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 05
Day 5: “The Unholy Compact Abjured” by Charles Pigault-Lebrun (1825). Read it here.
This is not one I can really rate. I don’t know what to make of it; it has echoes of Jephthah’s Daughter in Judges 11, except the protagonist does the sensible thing instead.
It’s definitely a Christ the Conqueror sort of story, which is very funny considering the life of its author.
A Scare A Day: Plot Summary
The story is about a soldier boy called St Amand (which I think is pronounced San-amorn in a French accent). St Amand, or Cinnamon, as I keep calling him in my head, is not the brightest spark in the tinder pile, and one night, at a crossroads, interrupts an old woman saying an incantation to ask the way. She is mightily displeased by this, and happens to be the greatest witch in them there parts, and curses him, saying any way he takes will end in death.
He ends up in a vampire castle where the aesthetic is very much freshly-slain-corpse chic, and Cinnamon ends up begging a demon for his life. They make the ‘compact’ of the title (meaning ‘contract’ or ‘bargain’, in this case). Cinnamon is going to kill the first dove that flies into his arms as a sacrifice to the demon.
He’s happy to kill a dove, so agrees. The demon instantly transports him to the bedroom of his girlfriend, Ninette, (which is all very French and scandalous), who immediately rushes into his arms. She is the ‘dove’ he must sacrifice.
Cinnamon is unhappy about this. A priest tells him not to be so stupid, and to abjure the compact and face the demon’s wrath. When he does, and gives himself wholly back to God (implied), the demon can’t touch him, so makes a bit of noise and buggers off. Cinnamon marries Ninette, and all is well that ends well.
A Scare A Day: Film Pairing
Today’s film pairing is Sacrifice (2021) dirs. Andy Collier and Tor Mian, written by both directors. This is a UK film set in Norway, in which a man brings his pregnant wife home to a small village on the banks of a fjord, except … things are not as welcoming as they seem. It’s based on a short story by Paul Kane, and is an entry into the Lovecraftian mythos.
Naturally, sacrifice is a key theme (as the title would suggest), and so is a compact with a strange entity…
It’s one of the better Mythos films, in fact, although it does lean hard into pregnancy horror which isn’t my cup of tea. I enjoyed it regardless.
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