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Nicole Decory

@nicoledecory

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Writer and reader.
Horror | Fantasy | Romance 🥀
Certified weird girl 👻
Cozy life enthusiast. 🚫Gen Ai.

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In the middle of reading Ninth House with @litwithgabs & @ovium_reads, & surprise to no one but I already love it. Maybe it's the time of year, but I am craving more academic settings with dark vibes. Give me haunted libraries, forbidden romances, and monsters that prowl the halls after dark.

These books are what come to mind when I think of dark academia but I know there has to be a ton more! Drop me your recs because I'm on the hunt.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The Cloisters by Katy Hays
A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
The Devils Makes Three by Tori Bovalino
Evocation by ST Gibson
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Don't Let the Forest In by CG Drews
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

#darkacademia #bookrecs #darkacademiabooks #horrorbooks #fantasybooks by @nicoledecory

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11 days ago

I can't believe that September has come and gone! And if I'm being honest, I went into it with a reading plan but it was completely derailed when I started buddy reading with @litwithgabs and @ashleyfinamorereads. No regrets though! I am obsessed with our reading chat and loved all three books we read together: From Below by Darcy Coates, Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce, and The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo.

Then I had another amazing buddy read with @caramelmadcchiato of Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna Van Veen.

By a miracle, these were completed on my own:
The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox
Cackle by Rachel Harrison
Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio

And now it's time to decide what to read for October! This time around I'll just skip the plans and see where my heart (& the buddy reads) take me 🩵

Let me know if you read any of these! And if not, what was your favorite book of September? Mine is a three way tie between The Familiar, Cackle, and Blood on Her Tongue. But really, every book this month was a hit.

Edit: if anyone comments about the typo on The Familiar slide 👊👹

#readingwrapup #horrorbooks #gothichorror #gothicbooks #readinghorror by @nicoledecory

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15 days ago

Thank you @kassinthestacks for tagging me in this! I didn't do the last slide (books I thought would be five stars and weren't) because I only wanted to highlight the books that earned five stars (or that have yet to prove they aren't)🩵 but if I tagged you, feel free to include the additional slide in your post!

Image Source: Twin Stars by Luis Ricardo Falero, 1881. Retrieved from Obelisk.

#fivestarbooks #reading #bookrecs #bookworm #favoritebooks

Books I think will be 5 stars:

The House of Gardenias by Isabel Cañas
Monstrous Bitch by Eleanor Johnson
They Can't Burn Us All by Cathryn Kemp
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig

Books I thought would be 5 stars and were:

Beren and Lúthien by J.R.R. Tolkien
Cackle by Rachel Harrison
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Witchcraft by Marion Gibson

Books that were unexpectedly five stars:

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
From Below by Darcy Coates
It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden by @nicoledecory

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17 days ago

October is almost upon us, which means that Halloween is also just around the corner! If you haven't finalized your spooky month TBR, here are some favorites of mine for your consideration 🎃👻🩵

#halloween #halloweenbooks #horror #horrorbooks #bookrecs

Image Source: Portrait de Robin, visité par un fantôme. Retrieved from Wikipedia Commons.

Classics:
Carmilla by Sheridan La Fanu
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Mysterious Warning by Eliza Parsons
Louis the Witch by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Witchy:
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
Cackle by Rachel Harrison
The Moor Witch by Jessica Khoury
Phantasma by Kaylie Smith
Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce
The Witches of New York by Amy McKay
The Witching Hour by Anne Rice
A Resistance of Witches by Morgan Ryan
Conjure Women by Afia Atakora
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T.Kingfisher

Vampiric:
Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna Van Veen
Vampire of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
Interview with the Vampire & Pandora by Anne Rice
Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma
Lucy Undying by Kiersten White
Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison
Brides by Charlotte Cross
Fragile Animals by Genevieve Jagger
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Haunts, Devils, etc:
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen
One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig
The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino
What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Don't Let the Forest In by CG Drews
The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas
Evocation by ST Gibson
From Below by Darcy Coates
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia by @nicoledecory

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18 days ago

@ashleyfinamorereads reminded me recently that I need to stop apologizing so much. It's a horrible habit we women are conditioned to have. In honor of her sage advice, here are some of my favorite books/books on my TBR that explore the exploitation of woman, their well deserved fury with societal expectations, and the burning desire to crush the patriarchy.

Edit: I just became informed about what is happening with Cornell. As I read through the details I felt more and more horrified but tragically not surprised, and my lack of shock breaks my own heart. Why is it that every woman knows of another woman or has experienced themselves harm at the hands of men. And more often than not, the women are blamed for the acts and receive no justice. Yet men never know any men who would enact such violence? It makes no sense and speaks volumes about how society has collectively failed women around the world, throughout history.

The image I used was by artist Artemisia Gentileschi who also denied justice for the violence she experienced. If you haven't, I recommend reading her story.

Image Source: Judith Beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi 1620. Retrieved from Artsy.

