Paperbacks from Hell covers the horror boom that started in the early 70's until its bitter end with the dawn of the 1990s and horror's displacement by serial killer fiction.Aside from reading a ton of Stephen King in my late teens/early 20s, I'm a latecomer to the horror genre. Paperbacks from Hell was an education for me.Paperbacks from Hell is a gorgeous book, full of cover images from the more notable books from the period. It's like a catalog of obscure horror novels.Starting with the Satan...

Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix is a 2017 Quirk Books publication. While most teenage girls my age were reading Harlequin romances or sneaking peeks inside their mother’s bodice rippers, I was glued to Gothic Romance/Horror/Mystery novels, which morphed into a full -fledged obsession with horror novels, which continued until my late teens, slowly fizzling out, as the horror genre went into a different direction, I didn't feel compelled to follow. I wish I had had the presence of mind to ke...

An overview of '70s and '80s horror fiction, full of pictures of book covers and commentary of the funny, campy and horrific books that marked a new publishing genre and filled the shelves in those decades of horror fiction publication.The books they've decided to highlight from during this period are a lot of the main ones that we all know, but also a fair bunch of obscure ones I've never heard of and they go onto detail of what they're about - and due to this I've stacked some books onto my TB...

Imagine you are in a used bookshop. It’s dimly lit, obviously, with dusty tomes creating houses on the floor perfect for guests of the smaller variety. Rats? Possibly. Evil Nazi leprechauns? That’s crazy talk! But do watch your step… just to be safe. As you venture further, you say to yourself “I should turn back. All the new releases are in the shop’s front window, baking in the sun. I have no business with these musty old things. Yuck!” But you continue anyway, pulled by the essence of some un...

Perfect!You need to read this book.Period.Yes, I'm talking to you!If you are a horror fan, you need to read this book.If you are a history fan, you need to read this book.If you are an art fan, you need to read this book.If you work in the publishing industry, you need to read this book.If you like obscure, interesting factoids, you need to read this book.If none if the above interests you, you need to read this book to prove that I'm wrong.What else is there to say?

As a long-time follower of the TooMuchHorrorFiction blog and fan of Grady Hendrix, this ode to Horror novels in the era when they dazzled most is a dream come true. Beside highlighting some very obscure plot lines, there's a wealth of publishing history and social context on how it all happened. Written with charm and wit, this is an easy read that's as entertaining as it is informative.But Reader beware, you're going to create quite a shopping list. Even more scary, most of the books are pricey...

As a lifelong fan and collector of horror fiction, I've been waiting for a book like this to come along for years. There have been several books of literary criticism focusing on horror boom-era works, but nothing really that included the trashier side of the genre, and definitely nothing with the wealth of gloriously gaudy cover art (much of it contributed by Will Errickson of Too Much Horror Fiction) featured here.Because it covers such a wide range, Hendrix only goes fully in-depth on a handf...

Posted at Shelf Inflicted This book was fantastic! It covers horror fiction from the 70’s through the 80’s, with a little glimpse of the early 90’s. Eight easy-to-read chapters with clever titles like “Hail, Satan,” “When Animals Attack,” “Creepy Kids,” and “Real Estate Nightmares,” explore different themes within the horror genre and the cultural anxieties prevalent at the time these books were written. The writing was light, humorous, informative and imbued with a deep love for the horror genr...

I never realized how bat-shit crazy the 70's/80's paperback boom and then bust was. Now I do. And Grady is funny, doesn't pull any punches, nor does he hold back on praise when he deems it warranted, which generally went toward many of the cover artists. It was wonderful hearing their stories as well as the books' stories. Loved, loved, loved this book.

This was the coolest book I have read in a long time!It brought back so many memories of when I was younger and I would delve through the thrift stores looking for horror books to sink my teeth into. The covers of those books always drew my attention more than the stories. The spookier the better! The author did an awesome job of putting this book together for all horror fans as he researched from the beginning of the horror era.I could not put this book down and after reading it, I have to go b...

oooh, goodreads choice awards semifinalist for best nonfiction! what will happen?i love this book more than anything. review to come.***************************************actually, i'm going to pause on my chicken-pecking of this book and read it for real during spooktober. but it's great. fantastic. and i want more volumes of this to be published annually. if you don't have the book, you can look at this for now and get very excited:https://www.flickr.com/photos/reverb1...*********************...

