“You crossed the threshold weeks ago. Today is simply the first day you noticed.”

Fall has arrived, and around Growls & Grimm it feels a little less like a transformation and more like the rest of the world finally catching up. The days are getting shorter, the shelves a little darker, and the strange things we keep around suddenly look perfectly seasonal.

Since I last wrote, the library has grown in a few quiet ways. There are new places to explore, new ways to take part, and as always more books waiting on the shelves. Some of those additions have been intentional. Others feel more like the natural result of following G&G a little farther down the hallway.

And with the darker half of the year ahead, plenty is waiting beyond the next door.

Around the Library
A Shelf Worth Visiting — Books That Taught Me to Love the Dark
This is a look at the books I've encountered over the years that taught me there are different degrees of dark, all the places that darkness can hide, and how I came to love each of them for different reasons.

A New Room — The Fall Reading Room
With fall here, there of course have to be books perfect for the season. Whether you're looking for dark fantasy or something made for spooky season, the Fall Reading Room is filled with books to add to your TBR or maybe jump right into.

A Quiet Addition — The Reading Challenges
I've made a small expansion into Etsy. I wanted to offer readers something beyond the free seasonal trackers on the site, so I've started creating more substantial, guided reading challenges for those who want to spend a little more time with their books. So head over to the site’s seasonal reading trackers and challenges page.

One Book to Leave on the Desk

Alchemised by SenLinYu
This is not a book I would hand to everyone. It asks for time, patience, and a willingness to stay inside something difficult for a very long time. Could it have been shorter? Absolutely. But much of what makes the ending work is built quietly across all those pages. This is one of those books where the journey isn't simply carrying you toward the ending. It's constructing it.

Looking Toward the Next Shelf
We are heading into the darker half of the year, but the shadows around Growls & Grimm aren't arriving with October. They've always been here. Over the next few months, we'll step inside haunted houses, gather around complicated hearths, and eventually follow the oldest stories into winter.

There will be books, of course. There are always more books. But there will also be folklore, strange traditions, old magic, and the things we carry with us when the nights grow longer.

October begins with The Anatomy of a Haunting. From there, we'll find out what the hearth keeps before winter arrives and Where the Old Stories Walk begins.

See you in the shadows,
Growls & Grimm