#bookrecs #feministbooks #horrorbooks #horror

Read and Loved:
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen
Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce
Lucy Undying by Kiersten White
The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas
Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Mary by Nat Cassidy
The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

On my TBR:
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
Muñeca by Cynthia Gomez
Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito
Milkteeth by Caitlin Starling
Diavola by Jennifer Marie Thorne
The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling
Dark is When the Devil Comes by Daisy Pearce
Slewfoot by Brom
A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers by @nicoledecory

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19 days ago

I was absolutely not tagged in any of these but I've enjoyed seeing them all so I thought I would share mine anyways 🩵

My Ten Before the End of 2026:

The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst
Black Feathers by Rebecca Netley
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio
The Executioners Three by Susan Dennard
They Can't Burn Us All by Cathryn Kemp
The House of Gardenias by Isabel Cañas
Hungerstone by Kat Dunn
Monstrous Bitch by Eleanor Johnson

Neither The House of Gardenias nor Monstrous Bitch have dropped quite yet but they are two of my most anticipated releases this fall. The rest are from my physical TBR, which has slowly been growing a bit out of hand for my personal tastes. Yet, of course, I keep adding to it. If I fail at this and I only get to one of them, it's going to finally be the Knight and the Moth. I swear.

What is one book you are determined to read by the end of year?

I did tag some people who I didn't notice doing this yet but if you were not tagged, actually yes you were. Please do it so I can see yours too.

#booksta #books #reading #readinggoals #tenbeforetheend by @nicoledecory

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a month ago

I've been seeing all the horror girlies dropping their Holy Trinities, and I thought to myself, "Guess I have to post my Holy Trinities now, too."

But I wanted to take the chance to focus on one of my lifelong passions–gothic literature.

Some key points:

~The first appearance of gothic literature is said to be The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole in 1764.
~Dark themes do not instantly mean a book is gothic, there are certain literary elements that should make an appearance.
~some key elements include an isolated setting(physically or metaphorically), exploration of the psyche/unconscious, strong emotional contrast (fear and joy, pleasure and pain, obsession and revulsion, love and hate etc), the supernatural, the inevitability of death (death of the body, soul, way of life etc).
~Not every gothic book is horror, though terror is a commonly explored theme in gothic lit.

Ok, swipe on to see my picks! 🩵 (you can scroll to slide 6 to see more recent release recs!)

#gothicliterature #horrorbooks #books #bookstagram #bookrecs

Romantic Gothic

Gothic books published during the Romantic literary period (1798-1837).

1. The Asylum by Isaac Mitchell
2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
3. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

Victorian Gothic

Gothic books published during the Victorian era (1837-1901).

1. Lois the Witch by Elizabeth Gaskell
2. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
3. Dracula by Bram Stoker

Early 20th Century Gothic

Gothic books published between 1902-1930.

1. The Lost Ghost by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
2. The Haunted Woman by David Lindsay
3. The Demon Lover by Elizabeth Bowen

Late 20th Century Gothic

Gothic books published between 1931-1999.

1. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
2. Mysteries of Winterthurn by Joyce Carol Oates
3. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Gothic Horror

Recently published gothic horror.

1. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
2. My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna Van Veen
3. Smothermoss by Alisa Alering

Gothic Mystery

Recently published Gothic Mystery.

1. The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
2. A Study in Drown by @nicoledecory

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a month ago

August was probably my busiest reading month in quite awhile! While it's hard to pick a favorite since they were all bangers this month, I think Half a Soul and My Darling Dreadful Thing stood out the most.

Let me know how your August went! Were there any standout books?

(I realize that 9 is not so many compared to others on here but between FT work, FT school, writing commitments, and social obligations... this was already a stretch for me).

#bookstagram #reading #books #bookworm #bookish by @nicoledecory

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2 months ago

This summer has been especially difficult with the constant heat, causing me to sequester myself at home. But I finally ventured out for a trip to Cambridge and it was such a lovely time. The architecture, atmosphere, and history of the area were all wildly inspiring. Plus, I came away with quite the book haul! I'll make a haul video soon...maybe?

Here are a few images that captured my favorite moments and curiosities we came across.

What was your favorite memory this month? I hope you all survived the heat far better than I did. (Look at me saying survived as if I wasn't still actively fighting for my life in this inferno. Send help. )

P.S. some of these pictures were actually taken in Ely instead of Cambridge.

#bookstagram #travel #summer #reading #writers taken in Cambridge, UK by @nicoledecory

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2 months ago

I wish I too could be a vampire weeping at the beauty of the night. More books to consider for your autumn TBR, this time Vampire themed. An obvious classic was included as a reminder to add it to your TBR if you haven't read it yet ♥️

Do you have a favorite vampire story? While I love most vampire tales, if you give me a tragic one, full of longing and despair, it will become an obsession.

Background Image Source: "Dante and Virgil in Hell" by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1850. Retrieved from Obelisk (ArtHistoryProject.com)

#vampire #horrorbooks #bookrecommendations #bookstagram #bookstoread by @nicoledecory

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2 months ago

Hauntingly good books to consider for your autumn TBR.

Anyone else obsessed with ghosts and hauntings? It's maybe my favorite theme in literature, regardless of genre.

Background Image Source: "The Appearance of a Spectre - in 'Je Sais Tout'" by Serafino Macchiati. Retrieved from Meisterdrucke

#bookrecommendations #horrorbooks #bookstagram #reading #books by @nicoledecory

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2 months ago

Autumn Book Recs Part II. Demons, possessions, and even appearances from the Devil himself.

What is your favorite type of book to read in autumn?

Background Image Source: "Temptations of St Anthony" by Bernardo Parentino, 1494. Retrieved from Obelisk (ArtHistoryProject.com)

#bookstagram #bookrecommendations #fantasy #horror #reading by @nicoledecory

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2 months ago