gremlin girl autumn | lately with lila october 2025

Hello again, dear friends! I hope you all are well, and if not then I hope brighter days head your way soon! Well, friends, October has come to an end and we are speeding towards the end of the year! Can you believe it?! October as a bit of an odd month for me in that it seemed to progress very slow, yet somehow it also ended in the blink of an eye? It was like a weird liminal space of a month, it was strange. Anyhoo, I did somehow manage to do a bit of blogging on top of finishing a book and watching a bit of TV, so let’s just jump straight into the wrap-up!

A few years ago, I started reading the graphic novel Over My Dead Body by Sweeny Boo and I finally decided to pick it up again and finish it during the final days of this past month. Honestly? It was just okay. It follows a witch—Abigail—at a school for witches. When one of her friends disappears Abby and her other friends uncover some dark secrets in the school’s past and must work to make things right. Okay, so let me at least say that the illustrations in this are absolutely GORGEOUS!…Unfortunately, that was about all that I really liked. Abby and her friends felt like cardboard cutouts of characters rather than full, dynamic characters with actual story arcs, and, as for the actual story in question? It was really bland. It borrows familiar elements from the “witch school” subgenre of fantasy but didn’t really invest into developing those elements—or anything else, really. I left this book feeling disappointed and, worse, bored. I’m extra salty because, like I said, the art was so incredible. Unfortunately, everything else just wasn’t there.

Rating: what i’m currently reading

On a real whim, I ended up picking up the audiobook for the newly released The Book of Autumn by Molly O’Sullivan on the day it came out (which, mind you, was four days before October ended). I went into this story not really knowing or expecting too much. I knew it was a dark academia set in New Mexico which featured a pair of magicians who had a past together. And that’s about it. Now that I’m about a fifth of the way through the story, I can actually say that so far I really enjoy what I’ve read! I will say that the setting doesn’t really fit with the stereotypical aesthetic of “dark academia,” but I certainly don’t dislike it—I actually think it’s a pretty interesting choice of setting for the subgenre! Anyhoo, I’m happy to say that I have a good feeling about this read!

I also fell into reading Fallen City by Adrienne Young, which is Young’s newly released Greco-Roman inspired Adult high fantasy. I saw that it’s had middling reviews, but honestly this book sucked me in right away. It’s about a young woman who’s a magistrate’s daughter and heir and who also is an apprentice to a high priestess and a young man who’s a different magistrate’s heir and also a philosopher’s apprentice. Apparently, something happens to tear their society apart and these two characters find themselves on opposing sides of a holy war. Of course, there’s a hint of romance and a more than a helping of intrigue along the way too! So far, I’m really intrigued by the story and am pretty invested in the characters and their world. Fingers crossed, it stays that way through the book!

If—and this is a big “if”—I manage to finish my current reads, then I’m absolutely going to pick up The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow. Honestly, The Everlasting was my most anticipated release of 2025, so now that it’s out on shelves and I have the audiobook copy in my hands, I want to try to read it by the end of the year rather than putting it off until later. Part of me is worried because I have such high expectations for this book and I don’t want to be disappointed, but I’ve also seen almost universal glowing reviews for it as well, so maybe my worries are for naught.

I watched episode one of the Netflix original docuseries Popstar Academy: KATSEYE, and I’m surprised to say that I really enjoyed what I watched! I don’t typically opt to watch documentaries (although when I do watch them, I typically enjoy them), which is why I’m surprised I decided to watch this docuseries of my own volition. I will admit that, as a singer myself, Popstar Academy: KATSEYE was probably an obvious choice which plays to my interests, as it’s about the behind-the-scenes of the formation of the girl group KATSEYE. I decided to watch after listening to a bit of KATSEYE’s music and really enjoying it. I found the episode I watched really interesting—especially as it focused a decent amount on what music executives screen for when picking up artists. I definitely want to continue the series when I get a chance!

Rating:

I (finally) watched the season finale of Season 1 of Wednesday as well. It was perfect timing, as in my mind Wednesday is one of the perfect series to watch around Halloween! Anyhoo, I really enjoyed Season 1 of this series! I love Wednesday and how true to herself she is, no matter how off-putting others may find her. I also loved Enid (who I relate to a lot) and her relationship with Wednesday. Their friendship actually reminded me of my dynamic with one of my best friends, as I am very similar to Enid and my bestie is very similar to Wednesday. I also adored meeting all of the other “outcasts” of Nevermore Academy, like Bianca, Eugene, and Xavier, and I can’t wait to see more of them plus Wednesday and Enid in Season 2!

Rating: what i listened to

high notes

Everybody Scream by Florence + The Machine I loved Florence’s music when I was a teenager, back when her albums Lungs and Ceremonials first released, but in my twenties I stopped following her as closely. Everybody Scream is the first album from her since Ceremonials that I’ve listened to all the way through. And you know what? It’s yet another hit! Florence Welch’s powerful yet ethereal voice is quite something to hear again, and her music is still incredibly evocative. I’m definitely gonna go back and listen to even more of her backlist now!

