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The Girls of October
The Girls of October tells the story of a young woman who develops a strange fascination with John Carpenter's Halloween, believing that somewhere within the 1978 horror classic lays the truth behind an arcane force that has terrorized her since her childhood.As an escape from a world that has not always been kind, film student Beverly Dreger takes comfort in spooky urban legends, horror movies, and monster magazines. But when a string of bizarre murders draws her closer to the folkloric entity known as "the bogeyman," Beverly must unravel the mystery of her past and confront an ancient evil.An epistolary novel, The Girls of October collects fictional primary sources--newspaper articles, film criticism, screenplays, short stories, interviews, police reports, and more--to tell a chilling story of psychosis, family secrets, and murder.
294 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 5, 2015
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672 people want to read
About the author
Josh Hancock
8 books24 followersJosh Hancock is a teacher and author. His first novel, THE GIRLS OF OCTOBER (Burning Bulb Publishing), is inspired by his love of all things horror–especially Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, and John Carpenter’s Halloween. His second novel, THE DEVIL AND MY DAUGHTER, will be released in the spring of 2016, also by Burning Bulb.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 5, 2025
A young woman obsessed with Halloween (the film, not the festival) is implicated in an unsolved spree killing. This book is styled as a piece of investigative journalism and tells the story through found documents – essays, reviews, news clippings. There’s sometimes a sense that it’s all just a vehicle for the author’s views on horror cinema, and I didn’t find some of the ‘articles’ very believable. Yet, even considering all that, The Girls of October is a good, solid horror story with a well-constructed premise and a healthy dose of unsettling ambiguity. I really liked it.
November 7, 2025
It's the Halloween season, and I am in the mood to get scared. I have gone horror crazy: I've bought scary books and scary movies and tickets to Fall Activities. I am the sucker that people market for when September rolls around. Anyway, I got this bad boy because it seemed scary and was on sale on the Kindle. I'm also the sucker that people market for when they put things on sale.
I didn't have many expectations going into this book (impulse buy), so I was really surprised and ended up enjoying the format of the novel. Told through news excerpts, interviews, film analysis, and other written texts, the story follows a young girl, Beverly, as she tries to battle the evil force that seems to ruin her life. The editor of these writings included some of Beverly's juvenile short stories and later film analyses of horror films (like Halloween), and they became my favorite parts of the novel. The film analyses were impactful, as they conveyed Beverly's mind space during that time in her life and changed how I actually view the source material. After reading this novel, I rewatched John Carpenter's Halloween and looked for Beverly's reading of the film as well as the parallels between her story and Laurie's.
There is a compelling ambiguity that extends throughout the entire novel. The reader, like most of the characters, are never entirely sure what is real and what is imagined: is the bogeyman that haunts Beverly's life supernatural or is it just a reflection and punishment for her fascination with the macabre? This question makes the reading more engaging and kept me flipping through the pages to figure out the truth.
I will say that the ending didn't feel as powerful as other parts of the novel. Where the epistolary form succeeds in most parts, the ending would be more powerful if it was told directly through Beverly's voice. That seems hard to do with the form, but I think that's the main factor that I could put my finger on that held me back from giving the book a full 5-star review.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and it encouraged me to watch some classic scary movies. Win-win. Spooky-spoopy.
I didn't have many expectations going into this book (impulse buy), so I was really surprised and ended up enjoying the format of the novel. Told through news excerpts, interviews, film analysis, and other written texts, the story follows a young girl, Beverly, as she tries to battle the evil force that seems to ruin her life. The editor of these writings included some of Beverly's juvenile short stories and later film analyses of horror films (like Halloween), and they became my favorite parts of the novel. The film analyses were impactful, as they conveyed Beverly's mind space during that time in her life and changed how I actually view the source material. After reading this novel, I rewatched John Carpenter's Halloween and looked for Beverly's reading of the film as well as the parallels between her story and Laurie's.
There is a compelling ambiguity that extends throughout the entire novel. The reader, like most of the characters, are never entirely sure what is real and what is imagined: is the bogeyman that haunts Beverly's life supernatural or is it just a reflection and punishment for her fascination with the macabre? This question makes the reading more engaging and kept me flipping through the pages to figure out the truth.
