If Halloween’s about one thing, it’s the delicious candy. But! If Halloween’s about two things, it’s the delicious candy and good books (We’re Tor. We’re nerds).
Check out these pairings of sweet treats and matching reads!
The tag for Sour Patch Kids might be Sour, Sweet, Gone—but not V. E. Schwab! They are BACK, returning to the expansive world(s) they created in the Shades of Magic Trilogy. The Fragile Threads of Power features both new characters and old, which is why we’ve paired it with Sour Patch Kids Watermelon. It’s everything you love and a little more. A little different. Familiar, yet new. Out now in paperback!
For very brief spans in 2019 and 2020, Skittles ran a special limited-time Halloween campaign, delivering unto us Zombie Skittles. They’re just like regular Skittles, but a few—visually indecipherable from their more delicious brethren—were zombies, and tasted awful. Traitor of Redwinter by Ed McDonald is way cooler than Zombie Skittles because it brings all the scary candy’s suspense without tasting abominable (probably just tastes neutrally of paper, if you tried to snack on it). Out in paperback on 10/15!
The much-loved Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup owes its storied position in candy history to its artful fusion of two flavors: Chocolate. Peanut butter. We honor Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree by pairing it with the peanut butter cup, because it too is a smooth blend of distinct flavors. Viv is a mercenary, but a warrior stuck in recovery in a tiny beach town. But adventures seldom play out as you expect. This sleepy town and its cozy bookshop are full of peanut butter, or they are peanut butter and adventure is the chocolate. This metaphor makes sense. We will not be taking any questions. This luxe edition is out on 10/29!
Cat Rambo’s Disco Space Opera series (and playlist! Check out their playlist!) began with You Sexy Thing and continued with Devil’s Gun, named respectively after the rock time tunes “You Sexy Thing” by Hot Chocolate and “Devil’s Gun” by C.J. & Co. Fittingly, we have elected to pair this sci-fi adventure with Disco’s, a candy we’ve never heard of before and seems to be available primarily in the United Kingdom? But whatever. C’est la vie. We did it for the name. Out now in paperback!
For R.R. Virdi’s hugely epic The Doors of Midnight, we’re hauling in the world’s largest gummy shark. Like this massive gummified carnivore confection, The Doors of Midnight will sustain you for a while. One will feed your body, and one will nourish the soul.
Starter Villain by John Scalzi is the story of a hapless guy who inherits his uncle’s supervillain business, including among other assets, an array of espionage-ready cats. We pair it with the original Sour Patch Kids, harkening back to that aforementioned tag, Sour, Sweet, Gone. This is a book of cozy opposites—namely surprisingly cool supervillains. Out now in paperback!
Exadelic & Monster Energy
Far from a traditional Halloween trick-or-treat staple, these energy drinks nevertheless taste like candy, and pair perfectly with Jon Evans Exadelic, which is a book about occult magic and computer code. A trusty goto beverage for exhausted software engineers everywhere, this sweet, sugary drink counts as candy for the purposes of this article, and is the perfect fuel to keep you awake late into the night as you read Exadelic.
David Edison’s Sandymancer is a classic fantasy adventure of mad god-kings, regular people with extraordinary powers, and lots of hot climates. The final note is what inspires us to dedicate a spot on this feature to Red Hots. Can you feel the heat? Hopefully you can’t taste the sand. Hopefully you have escaped the ire of mad gods. Out now in paperback!
T. Kingfisher’s A Sorceress Comes to Call is a dark reimagining of the Brothers Grimm’s “The Goose Girl,” rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic. If you’re going to snack on anything while reading this book, it HAS to be the Witch’s Brew KitKat bars. Fitting, isn’t it?
From award-winning Korean author Sung-il Kim & translated by the world-renowned Anton Hur, Blood of the Old Kings begins an epic journey unlike any other. Think fires, volcanoes, sun…and other slightly orange things! Which is why we’ve paired it with Orange Starbursts — yes, just the orange ones. Step into a world of necromancy, murder, and twisted magic. A world in need of a hero. Out on 10/08!
Starling House & Blackberry Cobbler Candy Corn
Ah, Starling House. The vibes? A cursed town, a haunted house, very vivid, very eerie. You know what’s more eerie? Blackberry Cobbler Candy Corn. Out in paperback on 10/01!
After her rollicking standalone Dual Memory, Sue Burke returns to her Semiosis series and the world of Pax in Usurpation. Think human rebellions, robot uprisings, and global pandemics. Chaotic, right? We’ve paired Black Licorice with this one, purely out of vibes. Out on 10/29!
Wind and Truth….wind….blow….blow pops? We’ve paired Blow Pops with Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson. The long-awaited explosive climax to the first arc of the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive will blow (get it?) you away! Out on 12/06!
