Take a tour through the horror paperback novels of two iconic decades . . . if you dare. Page through dozens and dozens of amazing book covers featuring well-dressed skeletons, evil dolls, and knife-wielding killer crabs! Read shocking plot summaries that invoke devil worship, satanic children, and haunted real estate! Horror author and vintage paperback book collector Grady Hendrix offers killer commentary and witty insight on these trashy thrillers that tried so hard to be the next Exorcist or Rosemary’s Baby. Complete with story summaries and artist and author profiles, this unforgettable volume dishes on familiar authors like V. C. Andrews and R. L. Stine, plus many more who’ve faded into obscurity. Also included are recommendations for which of these forgotten treasures are well worth your reading time and which should stay buried.
Paperbacks from Hell: Horror Books Review Blog
What can one expect when picking up a book entitled Paperbacks From Hell? For one, you might get the impression that this book features an array of books that are just downright terrible, horrible, disastrous! Books that could not have come from anywhere else but from the depths of hell! Fear not, because one look at the book’s cover art will tell you otherwise.Author, Grady Hendrix, whose writing credits include Horrorstör, My Best Friend’s Exorcism (next book on my list), and Satan Loves You, took on what I considered to be an arduous task and compiled a go-to guide that covers horror paperbacks published in the 70s and 80s – the heyday of the genre. It was during this time that writers such as Michael McDowell, William Peter Blatty, Peter Benchley, David Seltzer, Richard Matheson, and a slew of others were prominent in helping with the horror fiction boom of the time. I was born in 1980 (there, I aged myself) and as an adolescent, I was not privy, nor old enough, to read such stories that contained gore, blood, sex, and violence. No, I had to wait until the early 90s when R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike catered horror to the youth with YA Fiction (young adult).
Just because I couldn’t read any of said books from “hell,” does not mean that I couldn’t admire them – especially considering the impressive and often striking cover art that each book adorned. It is worth owning many of these, and proudly display your collection of these goodies, for the cover art alone. I mean, sure, the cover art to the Stine and Pike books were great but they, along with some of their titles, just screamed teen thriller.In Paperbacks from Hell, Hendrix explains what piqued his interest in these nearly forgotten “gems.” It started when he found a book entitled, The Little People, about Nazi leprechauns doing bad things – very bad things. It was this book (and its cover art, no doubt) that put him on a mission to uncover more books of the era that were similar, if not better, and introduce them to a new audience or take fans down memory lane. While I’ve never heard of a lot of these books, I was more familiar with the popular ones such as Jaws, The Exorcist, The Omen, and Hell House which was later adapted into the 1973 film The Legend of Hell House, one of my favorite supernatural horror films.
The table of contents of the book itself is enough to get any horror hound (or Hell Hound) giddy with wanting to dive into this book much as I did. Behold:
Chapter 1 – Hail Satan
Chapter 2 – Creepy Kids
Chapter 3 – When Animals Attack
Chapter 4 – Real Estate Nightmares
Chapter 5 – Weird Science
Chapter 6 – Gothic and Romantic
Chapter 7 – Inhumanoids
Chapter 8 – Splatter Punks, Serial Killers, Super Creeps
As a horror fan, Paperbacks From Hell doubles as both a great read and a go-to for old-school horror recommendations galore! I already have my plate full (for now), but there is no doubt that I will pick up a few of these at some point (more than a few, likely). It was much to my delight to “discover” that some of these books already had a home on my bookshelf along with my other books. I even managed to inadvertently pick some up in my recent haul. Paperbacks From Hell is a quick read as there are tons of images and illustrations featuring some top-of-the-line artwork and text to keep you indulged. If you get a chance, definitely pick this one up!
