horror non-fiction – Tattered Covers & Broken Spines

Shadows in the Attic

An Unfinished History of Horror by J.F. Gonzalez

5/5 Star Review

I just finished reading Shadows in the Attic and I need to sit down a minute. I knew my fictional horror education was a little lacking, but I didn’t realize by how much until I finished this collection. Shadows in the Attic collects essays written by J.F. Gonzalez on the history of horror from ancient times up through the mid-1950’s. There is also a comprehensive essay on the splatterpunks and extreme horror writers. While I can say there were a lot of names that I recognized, though not necessarily read, for every name I did know there were ten that were brand new to me. Apokrupha Books has done a beautiful job with this collection, laying it out in a sensical and easy-to-read format. This should be considered a text book and an absolute must-read for any fan of horror fiction.

I’m not fortunate enough to have ever had the pleasure of meeting J.F. Gonzalez. I only know him through his writing, but I know that he meant a great deal to many people – especially to his family and friends. Shadows in the Attic taught me that we not only lost an amazing human being, we lost a true historian of the genre.

Shadows in the Attic contains an alphabetical author index of every author and their work referenced by Gonzalez, which I will be using as a checklist for my ever-growing TBR, but Apokrupha Books has gone and done one better. They have simultaniously published The Shadows in the Attic Reader: Foundational Classic Horror edited by Jacob Haddon. This reader is a collection of nineteen tales that were referenced in Gonzalez’s essays on classic horror. For anyone who feels a little intimidated and not sure where to begin in their horror literature education – this is an excellent place to start.

We also need to take a moment to appreciate the cover art on this set. Lynne Hansen did an absolutely amazing job with these sequential covers. When the books are stacked they form one house both on the front and back covers – they are stellar!

Do yourselves a favor and pick up this gorgeous set of horror history!

Halloween Horror with Ronald Kelly

Since we’re almost halfway to Halloween, I thought it would be the perfect time to review two collections by Ronald Kelly – Mister Glow-Bones and Other Halloween Tales and The Halloween Store and Other Tales of All Hallow’s Eve.

Each collection contains a handful of short stories centered around Halloween and two to three non-fiction essays from Kelly’s youth. Both collections really scratch that nostalgia itch for a good old-fashioned spooky story.

The titular tale in Mister Glow-Bones and Other Halloween Tales is my favorite in the collection. It’s the story of an articulated cardboard skeleton who kills on Halloween night. I also really enjoyed Pins & Needles, about a man who gets comuppance after poisoning and putting razors and pins into children’s treats; and Pelingrad’s Pit, about a mysterious pit in Old Man Pelingrad’s back yard.

Pretty Little Lanterns in The Halloween Store and Other Tales of All Hallow’s Eve was my favorite in this second collection. It’s a little tale of mystery about jack-o-latern’s made of human heads. Other notable tales are The Halloween Store, about kids turning into their Halloween costumes; and Mr. Mack is Back in Town, a follow-up to Mister Mack and the Monster Mobile from Mister Glow-Bones.

For those of us who cut our fangs on Goosebumps growing up, these collections will be especially appealing. The just have that feel, you know? Crisp, cool air; autumn leaves, reading under a blanket with a flashlight, sneaking candy. They remind you of the idealistic Halloween that everyone loves.

If you need something to help you make it through to October, I recommend picking up these short little collections. If you really want a treat, order them from Ronald Kelly’s webstore. Every book comes signed and he will draw a little doodle in them as well!

Sequelland: A Story of Dreams and Screams

A collection of essays and interviews written and conducted by Jay Slayton-Joslin

4/5 Star Review

Jay Slayton-Joslin is a writer experiencing an existential crisis. His first book, Kicking Prose, came out in 2014. It’s a collection of poetry that he followed up six years later with Sequelland. Slayton-Joslin did not want one piece of work to define his career and this is the connecting theme that carries the essays interspersed throughout this book.

Click on the cover art to purchase from bookshop.org.

Sequelland is comprised of eleven interviews with directors and writers tied together with the self-reflective essays from the author. It is both an informative read and an homage to the legacy of horror sequels. While there are some big franchises involved, these sequels all struggled with small budgets, script changes, studio driven changes, and the directors who still made it work. We are talking about franchises that have shaped the horror genre – Nightmare on Elm Street, Saw, Hellraiser, Cube, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and even Leprechaun and Puppet Master.

