Ep 17 — Halloween: Costumed Revelry, Voices From Beyond, and YAY, Candy! [ repost from 2020 ]

Strong Sense of Place | Travel Through Books

Melissa & Dave

Books, Arts

5.0 • 559 Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’re currently visiting Wales with bookish friends for our Readers Weekend at Trevor Hall. But since Halloween is coming, we thought you might like to revisit our previous episode devoted to Spooky Season. In this episode from 2020, we talk about the origins of Halloween monsters and the tricky laws around selling a haunted house. And we recommend a bunch of books for Halloween, including some fun titles for people who want to get in the spirit but don’t like to be scared. Trick or treat! --- SSoP Podcast Episode 17 — Halloween: Costumed Revelry, Voices From Beyond, and YAY, Candy! It’s no surprise that most Halloween stories delve into the dark corners and shadows of life. That premise is in the very name of the holiday. Originally known as All Hallows' Eve, it’s celebrated just before All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day — two holidays meant to honor the dead. For thousands of years, people all over the world have remembered the lost with candles, rituals, costumes, and revelry. The best Halloween stories produce tingles up the back of the neck, while also, maybe, breaking one’s heart just a little bit. After all, good scares and sorrow often go hand-in-ghostly-hand. In this episode, we get curious about Halloween traditions and explore the lore around classic creepy creatures., Then we recommend books that celebrate the spirit (and spirits) of Halloween, including stories for self-proclaimed scaredy-cats, titles that should come with a ‘don’t read this at night’ warning label,‘ and a few in-between. For more on the books we recommend, plus the other cool stuff we talk about, visit the show notes. Sign up for our free Substack to connect with us and other lovely readers who are curious about the world. Transcript of Halloween: About 31% More Gothic than Normal Do you enjoy our show? Do you want access to awesome bonus content? Please support our work on Patreon! Strong Sense of Place is an audience-funded endeavor, and we need your support to continue making this show. Get all the info you need right here. Thank you! Parts of the Strong Sense of Place podcast are produced in udio. Some effects are provided by soundly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello. We are currently visiting Wales with our bookish friends for our readers' weekend at Trevor Hall.
0:11.9	But since Halloween is right around the corner, we thought you might like to revisit our previous episode devoted to spooky season.
0:18.7	In episode number 17 from 2020, we talked about the origins of Halloween monsters and the tricky
0:24.7	laws around selling a haunted house.
0:26.8	And then we recommended a bunch of books for Halloween, including some fun titles for people
0:31.3	who want to get in the spirit but don't like to be scared.
0:35.3	Here's the episode.
0:36.3	We hope you enjoy it.
0:38.3	And happy Halloween.
0:46.1	Hello, welcome to Strong Sense of Place. In each episode, we focus on one destination and discuss what makes it different from any other place on Earth. Then we recommend five books we love that
0:51.1	took us there on the page. I'm Melissa Jolwan. I'm David Humphreys.
0:54.8	We're going around the world, one great read at a time. Thanks for joining us. Welcome to episode 17 of Strong Sense of Place.
1:24.5	Today, we are all about celebrating Halloween.
1:34.2	I love it. Yeah. Yeah, today we are going to talk about five books we love that brought out
1:43.7	the creepy for us. Maybe more than five. And then I are going to talk about five books we love that brought out the creepy for us.
1:45.4	Maybe more than five.
1:46.9	And then I'm going to talk to Steve Vassette.
1:49.3	Which is very exciting.
1:51.0	Yes.
1:51.8	Steve Vesed is a lovely man.
1:54.0	Steve Bessette is a lovely man who spent most of his life trying to scare people.
1:57.4	Which is so funny because he's like the warmest, kindest.
	...

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