Review: Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction

Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction by Grady Hendrix
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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 Satanic Panic of the early 1970s with Rosemary's Baby, The Other, and The Exorcist, Paperbacks from Hell covers the various trends in horror, from Satan to creepy kids to killer animals to haunted houses and beyond, mentioning notable examples from each trend. It also added a ton of books to my watchlist. How can I ignore books like Satan's Love Child, Squelch, Eat Them Alive, and Blackwater: The Complete Caskey Family Saga?

Paperbacks from Hell is a fountain of information on the glory days of horror and it will occupy a place on my coffee table for years to come so I can distract my guests with Killer Crabs and Burnt Offerings before I dismember them and feed them to the horrors living in my basement. Five out of five stars.

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