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

This is a beautifully produced book (a bit of an oxymoron given the subject matter) with lots of well-produced images from hundreds of paperbacks of the era. It’s also printed on solid stock, oversized glossy paper, smells good (okay…I’m the sort of guy who used to sniff the mimeographs in grade school when the teacher handed them out) and neither the Kindle 8 nor the b&w readers do the book justice as the images are either too small or in B&W. My only quibble with the book is the tone. It’s funny, which is fine, but almost always glib. Sure, lots of the titles taken on here are disposable and beyond redemption, but surely an occasional more serious approach would have a good idea (another confession: I was an English Lit major in college).
I really like this book. I recommend it highly. It fills a void and it’s interesting to see some of these titles going from give-aways to upwards of $2000 for heretofore unknown masterpieces such as The Voice of the Clown.
If you’re at all intrigued, you’ll enjoy this.

I don’t understand the legions of glowing reviews. This book is well-written enough but is indifferently researched and is about half footnotes/index. There’s not enough substance to it to really recommend the read — it needs another 10K words or so.
A thing that really bothers me is how incomplete the listing of books in each subcategory is. Most of the plot details are drawn from the excellent Too Much Horror Fiction website, and I’m not sure that the author has read all of the books he talks about (I have). Very little space is given to the short fiction end of the mid-70s-late-80s horror boomlet, as the author concentrates on the 80s version of horror with its splatter and werewolves doing it doggystyle, and entirely whiffs on genre originators like Stephen Gilbert and Thomas Page in certain subsections and Michael Crichton in others, and ignores the ecofiction/sf/horror vein that informs some of the later growth in written horror fiction.
I suppose this volume would do for people who are ignorant of the genre and just want an overview. It isn’t for people who have detailed knowledge.

I have to admit it. When I ordered Paperbacks from Hell I wasn’t really expecting too much. In fact, I thought at first that it was a bit over-priced. I figured it would be a bunch of pretty pictures of book covers with some light captioning but that was about it. I was very, very wrong. The book itself is well put together, inside and out. I would definitely recommend getting the paperback copy. The e-book might be just as pretty but I can’t see it having the same lay-out or feel to it. The pages are thick and the pictures reproduced are gorgeous.

The text that goes along with the pictures is funny and informative. If I had to compare it to something then Stephen King’s Danse Macabre would be the closest comparison. But while Danse Macabre got bogged down occasionally in dryness Paperbacks from Hell never does.

With headings like ‘Parenting the Homicidal Child’ (first make sure you’re not dating Satan) and phrases like “Before Anne Rice, vampires killed humans. Now they got in touch with their sensitive sides while muffin-spelunking inside of them.” (page 153) this book left me actually laughing out loud. That’s no easy trick, I haven’t laughed at a book (in a good way) in quite a while.

I sincerely hope that Grady Hendrix follows up his book with a journey through the nineties and on. While some plots may not be quite so creatively insane there are some out there and some cover art that deserves showcasing. I was also very pleased to see some ‘forgotten’ favorites of mine in there.

If you’re looking for a quick, funny overview of the crazy days of the horror industry then I can’t recommend this book enough. I wanted to rip through Paperbacks from Hell but also take my time enjoying the crazy, beautiful covers of the ’70s and ’80s.

Paperbacks from Hell is a funny romp through the craziness that defined two decades and never leaves you bored. The commentary from Grady Hendrix (Horrorstor) will never leave you bored.

Hendrix provides a comprehensive review of the horror paperback industry from its early origins in the 1960s through its heyday of the 1970s and 80s to its eventual decline in the early-mid 1990s. I well remember the genre liberally gracing book shelves in shops when I was a kid…and quickly being stirred away by my parents toward more wholesome and age appropriate literature. By the time I was old enough to read this stuff it had largely disappeared from bookshelves and thus I was condemned to scouring second hand book shops and on-line retailers.
There are plenty of familiar names here with the likes of Stephen King, Ann Rice and James Herbert all discussed but it also provides incite into many of the lesser known authors and their works from the period (I was particularly pleased to see Robert McCammon getting a name drop…but no Night Boat mention unfortunately – seriously, Nazi Zombies on a U-Boat!!!! How did Hendrix miss that!!!). It covers both the critically acclaimed and the “so lame its funny” trash that sprang up with alarming regularity – indeed some of the plot lines are so bizarre as to be laugh out loud hilarious (murderous demonic prehensile Penises anybody??? No? How about Nazi Leprechauns then???).
Hendrix tells his story with a fair amount of tongue in cheek and isn’t afraid to have a laugh at his subject matter. His style is easy and conversational while still being informative but it does show at times that he is writing for an American audience.
The book is well illustrated with a plethora of cover art work however some of this is a bit graphic so probably not one to leave on the coffee table to let the kids flick through.
All in all a thoroughly entertaining book for any fan of the genre and I defy you not to have composed a large “to read” list once you’ve finished it.

An interesting and very entertaining book, bringing back lots of memories along the way. I wish it was slightly less “US-centric” – while British authors do get some mentions, they are few. Some reasonable coverage is given to James Herbert and Graham Masterton, but I was very disappointed that the only mention Guy N Smith gets was for his crab books. I know they’re his best known, but he wrote so many others, covering pretty much all the horror tropes of the time (and with some great covers too). All of that is my personal bias and opinion, of course, but whether you agree with me or not, it’s still a great book to look at, read and own. So, go get it!

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