I will say that the ending didn't feel as powerful as other parts of the novel. Where the epistolary form succeeds in most parts, the ending would be more powerful if it was told directly through Beverly's voice. That seems hard to do with the form, but I think that's the main factor that I could put my finger on that held me back from giving the book a full 5-star review.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and it encouraged me to watch some classic scary movies. Win-win. Spooky-spoopy.
August 27, 2017
This is the second book I've read this year of that sort of "found footage" genre (a story told through newspaper articles, stories written by children, interview transcripts, etc) but I enjoyed this one more than Sleeping Giants because I think Josh Hancock really mastered getting the tone and voice to sound different for different types of texts and authors. I can tell how much the author loves classic horror movies and the type of character he wants to tell a story about here is also a type of character that I enjoy a lot so despite some minor issues (people seem to love that treatise on Halloween but honestly that was my least favourite part - felt a little too "author voice" and threw me out of the story a bit; also I think sometimes his "female author voice" fails him - the part where Lisa takes the time to describe her own nipples twice during a near death experience was a bit much lmao) I would recommend this book.
July 10, 2024
2.75/5 Stars
I read this entire book feeling like I had missed the first 20 pages, or as if someone had ripped random pages out of the book. It was just…missing something the entire time. None of the plots were completed, which I understand, but as I finished this book, I felt like I hadn’t really read or gained an understanding of what was trying to be accomplished by the author.
I’m sad because I think this is such a fantastic concept for a novel, but this just really did not hit for me.
I read this entire book feeling like I had missed the first 20 pages, or as if someone had ripped random pages out of the book. It was just…missing something the entire time. None of the plots were completed, which I understand, but as I finished this book, I felt like I hadn’t really read or gained an understanding of what was trying to be accomplished by the author.
I’m sad because I think this is such a fantastic concept for a novel, but this just really did not hit for me.
October 25, 2025
3.5 stars
Loved the concept and format. The flow didn’t work for me. There were multiple times that the document (specifically school papers) just dragged on. I got pretty tired of hearing about the prevalence of sexual references and violence in slasher movies. I understand it’s inclination but just went on for too long. I almost wanted to just skim ahead. Good ending though.
Loved the concept and format. The flow didn’t work for me. There were multiple times that the document (specifically school papers) just dragged on. I got pretty tired of hearing about the prevalence of sexual references and violence in slasher movies. I understand it’s inclination but just went on for too long. I almost wanted to just skim ahead. Good ending though.
June 7, 2015
Well-written and uniquely crafted, The Girls of October is a chilling composition. I jumped into the novel blindly and to say I became hooked is an understatement. I’m grateful I didn’t start this before bed because I never would have slept through the night! Almost immediately, I was online fact-checking because I couldn’t tell where fiction and nonfiction meshed. The details are so finely interlaced that an unaware reader could easily have a ‘The War of the Worlds’ moment! It is formatted as an epistolary; a fancy way of saying that if you were captivated by Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, then this is going to be equally engrossing. The story is likewise told through letters, articles, scripts, etc. - think ‘literary pseudo-documentary.’ Each piece of this supernatural puzzle is assembled flawlessly across a diversity of voices and range of formats. Whether it was a movie script or newspaper article, I never felt thrown off because the jargon and writing was spot-on.
While I was impressed by the technique and the storyline was an equally enthralling ride, the character of Beverly Dreger made this unforgettable. The movie Halloween is a centralizing theme and obsession of Beverly’s. Though I dimly remember the details of the film, I have never forgotten the pure terror it inspired, even 20 years after my first viewing. Even today, I would refuse to watch it without company or without all the lights on. After reading The Girls of October, I can easily say that the lead, Beverly Dreger, is as fascinating as Michael Myers ever was and for similar reason. Beverly’s inner motivations and true personality are tantalizingly obscure. Like a horror movie villain, we only really see her through the fearful and wary eyes of others. Beverly’s only voice arises from the plays and articles she has written and these are presented as “evidence” and drip of horrific foreboding. She is an enigma, an absence of character that drives the suspense and fear and left me rereading the novel to puzzle out the details. I highly recommend this book. Psychological horror fans will be elated and fans of other genres will enjoy, as I did, an author sure to be known for his innovative, but carefully written, approach. Easily a 5 star experience!
