On Saturday 8th March, the Hauntology and Spectrality Research Group will be hosting a day of “Folk Horror and Popular Hauntology” events at the York Literature Festival. The day will include a live interview with Olivia Isaac-Henry, author of the folk horror novel Sorrow Spring (2024). To get in the mood, we’re inviting you to join us for the 2025 Folk Horror February 2025 Reading Challenge! 

If you’d like to join in, we will be posting about the challenge each week via the @Wordsmatter_YSJ Instagram account. We’d love to see your comments and photos!

Either comment under our posts, of share your photos and responses via BluSky, Instagram, TikTok and X using #FolkHorrorFeb

You can follow our schedule or read at your own pace.

And then, on Saturday 8th March, we will pose your comments and questions to Olivia Isaac-Henry during a live event at the York Literature Festival. 

Weekly Schedule	Chapters	Pages
Week 1 (w/c 3 Feb)	“Prologue” to “Joy and Hope”	pp. 1 – 80
Week 2 (w/c 10 Feb)	“Joy and Hope” to “Sorrow Spring”	pp. 80 – 171
Week 3 (w/c 17 Feb)	“Sorrow Spring” to “Wrath”	pp. 171 – 253
Week 4 (w/c 24 Feb)	“Wrath” to “Dumb”	pp. 253 – 345
Week 5 (w/c 3 March)	“Dumb” to END	pp. 345 – 438
Folk Horror and Pop Hauntology Day (Sat 8 March)