Are you a horror book lover?!Do you love to read books about a priest that’s possessed by a demon?A serial killer trying to stab someone in the middle of night?Do you love gothic and haunted houses? Creepy kids and they're carrying a knife?Porcelain dolls with glass eyes that watch you move around the room?How about some demented clowns just trying to make a living as a carnie?!Look no further then reading, Paperbacks From Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction by Grady Hendri...

”Between April 1967 and December 1973, everything changed.In a little more than five years, horror fiction became fit for adults, thanks to three books. Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, Thomas Tryon’s The Other, and William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist were the first horror novels to grace Publisher’s Weekly’s annual best-seller list since Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca in 1938. And except for three books by Peter ‘Jaws’ Benchley, they’d be the only horror titles on that list until Stephen King’s The De...

A book about the period of time when the horror genre ruled the paperback racks at the bookstore? A book about the period of time in my life, (about Carrie's age, in fact), when I felt like an outsider, and horror made me feel included? Sign me up! Luckily, Quirk books and NetGalley did just that, and here we are.This book is a reference book, a guide to life and times in the United States in the 70's and 80's. Things going on in the world and in society always affect our fiction and those times...

If you have any affinity to those old " horror"paperbacks published from the 1960's to the early 1990's then this book is a must have for you. And what a perfect time of the year to spend some time dwelling through these pages featuring some covers and plot synopsis of these spine tingling books.With "Paperbacks from Hell: A History of Horror Fiction from the '70s and '80s" Grady Hendrix makes the trip down horrible publishing lane a joy and a treat. There are also a few laughs, something every

Review to come! Jesus Christ on a cracker, what a ride!I actually gasped out loud when I saw this was on the Audible Plus catalogue. Last time I checked, there was nothing. I'm going to put everything else on pause and start with this. My favourite abstracts of pulp fiction thus far:1)Sade-masochistic, tiny Nazi leprechauns that live for hedonism2)Little girl and her stuffed clown kill her step mom because she doesn't want...to go to first grade.3)One of the purveyors of splatterpunk, a niche ge...

This book is freaking awesome! There are tons of books in the book that I own or have owned. I have some that I will show. I didn't get all of them out but I will show a few and I will show a few pages of the book. I forgot to add my edition of Carrion Comfort! It's the same edition and it's laying over there and I forgot to get a picture of it. Lol. The book tells about the different books and there are sections on different kinds of horror books. There are some that I want to find! Oh well. En...

A delightful coffee table book for my kind of living room. Hendrix has a sharp wit and a satirical voice, but his love for the genre is clear. Although he's a connoisseur, there's not a whiff of pretension to be found and this guidebook is crammed with plenty of context, history, and especially humor. I did not expect to laugh so much! In particular during his section on how to cope with deadly children, where he also quotes both Alain Robbe-Grillet and Erma Bombeck within the space of two sente...

I read a library copy of this book about the rise of cheesy horror paperbacks in the 70s and 80s, but now, gosh darnit, I wish I owned a copy.It would make the perfect coffee table book, something to occasionally leaf through, chuckle over and think on. And it would be a great conversation starter for guests (Nazi leprechauns! Man-eating crabs!) Plus: the physical quality of the book is outstanding: gorgeous full-colour illustrations, nice size and weight, thick stock, sturdy spine. I actually r...

The lesson horror teaches us is that everything dies. The horror fiction boom of the 1970s and ’80s became roadkill on the superhighway of the ’90s. Authors disappeared, cover artists found new outlets, and this publishing Titanic hit an iceberg, split apart, and released its cargo into the cold, dark waters to wash up on the shores of thrift stores and used paperback emporiums for years to come.There is such a genuine love and enthusiasm for his subject matter that when you start reading this b...