While I was impressed by the technique and the storyline was an equally enthralling ride, the character of Beverly Dreger made this unforgettable. The movie Halloween is a centralizing theme and obsession of Beverly’s. Though I dimly remember the details of the film, I have never forgotten the pure terror it inspired, even 20 years after my first viewing. Even today, I would refuse to watch it without company or without all the lights on. After reading The Girls of October, I can easily say that the lead, Beverly Dreger, is as fascinating as Michael Myers ever was and for similar reason. Beverly’s inner motivations and true personality are tantalizingly obscure. Like a horror movie villain, we only really see her through the fearful and wary eyes of others. Beverly’s only voice arises from the plays and articles she has written and these are presented as “evidence” and drip of horrific foreboding. She is an enigma, an absence of character that drives the suspense and fear and left me rereading the novel to puzzle out the details. I highly recommend this book. Psychological horror fans will be elated and fans of other genres will enjoy, as I did, an author sure to be known for his innovative, but carefully written, approach. Easily a 5 star experience!
October 23, 2023
my favorite book. like ever.
March 13, 2018
I’ve read a number of epistolary novels, such as Nick Bantock’s Griffin and Sabine series, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Stephen King’s Carrie.
Following this unique style, The Girls of October is the story of Beverly, a young woman whose life has been forever changed by her mother Susan, who has an obsession with something terrible. Something evil and inescapable. Something that tears her life and her family apart.
Beverly’s strange life is detailed in news articles, police reports and interviews with people who know her, including her father and former college roommates. Her fascination with horror movies, especially John Carpenter’s Halloween, drive Beverly to become fully immersed in their harrowing tales. Some of her own writing in the form of college essays and screenplays show how Beverly’s disturbed mind operate. There are times she finds peace and happiness but these are short-lived.oct
This is one of the most detailed horror books I’ve ever read. It is written in such a realistic manner, with quotes from various textbooks and news sources, it’s almost hard to believe it’s a work of fiction. Carefully crafted, each page draws in the reader like whispered secrets in one’s ear. The characters are relate-able and believable. I was also thoroughly impressed with the amount of research Mr. Hancock must have put into the writing of this book.
I highly recommend this book for any horror fan. Along with Beverly’s life story there is a great deal of insight into reading, writing and watching horror, especially 1978’s Halloween. Though I’ve seen the movie a number of times I will never look at it in the same way; I feel as though I’ve been given a behind-the-scenes tour of what makes horror great and why. As other reviewers have said, I too had a hard time putting this book down!
Following this unique style, The Girls of October is the story of Beverly, a young woman whose life has been forever changed by her mother Susan, who has an obsession with something terrible. Something evil and inescapable. Something that tears her life and her family apart.
Beverly’s strange life is detailed in news articles, police reports and interviews with people who know her, including her father and former college roommates. Her fascination with horror movies, especially John Carpenter’s Halloween, drive Beverly to become fully immersed in their harrowing tales. Some of her own writing in the form of college essays and screenplays show how Beverly’s disturbed mind operate. There are times she finds peace and happiness but these are short-lived.oct
This is one of the most detailed horror books I’ve ever read. It is written in such a realistic manner, with quotes from various textbooks and news sources, it’s almost hard to believe it’s a work of fiction. Carefully crafted, each page draws in the reader like whispered secrets in one’s ear. The characters are relate-able and believable. I was also thoroughly impressed with the amount of research Mr. Hancock must have put into the writing of this book.
I highly recommend this book for any horror fan. Along with Beverly’s life story there is a great deal of insight into reading, writing and watching horror, especially 1978’s Halloween. Though I’ve seen the movie a number of times I will never look at it in the same way; I feel as though I’ve been given a behind-the-scenes tour of what makes horror great and why. As other reviewers have said, I too had a hard time putting this book down!
May 13, 2018
When I first picked up the book(s), I was intrigued. I usually read the traditional stories whether they are in first person of third person. There is a story line to it that would lead you to climax at the end of the book. But, in the books by Josh Hancock, they were written more like a film documentary. At least that is how I pictured it in my head as I was reading them. You know, those documentaries on The History Channel, CNN, etc. You have the interviews, the voice recordings, pictures, videos and such. That is how you will see it in your mind when you are reading these books. You have the voice of the characters, you will see a vintage video of interviews from the eighties.
