Thrillers on Tap

Every spooky city with its fair share of ghost stories and horror-movie history needs a bookstore to match that vibe. In Wilmington, Oktober Books + More is the answer. 

Located right outside the Cargo District on 17th Street, Oktober Books + More is Wilmington’s first thriller bookstore. More than that, though (hence, the “+ More”), Oktober Books offers a place to sit and stay a while. Part bookstore, part beer and wine bar, and part event space, Oktober Books’ owner ASHLEY ALDERSON had the idea to open the business after she and her best friend started an impromptu book club. They had been shopping together around the holidays in 2023 when “Pretty Girls” by Karin Slaughter caught Ashley’s eye, and she mentioned the two should read it together and invite a few other mutual friends. 

“Really it was just to make time to see each other,” Alderson says. “Some people have kids, we all have full time jobs … This was the one time a month where we actually got to sit down and catch up. That kind of spun into it would be fun to create a space where other people could do that and feel that community. I love thrillers, so everything in here is a thriller or horror, but beyond that just a space for people to hang out with their friends, grab a drink, work, read, write.” 

Once the book club had been active for a year, the business idea started to really take shape in Alderson’s head, and she started looking at commercial spaces in late 2024. She got the keys to her location in August  and opened a few months later in November after sprucing the place up to its current, more macabre interior vibe. “It was always in my mind this way,” she says. “I never saw it as like lines and lines of books. I wanted more of a laid back, casual, dark bar vibe. But with the books being the primary reason you’re here.”  

Alderson, who still works a full-time corporate remote job forty hours a week, is a Wilmington native who grew up in the era of R.L. Stine, Scholastic Book Fairs, and Accelerated Reader tests for the sake of free pizza. “I never wanted to do the required reading in school,” she says. “I always liked to read, but I didn’t want to be told what I had to read.” As a horror-movie fan since childhood, Ashley’s fandom for horror literature was likely always in the cards. 

“I’m going to sound so dark, but … I just like the murder of it all,” she says. “It’s that meme of girls (who) are like, ‘I just want to relax,’ and then they turn on true crime, right? It really is relaxing, though! But in a fun way. It gives you a chance to escape and really root for characters to come out of those situations on top.” 

Because Alderson is working corporate hours most of the week, Oktober Books’ hours are mostly at night. Which, of course, lends itself well to the theme. The store is open 5 to 8 p.m. on Fridays, noon to 8 p.m. on Saturdays, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays. While Ashley keeps the business closed throughout the week, she hosts a book club every third Wednesday of the month and is open to renting the space out to other groups. She has also hosted events other than book clubs, like live music, open mics, and even movie viewings – of the horror variety.  

“Horror is a niche, but it’s the one I like talking about,” she says. “I didn’t want to have every genre, I wanted to focus on horror and thriller books, and for that to be what defines my store and makes it different from the other independent bookstores. I’m also one of the only spaces that is both a bookstore and a hangout space that’s going to serve booze while you shop. I really just wanted to create somewhere that hopefully gives a warm, cozy feeling and that people feel comfortable.” 

To view more of photographer Brenda Torrey’s work, go to brendatorreyphotography.com. 

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