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Paperbacks from Hell
254 pages
A gleeful, blood-spattered love letter to the gloriously unhinged era of vintage mass-market horror.
What it feels like
Reading this feels like rummaging through the dusty, forgotten boxes of a haunted thrift store with your funniest, most obsessive friend. It is a brisk, highly visual joyride through the boom and bust of seventies and eighties mass-market horror, driven by a narrator who is both deeply knowledgeable and delightfully irreverent. The mood is campy and nostalgic, soaking the reader in a gleefully macabre atmosphere where murderous dolls and killer crabs are treated with both academic curiosity and sheer amusement. The prose is snappy and hyperbolic, perfectly mirroring the lurid, neon-soaked covers it celebrates. It ultimately transforms from a gallery of bizarre art into a surprisingly affectionate tribute to the working-class writers and artists who kept the publishing industry weird.
- Mood
- campy
- nostalgic
- gleefully macabre
- Tone
- irreverent
- enthusiastic
- wry
- affectionate
- humorous
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- pop culture archaeology · the absurdity of trends · finding art in trash · publishing history
- The writing
- Snappy, conversational, and packed with witty, hyperbolic observations that perfectly match the lurid subject matter.
- The arc
- Begins with amused shock at lurid cover art and deepens into a genuine, affectionate appreciation for a wild, forgotten era of publishing.
- Who it's for
- Horror aficionados, vintage paperback collectors, and anyone who delights in deep, humorous dives into weird pop culture niches.
Content notes
- discussions of gore
- descriptions of horror tropes
- mentions of sexual violence in fiction
- vintage sexism and racism
About the book
Written in dead letters... and covered in blood!
Demonic possession! Haunted condominiums! Murderous babies! Man-eating moths! No plot was too ludicrous, no cover art too appalling, no evil too despicable for the Paperbacks From Hell.
Where did they come from? Where did they go? Horror author Grady Hendrix risks his soul and sanity (not to mention yours) to relate the true, untold story of the Paperbacks From Hell.
Shocking story summaries! Incredible cover art! And true tales of writers, artists, and publishers who violated every literary law but one: never be boring. All this awaits, if you dare experience the Paperbacks From Hell.
Description from Open Library.
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