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 09
Day 9: “The Witch” by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1893). Read it here.
This is a short poem, only 3 stanzas, but pretty creepy! I enjoyed the chilling (literally) conclusion.
Poetry By Heart has both the text, and a live performance video for this poem.
The meter is a bit tricky to set this one to music, but feel free to give it a go.
A Scare A Day: Plot Summary
The narrator of the first 2 stanzas has the appearance of a small girl, or adolescent, and she is begging to be let in to a house as she is alone, cold, wet, and destitute.
The third stanza is from the perspective of the person inside the house, whose fire dies and is never relit after acquiescing to bring the girl in.
A Scare A Day: Film Pairing
While you might think either adaptation of Let The Right One In is the obvious choice, or even Eggers’ The VVitch to reflect the title, I have another one to offer.
Today’s film is Rabbit Trap (2025) dir. Bryn Chainey, written by Bryn Chainey. It’s our second Dev Patel film of the month!
I chose this for The Nameless Child – assumed by the main characters to be a boy – who is played by Jade Croot, a Welsh actress in her 20s at the time of filming, which creates a strange impression of agelessness and androgyny.
Letting the Child into their cottage and their lives sets the couple, Darcy (played by Dev Patel) and Daphne (played by Rosy McEwan) into a tailspin of strange supernatural and off-kilter experiences, and releases unnamed trauma in Darcy.
The Child’s dialogue also directly reflects the lines in the poem, and the deep desire to enter the house – and their hearts – is a central, driving motivation.
This film is also a great example of how to weave music into a Welsh film without it being stereotypical, and using it to tap into ways of connecting with the landscape and spirituality. I also loved the lullaby, sung in Cymraeg.
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