from Jane? Will Jane be left heartbroken and exiled once again?

Review
This book is a classic for a reason. The story of Jane Eyre is unlike anything I've read before, and certainly meaningful at the time it was published. In the 1800s, women didn't have as much power as men, and it was a strong class society. This book is innovative for its time. You get to know Jane very well when reading this novel, from her tragic childhood to her grown-up life. The journey that she takes through the book, as she experiences the different classes, is intriguing. She wants freedom and independence, something that's one of the common themes in this book.

The plot itself is interesting, dark and somber. I love the mystery of the madwoman in the attic at Thornfield Hall. It adds a bit of horror to this book's genre. Jane goes through a lot in this book and I think that Brontë has succeeded with keeping the reader interested in the story all the way. There are some parts that according to me were a bit slow, but things can't be happening all of the time, right?

As for the characters, Jane Eyre herself is very conscientious, honest and circumspect. She is a strong main character that carries a heartbreaking baggage, but still finds a way to follow her heart. Edward Rochester is also quite honest. For someone who lives in a modern society, there are a lot of things he says that I would find impolite. There are some paragraphs that are against the feministic world we live in today. For example, he calls her his little lamb and that she is vulnerable and needs protection.

But overall, I'm glad that I have now read this book, which I did because of school. I also did an assignment for school about class distinctions in Jane Eyre. If you loved this book and you are into horror novels or mystery, there's actually a book called "The Madwoman in the Attic" that is based on the woman locked in the attic at Thornfield in Jane Eyre.

Fall Bucket List: 19 Ideas For The Season

Hello, bookworms. This year, I have looked back on my previous autumns and realized that I haven't fully experienced the season. That is why I want to try some new things this year. October is already here and I haven't started yet, but I still have time. This post is about things you can do during the fall season. Since I live in Sweden, I think I'm a little more limited as to what I can do. I'm thinking about how popular it seems to be to go to a pumpkin patch, but I'm not sure I have any, where I live. I'm still including some of these things because I can always dream, and I don't think I will complete the list this year and then I will have some things to do next fall as well.

• Go apple picking

• Decorate your room for fall

• Take a fall foliage walk 

• Write a poem about fall

• Bake apple pie

• Try some fall DIY's

• Visit a corn maze

• Watch scary movies

• Go to a haunted house

• Attend a fall festival

• Carve pumpkins

• Jump in a pile of leaves

• Visit a pumpkin patch

• Make caramel apples

• Take a walk a crisp morning

• Have a bonfire

• Try a pumpkin recipe

• Read books

• Go stargazing