This was a really quick and enjoyable read. Sequelland is filled with fun, behind-the-scenes tidbits about movies that genre lovers know, as well as with the headaches that directors and writers have to deal with in the industry. There is a section in the interview with Uwe Boll that I found particularly interesting that was about production budgets and profitability for films in the direct-to-video market versus the streaming market that dominates the industry today. I would recommend this collection to any fan of the horror movie genre.

I received a digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

In A Dark Place

The “true” story behind The Haunting in Connecticut by Ray Garton

4/5 Star Review

I’m wrapping up reviews for books read in the last week of April and you know what that means – we are halfway to Halloween! Over on the Spine Breakers YouTube channel, Sue and Megan have been hosting Halfaweenathon 2020. You can find the the original video and the reading challenges here.

I read In A Dark Place for challenge #3 – Read a book that involves something supernatural.

I am endlessly fascinated with the supernatural and the paranormal. It’s something that I would like to believe in, but thus far have not experienced anything that could not be rationally explained. I love reading “true” tales of hauntings, but they are all read with a grain of salt. In A Dark Place was no exception to this. More on this in a bit.

In the 1980s, The Snedekers oldest son was undergoing daily cancer treatments and the family needed to move closer to the city in order to better care for him. With limited income, there was only one home that they found and could afford that satisfied both the needed location and space for their family of six – a former funeral home. The parents opted not to share that fact with the kids and spent their next year or so in utter denial of all of the weird goings-on around the home. Their eldest son was the most affected and often blamed for the spooky occurrences. The situation reached its boiling point once their son was no longer in the home and the Snedekers could no longer lie to themselves about the presence of evil. Enter the Warrens and eventual exorcism of the home.

This book has it all – strange sounds, disembodied voices, shadow figures, weird lights, footsteps, phantom touches, disappearing items, vibrating beds, the evil spirits of necrophiliacs, and demonic anal rape. Oh, yes – what kind of possessed house would this be if you weren’t being anally raped by a demonic presence?!

This book is an absolute blast – when you read it as fiction. It stands on its own as a pretty great haunted house novel. Ray Garton is a fantastic writer and his story shines. If you read it as a true story, well, there are many plot holes and inconsistencies to be found. Garton himself found them and questioned the Snedekers who never seemed to be able to keep their stories straight. He approached the Warrens about the questionable events and was told by Ed to, “…make it up and make it scary. That’s why we hired you.” I highly recommend reading the interview that Ray Garton did with Damned Connecticut about his experience writing this book. You can find it here.

Whether or not you believe the validity of this story or in the Warrens ability to assist in these cases – it is a fun ride. Garton wrote a wicked fun haunted house story that can be enjoyed whether it is true or not. Recommended read!

End of the Road

Essays from The Farewell (But Not Really) Tour by Brian Keene

5/5 Star Review

When my pre-ordered copy arrived in the mail, I was only going to crack it open – just to take a peek. That peek lasted the rest of the night and into the next day. In less than 24 hours, I had completely consumed the book that I was intending to savor. C’est la vie. What can you do?

End of the Road is comprised of all of the essays that Keene wrote for Cemetery Dance Online during his Farewell (But Not Really) Tour in 2016. Cemetery Dance Press has collected all of the essays, plus a few extras – including a wonderful introduction from Gabino Iglesias – into a beautiful signed and numbered hardcover. As of this posting, it’s still in stock and limited to 750 copies. It’s a steal at only $40.

These essays are raw, heart-felt, and honest. If you listen to Keene’s podcast, you’ll know that he often speaks of bleeding onto the page – and that’s exactly what he has done here. He channels Hunter S. Thompson in a whisky-fueled cross-country tour and discusses his thoughts on grief, loss, mortality, longing, familial bonds, fandom, horror, friendship, love, art, comics, the rise and fall of horror publishing, and the craft itself.

I had the pleasure of meeting Brian Keene and John Urbancik on this tour when they were in Oviedo, Florida. They were signing at the Barnes & Noble in the mall there. Kudos to Chris Kosarich for organizing this event – by the way! The signing was a blast and it was my first time meeting both of them. I picked up Stale Reality by Urbancik and the two books Brian was promoting on the tour- Pressure and The Complex. Both authors were incredibly gracious and Brian even signed all my backlist books that I brought with me. I mention this because it was a great experience and Brian was so jovial – it’s hard to imagine, looking back at that signing after reading these essays, how very much he was going through in his personal life at that time. Let it never be said Keene is not on for his fans.

