A Scare A Day Reading Challenge
Romancing the Gothic founder and organiser, Dr Sam Hirst, is back for another month of A Scare A Day. Dr Hirst curates a daily reading list, and the challenge is to read the story or poem for that day and post your thoughts on social media using the tag #AScareADay (not #ScareADay – don’t forget the ‘A’ at the start like I always do!)
Last year, I posted a creative response to each story or poem featured in the challenge, and turned them into Season 05 of Eldritch Girl, where I talked about the stories and poems, and read my fiction/non-fiction piece inspired by the daily read.
This year, I’m pairing the challenge with #100HorrorMoviesIn92Days so I’m going to be suggesting a film pairing to go with the story/poem, the way I do for my book reviews over on Divination Hollow.
The challenge list is posted on RomancingTheGothic.com, and below.
The “A Scare A Day” Daily Reading List 2026
October 1st – Joanna Baillie – Night Tales of Other Times – 1790 – Read it here
October 2nd – Nikolai Karamzin – The Island of Bornholm – 1794 – Read it here
October 3rd – Anne Bannerman – The Black Knight of the Water – 1802 – Read it here
October 4th – William Harrison Ainsworth – The Spectre Bride – 1821 – Read it here
October 5th – Charles Pigault-Lebrun – ‘The Unholy Compact Abjured’ – 1825 – Read it here
October 6th – Mary Elizabeth Braddon – ‘The Cold Embrace’ (1860) – Read it here
October 7th – Amelia Edwards – ‘In the Confessional’ (1871) – Read it here
October 8th – Elizabeth Stuart Phelps – ‘Since I Died’ (1873) – Read it here
October 9th – Mary Elizabeth Coleridge – ‘The Witch’ (1893) – Read it here
October 10th – Arthur Machen – ‘The Novel of the White Powder’ (1895) – Read it here
October 11th – Gertrude Atherton – ‘The Striding Place’ (1896) – Read it here
October 12th – Ella Peattie – ‘From the Loom of the Dead’ (1898) – Read it here
October 13th – Mrs Wilson Woodrow – ‘Secret Chambers’ (1909) – Read it here
October 14th – W W Jacobs – The Well (1911) – Read it here
October 15th – Violet Hunt – ‘The Prayer’ (1911) – Read it here
October 16th – Rabindranath Tagore – ‘The Lost Jewels’ or Monihara (1917) – Read it here
October 17th – Ellen Glasgow – ‘The Past’ (1920) – Read it here
October 18th – Mikhail Bulgakov – ‘The Red Crown’ (1922) – Read it here
October 19th – John Masefield – ‘The Haunted’ (1923) – Read it here
October 20th – Elsa Morante – The Secret game (1941) – Read it here
October 21st – Dorothy Quick – ‘After an Air Raid’ (1943) – Read it here
October 22nd – Mayra Montero – ‘Corinne, Amiable Girl’ (1991) – Read it here
October 23rd – Ahmed Khaled Tawfik – ‘The Wall’ – Read it here
October 24th – Mariana Enríquez – ‘The Little Angel’s Exhumation’ (2014) – Read it here
October 25th – A. C. Wise – ‘The Stories We Tell About Ghosts’ (2017) – Read it here
October 26th – Brandon O’Brien – ‘The Lagahoo Speaks For Itself’ (2017) – Read it here
October 27th – Darcie Little Badger – ‘Those Hitch-hiking Kids’ (2023) – Read it here
October 28th – Tyler Sookralli – ‘The Devil Wears Skin’ (2024) – Read it here
October 29th – Eleanna Castroianni – ‘They Return’ (2025) – Read it here
October 30th – Ash Vale – ‘consumed’ (2026) – Read it here
October 31st – Quincy Lee – ‘The Dark Follows Me’ (2026) – Read it here
A Scare A Day: Day 07
Day 7: “In The Confessional” by Amelia B. Edwards (1871). Read it here.
This one was quite charming in a way; I liked the characters, the warmth, and the sadness of it. It is available to listen to via BiteSize Audio on YouTube. I also really enjoyed “The Phantom Coach” by Edwards, and recommend that story of hers if you want to read more by this author, although she has many stories to explore!
A Scare A Day: Plot Summary
The narrator is a traveller who finds himself along the Rhine. He stops at a village where they absolutely adore their pastors, but when the young man peeks into the Confessional, he gets a fright. The priest sat there does not seem saintly.
On fleeing the church, he learns the story of how a local man called Casper demanded to know the details of his wife’s confession on her saint’s day. When the priest refused to tell him, Casper bludgeoned the priest, took his clothes, and took his wife’s confession in disguise. Then he hacked her up with a hatchet and turned himself in.
Our young narrator is shocked to meet the current priest – who looks very different to the man in the confessional. He understands he saw the murderer’s ghost in his priestly disguise. The current priest is so relieved that someone else can see the ghost that he up and dies the very next day.
A Scare A Day: Film Pairing
I Confess (1953) dir. Alfred Hitchcock, written by George Tabori and William Archibald, based on a stage play by Paul Anthelme, Nos deux consciences/Our Two Consciences, (1902).
This one is a noir thriller/melodrama rather than a Horror, but a lot of priest-centred horror is demonic possession, and that doesn’t fit with the story at all. I went with priests, confession, and murder as the main elements, and picked this Hitchcockian offering for today.
Of course, if you’re looking for more recent priest/murder films – I’d recommend Wake Up Dead Man (2025) dir. Rian Johnson. While both lack a supernatural element, Wake Up Dead Man does have an apparent resurrection scene.
In I Confess, a German immigrant to Quebec City is the culprit, which links to the Rhine setting of Edwards’ short story. The main character is a Catholic priest who hears the confession of the murderer, and finds himself under suspicion for the murder himself. There are a lot of twists and turns, but eventually the murderer is brought to justice. It lacks the physical martyrdom of the story, but the priest is scapegoated and accused of the murder himself, so it comes close!
Leave a Reply