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 – Elia W. 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 13
Day 13: “Secret Chambers” by Mrs Wilson Woodrow (1909). Read it here.
There isn’t an easily accessible story online, so Dr Sam Hirst has transcribed it and put it up on their blog. To thank Sam for this service, you can leave them a tip on Ko-Fi!
I can see why this story has been compared to Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. I love the turns of phrase in this. I really love the descriptions, which echo the artistic themes of the story: “She affirmed that it was a revelation of colour to her; a sky as blue and as brilliant as a sapphire, and against it bold columns of maple-flame, the yellow, fluttering gold of elms and beeches, and the gorgeous sombre bronze of oaks; a splendid trumpet-call of color lifting the heart as on waves of music.”
This is overall quite a sweet story, but it does manage the building sense of frustration and dread quite well as we move to the climax.
A Scare A Day: Plot Summary
Sylvia is very much in love with her husband, Arnold, an artist who has received a commission. Off they go to a house he owns in the country, where he used to live with his first wife, Adele.
Sylvia tries to learn more about Adele and the strange manner of her sudden death, which nobody seems to want to talk about. While there, Arnold becomes so obsessed with his work that he neglects Sylvia, who begins to act and dress like Adele.
Sylvia is about to slash his canvases in a fit of feverish temper when Arnold comes in and stops her. He is aghast, as she is recreating the last moments of Adele’s life – she too ran into the studio, accused him of loving the paintings more than her, slashed them to bits, then killed herself. Sylvia and Arnold are restored to each other and it ends happily.
A Scare A Day: Film Pairing
One of my favourite Vincent Price / Roger Corman Gothics: The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) dir. Roger Corman, written by Robert Towne and Paul Mayersberg, based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe.
Like Adele in today’s story, Ligeia was a woman full of life with an all-pervasive and all-consuming personality. Even after death, she refused to give her husband up to any other woman, and his new bride first channels Ligeia in a séance, then, as far as he is concerned, eventually becomes Ligeia.
It’s all very tragic and melodramatic and there is a crumbling Gothic pile, a sinister tomb, hypnotism, and a dastardly black cat.
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