I’ve enjoyed so many of Brian’s novels and this was my first foray – aside from his newsletters – into his non-fiction and I am hooked! I just bought The Triangle of Belief for my Kindle and can’t wait to get to it! A “memoir-styled treatise on faith, religion, the occult, atheism, agnosticism, science, and the supernatural…” Yes, please!!

Paperbacks from Hell

The Twisted History of ’70s and ’80s Horror Fiction by Grady Hendrix with Will Errickson

5/5 Star Review

What is there to possibly say about this glorious book that hasn’t already been said? I read this book last fall and keep going back to it over and over again. To those few of you who may be unfamiliar, Paperbacks from Hell is an ode to the bygone days of horror, broken down by the popular tropes of the ’70s and ’80s: Satanism, Creepy Kids, Killer Animals (of all kinds), and Science gone horribly, horribly wrong – just to name a few. This is an over-sized paperback book that is absolutely brimming with the tremendous cover art that graced these books back in the day. Let’s be honest – most of the time, the covers were far, far better than the actual books.

Click the cover art to purchase from bookshop.org.

I am a child of the early ’80s, so much of what I discovered here was brand new to me. That being said, there were still some fun moments of nostalgia to be had when I saw V.C. Andrews creep up in the opening of the Gothic and Romance chapter; old favorites R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike leaping from the section entitled, Won’t Somebody Think of the Children?; and unfortunately, the downfall, the Death Rattle, and the discussion of the Dell Abyss line – Poppy Z. Brite got me through high school, dear readers.

Like the many others who came before me, I finished Paperbacks from Hell and knew that I had to own these new-to-me books and seek out titles that I used to own 25 years ago. It’s been an expensive year, friends.

Paperbacks from Hell has made old fans nostalgic and new fans hungry for the horror that came before. Along with the thriving independent publishing scene, this resurgence has helped to bring horror back into the light and birth a whole new generation of fans.

I can’t recommend this book enough – whether you’re a fan of the genre, or the artwork, or just want to know more about pulp classics – this book is the bee’s knees.

Need more? I also recommend checking out the sites below:

Grady Hendrix – Check out the author’s page and subscribe to his free newsletter. It’s like receiving free mini-sequels to Paperbacks right in your own mailbox! Don’t forget to check out Book Reviews of the Damned and read Grady’s take on some of the trashiest, craziest books he can find!

Too Much Horror Fiction – Check out co-author Will Errickson’s review blog. This site is an absolute treasure chest of mainstream and obscure horror. You can get lost on here for days!

Valancourt Books – A small, independent press that specializes in the rediscovery of rare, neglected, and out-of-print titles. These excellent folks have teamed up with Hendrix and Errickson to resurrect some of the titles featured in Paperbacks from Hell and they have been reprinted with new introductions by either Grady or Will. Valancourt has done their best to retain the original cover art where possible and have already released the first wave of five titles. The second wave is just launching – be sure to check it out!

A Weirdish Wild Space

A collection of essays from Mary SanGiovanni

5/5 Star Review

Night Moves was the first body of work that I read from Professor Mary SanGiovanni – and I was not disappointed! I initially became familiar with her from listening to her cosmic horror podcast, Cosmic Shenanigans and as a co-host on The Horror Show with Brian Keene. If you are a fan of the genre and not listening to these podcasts, you are sorely missing out. Not long ago, I was listening to an older episode of one of these two shows and Mary’s essay collection, A Weirdish Wild Space, was mentioned. I was thrilled to hear that she had a non-fiction collection and I ordered it straight away.

This collection of essays spans from 2004 to 2016 and absolutely runs the gamut as far as content is concerned. In these essays you will find Mary’s thoughts on writing; on being a mother, sister, lover, and woman; her perspectives on the infamous Dorchester/Leisure fiasco, remembrances, the anatomy of the Silent Hill franchise, and so so so much more!

For me, personally, my favorite takeaway was not a particular essay or thought, but the overall feeling of the collection. Many of the essays hit home pretty hard, especially those related to relationships and depression. On a logical level, you know that you are not alone and certainly not the first to feel this way – but it is so comforting to read someone else’s words and know, in your heart, that there is someone else who has felt the same way that you have or who has had a similar experience.

I highly recommend this collection – it is a fantastic snapshot of the last 15 years told through the voice of one of horror fiction’s foremost leading ladies.