I recommend these books to anyone who love the independent horror. Future filmmakers, future authors, readers, current authors . . . Anyone who is looking for a different way to write or to give that different perspective to readers and viewers. It is different, it is exciting, and I guarantee you that you will not be able to put these books down.
October 28, 2023
This was such a unique reading experience. The Girls of October isn’t told in a traditional storytelling way; instead readers are presented with articles, interviews, police reports, blog posts, movie reviews, screenplays, and more, all in an attempt to glean insight into what happened one horrible Halloween night. Fair warning: there are no answers handed out here other than the ones readers will intuit on their own. I haven’t read anything else quite like it, and though the jarring format may scare some readers off I fell into it with a passion, curiosity pressing me forward to the next slip of a clue. This was my first experience with Josh Hancock’s writing. He has two other books out and I plan to buy them both without hesitation.
March 23, 2017
The last novel that creeped me out enough to sleep with a light on was House of Leaves. That was 17 years ago. I may have a weaker disposition in my 30's, but I'm still just as much of a horror hound, and this book raised my hackles. Like HoL, it's found footage for the brain. Unlike HoL, it's earnest and uncomplicated.
Major bonus: Hancock's 23-page treatise of Halloween.
Major bonus: Hancock's 23-page treatise of Halloween.
October 30, 2021
an interesting epistolary
tw: gore, suicide, violence, sexual assault
This was an interesting epistolary, though I found parts of it to be incredibly redundant - though short it felt like a book that could’ve lost about a third of its length and not suffered.
tw: gore, suicide, violence, sexual assault
This was an interesting epistolary, though I found parts of it to be incredibly redundant - though short it felt like a book that could’ve lost about a third of its length and not suffered.
September 29, 2017
A modern day horror masterpiece. Ever fan of horror movies, books, horror of any kind, will love this definitive story of the bogeyman.
February 28, 2024
Well done epistolary horror—
October 29, 2016
3.5 - 4.
A really engrossing and enigmatic horror novel from local author Josh Hancock. Told in an epistolary format full of news articles, book excerpts, film essays and even screenplays and film treatments, it unfolds the story of Beverly Dreger, a horror film aficionado haunted by an abusive past and a strong emotional connection to the film Halloween. Hancock cleverly weaves the classic horror film into his fictional narrative of the bogeyman given flesh, exploring many of the same ideas that Wes Craven did in New Nightmare, that of the subconscious given form from sheer willpower. Throughout, Hancock takes on the many different voices of the novel with an able hand, replicating the tone of college essays, tv interviews, tabloids and police interrogations believably and with a surprising amount of restraint. Overall the novel is quite sedate and understated, skewing more on the side of creeping dread rather than outright horror. I found that this worked very well, however, giving the events a sense of realism that made the implied supernatural events slide easily into the narrative. It's not perfect, some historical details are fudged and I felt that Hancock's constant horror references came off a little too self-aggrandizing, showing off his (clearly vast) horror knowledge, sometimes to the detriment of the story. But overall, this is an intriguing, skillfully told horror debut, one that I would highly recommend to fans of horror films and the power that they hold over the shared unconscious.
A really engrossing and enigmatic horror novel from local author Josh Hancock. Told in an epistolary format full of news articles, book excerpts, film essays and even screenplays and film treatments, it unfolds the story of Beverly Dreger, a horror film aficionado haunted by an abusive past and a strong emotional connection to the film Halloween. Hancock cleverly weaves the classic horror film into his fictional narrative of the bogeyman given flesh, exploring many of the same ideas that Wes Craven did in New Nightmare, that of the subconscious given form from sheer willpower. Throughout, Hancock takes on the many different voices of the novel with an able hand, replicating the tone of college essays, tv interviews, tabloids and police interrogations believably and with a surprising amount of restraint. Overall the novel is quite sedate and understated, skewing more on the side of creeping dread rather than outright horror. I found that this worked very well, however, giving the events a sense of realism that made the implied supernatural events slide easily into the narrative. It's not perfect, some historical details are fudged and I felt that Hancock's constant horror references came off a little too self-aggrandizing, showing off his (clearly vast) horror knowledge, sometimes to the detriment of the story. But overall, this is an intriguing, skillfully told horror debut, one that I would highly recommend to fans of horror films and the power that they hold over the shared unconscious.