“Are You Happy Now?” by Michelle Branch Fun fact about me: Michelle Branch was one of my favorite artists when I was a little kid. I even remember getting her CD (yes, I am that old, lol!) when I was about six and constantly blasting it and singing along. “Are You Happy Now?” was one of my favorite songs from her, so color me surprised when I heard it in the background of a reel on Instagram and all of a sudden happy musical childhood memories came flooding back to me.

“Nice To Each Other” by Olivia Dean The fact that this song was used as background audio in, like, every journaling influencer’s reels in October finally broke me down. What can I say—it’s a catchy song!! I found myself humming it and singing the chorus to myself more and more as October progressed, and I can’t really say I’m all too upset about it, tbh.

for readers

• Ingrid talked romance novels and unrealistic expectations
• Sumedha shared her top 10 bookish lures and also shared a guide to Abby Jimenez books
• Emma highlighted nonfiction books about nature for Nonfiction November
• Krysta discussed trends in Middle Grade fantasy books
• Blair Natalia spotlighted her favorite fall romances featuring lesbians
• Jordan showed off cozy YA romances to add to your fall TBR
• Ahaana interviewed Chloe Gong about her upcoming release Coldwire
• Lou revealed the books she’s been avoiding
• Isabelle revisited her thoughts on book ratings
• Beloved author Marie Lu wrote a guest post for John Scalzi’s blog, Whatever, all about her latest release, Red City
• Anna gave us dangerous book recommendations
• Kathy shed light on fall books that aren’t scary
• 24hryabookblog talked over book trends in YA fantasy
• Aria told us what her favorite book characters were doing at her age (18)
• Emma recommended books to read based on your favorite song from Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl

for fun

• Sumedha also shared end of the year content ideas
• Blair Natalia created a soft girl autumn playlist

October was a quiet month for me. Going into the month, I had hoped to get out and do lots of autumn activities with my friends, but unfortunately school and work kept both me and my friends pretty busy. Despite that disappointing note, though, October wasn’t all that bad! I worked and went to school, and in my spare time I got pretty invested in my “cozy hobbies,” like reading, knitting, crochet, journaling, and working on a letter for my pen pal. It was really comforting to focus on those things as the days continued to get shorter and colder, and it kept me in a good mood for most of the month.

November contains Thanksgiving, my birthday, and my 11th blogiversary—so it should be a pretty packed month for me!

We (finally!) got our new stove installed, so we’ll be able to make a proper Thanksgiving feast, along with my favorite birthday cake (which is gluten-free lemon blueberry cake with lemon frosting—made specially for me by my mom) and I’m excited! I’m also hoping to get to cooking and baking some other fun, autumnal recipes too! Oh, the things you can do with a working stove, lol!

On the hobby front, I’m planning on crocheting a top-down raglan sweater! I learned how to do so with this video from YouTuber it’s erin b., who’s a YouTuber who focuses on crochet tutorials and vlogs. I’ve watched her tutorial several times and I think I’ve got a good idea of what to do and will let the video guide me on the rest. I also picked out my colors for the sweater (pink and green) and I think it’s gonna turn out soooooo cute! I’m really excited to get started!

Another hobby I’m also working on is a letter to respond to my pen pal! In all honesty, there was a good deal going on for me over summer and I got really stressed and stopped writing my pen pal. So, I was surprised when I received a sweet letter from her in October checking in on me to make sure I was okay. It was so sweet, and I was (and remain) so touched that she’d thought of me and still wanted to write despite my radio silence. So, of course, I’ve gotten to work creating a pen pal letter response for her, which I’m hoping to send off in early November!

And finally, my last big hobby project that I’ll be working on in November is a “sisterhood of the traveling journal” type journal that my friends and I will be sending around. I actually saw the idea of a journal shared between friends a few years ago, but this year I saw the trend going round on social media of friends taking part in a “sisterhood of the traveling journal.” How my friends and I have decided to set ours up is that we’re getting a traveler’s notebook with four inserts (one for each of us) and in the first half of the inserts we’ll do group spreads based around fun prompts we’ve created for each other and in the back half the inserts we can do personal journaling. When the inserts are full, each of us can keep our assigned insert, which will have become part friendship scrapbook and part personal journal—and then, of course we start the process again with new inserts! I’m so, soooo, sooooooooo excited for this project!! I’m working on it with my friends who I met in my Physics I course, since all of us have moved on to attend different colleges, but we still want to keep in touch. It’s gonna be so much fun and so sweet!!!

As for my birthday, I honestly don’t really know how I want to celebrate it. I’d love to do something with my friends, but as my birthday always falls on or around Thanksgiving, oftentimes that means my friends are away visiting family. That said, at least this year I can once again have my mom’s spectacularly delicious homemade glute-free lemon blueberry birthday cake with lemon frosting yet again! Honestly, tasting that at long last will definitely make my birthday a little brighter!

How was your October 2025? Did you read anything memorable? What’s on your TBR for November 2025? Books aside, what are you looking forward to in November 2025?

Learn more the author of this post:

Lila @ Hardcover Haven

Lila is a 30 year old anthropology student and lover of literature who's been book blogging for an eternity. Her hobbies include reading, singing, writing, arts and crafts, and snuggling her two cats, Snoopy and Clementine.