March 24, 2025
John Hancock's The Girls of October is a novel told in news reports, interviews, essays, and film scripts, among other things. The story it tells is the life of Beverly Dreger, haunted her entire life by a boogeyman figure and obsessed with John Carpenter's Halloween. In 1981, Dreger allegedly murdered three of her college classmates in their dorms. The book presents us with evidence from Beverly's life. Evidence which could possibly explain her motives...or exonerate her from the crimes?
This is a fascinating novel with a unique and interesting format. I tore through it in just a couple of sittings (seriously, I only paused it to get some sleep). Besides the compelling mystery at the heart of the story, Hancock's tale also delves into horror films, why we love them and how we connect to them. A large chunk of the later part of the novel concern Beverly's analysis of the Halloween movie, which was interesting in itself, even if I don't personally agree with such a Freudian interpretation of the film.
This is a fascinating read that deserves more recognition than it has gotten, and it's a near perfect read for the Halloween season. I definitely will be checking out Hancock's other work and hope that more people discover this underrated gem.
This is a fascinating novel with a unique and interesting format. I tore through it in just a couple of sittings (seriously, I only paused it to get some sleep). Besides the compelling mystery at the heart of the story, Hancock's tale also delves into horror films, why we love them and how we connect to them. A large chunk of the later part of the novel concern Beverly's analysis of the Halloween movie, which was interesting in itself, even if I don't personally agree with such a Freudian interpretation of the film.
This is a fascinating read that deserves more recognition than it has gotten, and it's a near perfect read for the Halloween season. I definitely will be checking out Hancock's other work and hope that more people discover this underrated gem.
June 14, 2015
Gutsy novel, told entirely through police reports, psychiatric interviews, newspaper and tabloid articles, radio plays, letters, horror essays, and film scripts. It tells the story of a film student's obsession with the John Carpenter film Halloween (without giving too much away, at a critical point in the story the protagonist writes a 20-page treatise on the film, which is included in the book) and how this obsession possibly led to a triple murder known as the "Woodhurst Murders." I had to read this carefully due to the unique format, but as a horror enthusiast, I loved it. It's like a love letter to Halloween, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw, Last House on the Left, grindhouse films in general, and many others. Not an easy read if you're not into film scholarship, but totally unconventional and original, with plenty of gruesome sequences throughout. Would love to read more experimental horror like this.
June 2, 2015
I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
The idea of this book appealed to me as having much potential. However when I opened the book I was met by random dialog after dialog of what seemed like interviews of some kind. The Dialog had very little introductions if any, so the whole book took on a chaotic tone of random people talking about random times and random encounters with this girl or simply horror movies. The small blurts of actual story were just not enough to keep my attention. I wanted more "meat" of the story to shine through, not the fictional research and interviews but the actual story is what was missing. If you like to read plays you may enjoy this book but to call it a "novel" is a bit of a stretch. It is more on the lines of a random and chaotic screenplay manuscript than a novel.
The idea of this book appealed to me as having much potential. However when I opened the book I was met by random dialog after dialog of what seemed like interviews of some kind. The Dialog had very little introductions if any, so the whole book took on a chaotic tone of random people talking about random times and random encounters with this girl or simply horror movies. The small blurts of actual story were just not enough to keep my attention. I wanted more "meat" of the story to shine through, not the fictional research and interviews but the actual story is what was missing. If you like to read plays you may enjoy this book but to call it a "novel" is a bit of a stretch. It is more on the lines of a random and chaotic screenplay manuscript than a novel.
June 23, 2015
This is a Goodreads First Reads win. Horror fans are sure to enjoy this book. This is a frightening, page turning, keep the closet door open read. It deals with a young woman's fascination with the movie Halloween. You do not have to have seen the film to enjoy this book. This is Josh Hancock's debut novel, hopefully it will not be his last.
July 11, 2016
Fantastically creepy and engrossing. At first, it was a little hard for me to follow until I realized the whole book is made up of articles, essays, etc but once I got started, I could barely put it down. It's going on my To Keep bookshelf!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews