Paperbacks From Hell was a really interesting book. Each chapter covered a different topic that became popular in horror publishing in the '70s and '80s, but the author also related it to what was going on in the world at the time.

I learned a few things while reading this, such as there actually being a male author writing under the V.C. Andrews name. I liked the entire women horror writers chapter.

There were a lot of books that I'd never heard of and some I'd seen at various thrift shops or used book stores over the years. This is actually the first Grady Hendrix book that I've read even though I own two of his fiction books. You can tell he did a lot of research for this book and actually cared about the subject.

I would recommend this to anyone who's a fan of horror, vintage horror paperbacks, or who likes a bit of horror publishing history.

A book about horror books that has to really be seen in physical form to be fully appreciated. I originally listened to it on audiobook which didn't work at all but seeing it in physical form with all those classic horror book covers is a real treat for any horror fan.

A great gift for Halloween or Christmas.

This is an awesome book! I have an actual copy of this and looking at all the old horror covers makes me want them all!

I always enjoy books about books and reading, and this one fit the bill nicely. This was a book that was fun to read and left me wanting more.

This is a really fun book to read. It may not be comprehensive, but it is pretty close. The authors clearly put in the effort, did the research, and put together a selection of horror works that highlight the time. It's a literary history, but it is also a fun ride back in time when horror was fun, often drawing from the context of its time, and publishers did all kinds of stunts hoping to sell paperbacks. Each chapter looks at one subgenre within horror. In addition, the authors provide various asides to highlight specific artists and other topics. The narrative is well written and interesting, plus the authors add a bit of humor and snark now and then.

The illustrations are well done and a joy to look at. The images are a strength of the book, and for many readers they will bring back memories. I know I recalled seeing some of those covers back in the day. The illustrations alone are a great reason to get this book. The informative text makes it even better.

I adore this book! While I read it in its ebook format, I've got a hankering to purchase a print form to add to my shelf. So much history about my favorite genre, and so many books to add to my tbr. Following many of the more obscure, some of which I was pleased to see I had already read. Clever wit from the author kept it from being boring, and led me on a merry romp through horrors history, and the amazing artists who contributed to the covers.

Full disclosure, I am only about 60ish percent through this, but it has been AMAZING! I just keep stopping to look up the books mentioned and try to find them to add to my ever growing TBR. I do highly recommend A. Getting a hard copy of the book as the digital is just not easy to read/match up with photos and B. Catch Grady's road show slideshow presentation that accompanies the book.

*Digital review copy provided by NetGalley and the publisher (hardcopy purchased direct from Grady at the Chapel Hill NC event).

INSIDE THE CREEPY, SLEAZY, CAMPY WORLD OF '70S HORROR BOOKS

What does a horror writer fear? For Grady Hendrix, being unprepared is a haunting specter. "I was a journalist for a long time, and I got burned bad once when I underprepared on an article," he told SYFY WIRE. "So then and there I shook my tiny fists to the heavens and vowed never to write about anything I hadn't watched or read in its entirety."

So, after enthralling the audiences with his comic horror-fiction works, such as Horrorstör, about a haunted Ikea-like megastore, and My Best Friend's Exorcism, which mixes satanic panic with high-school drama, he went for a meta-narrative approach: His latest venture, Paperbacks From Hell, is a thorough compendium of mass-market horror at its boom in the 1970s and '80s that originated from a column about "weird paperbacks" (his definition) that he wrote for Tor.com.

Full review Here:
https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/inside-the-creepy-sleazy-campy-world-of-70s-horror-books
It's a rich subject to highlight: Mass-market horror fiction went way beyond mainstream titles such as The Shining, The Exorcist, The Omen, and The Vampire Chronicles. The genre was a Pandora's box full of wonders, and so Paperbacks From Hell was born.

I did a podcast interview with Grady Hendrix at Bleedingcool here: https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/10/24/grady-hendrix-paperbacks-from-hell/

I thought -- and this comes out in the conversation-- that this was an absolutely fabulous book, a much-needed view of a very important literary movement.

Loved loved loved this book! Hendrix covers the wild and weird horror of the 80s and 90s in an entertaining and informative way. I learned way more about horror than I ever thought possible and had a damn good time doing it.

It is 2018 and if you were asked to name a few horror writers then it is likely that the name Stephen King would quickly be mentioned, perhaps James Herbert, Ramsey Campbell, Clive Barker and Richard Laymon – authors with healthy catalogues of work which fill the shelves in the Horror section of your local bookshop.

If you were to take a trip to a good second-hand bookshop and look for the Horror books then you are likely to find shelves packed with virtually unknown names. Book covers would feature inventive pictures of blood, fangs, monsters and demons, churches and spooky houses and each would be trying to give the impression that each is more terrifying than the last. For a horror fan this could be the chance for a little shelf-browsing fun. For Grady Hendrix I get the impression it would be one of the best ways to spend a day.

Paperbacks From Hell will take readers on a journey of discovery through the 1970’s and 1980’s as Grady Hendrix tracks the books, the authors and publishers and the stories which would shape horror writing for decades. Although the focus is very much on the 70’s and 80’s there is discussion around earlier books and as the book draws to a close there is a sign of where the genre was heading as the 90’s approached.

Readers will be familiar with many of the more popular titles: for example, reading about Rosemary’s Baby was fun – discovering how it gave life (no pun intended) to swathes of other imaginative tales was utterly fascinating.

Some of the titles which are discussed sound absolutely bonkers and kudos to the author for sticking with them! There are dozens and dozens of books referenced in Paperbacks From Hell. Grady Hendrix writes with humour and obvious affection for the source material. He will provide plot synopsis and make observational judgements on whether the “surprise” horrific developments in these horror tales can carry the story.

Pages are filled with pictures of book covers. The subtle, the shocking, the classics and the over-the-top. Hendrix does not just focus on the stories and their authors but the artists get to share the limelight and we see their body of work. Also under discussion are the publishers who determined which books would fill the shelves and display stands across the lands. The social commentary of these decades shows how the narrative in horror tales changed and evolved over 20 years.

If you consider yourself a fan of horror stories then this is a brilliant read. Not only do you see how the books you loved have come to be but you will also identify books you will feel you must track down to read. Really enjoyed the time I spent with Paperbacks From Hell and the paperback (which I spotted in my local bookshop last week) is gorgeous.

For those who remember the early days of THE HORROR FICTION REVIEW, you may recall a section we occasionally ran on highlighting "classic" horror paperbacks from the 70s and 80s. Lurid pulp goodness from authors such as Hugh B. Cave, Jeffrey Konvitz, and Graham Masterton were examined and their wonderful covers were reprinted. Enter Grady Hendrix, who has pretty much created the ultimate look back at those moldy, under-read, and often envelope-pushing horror novels that lined drug store book racks and were found in the darkest corners of your local bookstore.

This one is as good as it sounds and more.

After an enlightening introduction and prologue, Hendrix wastes ZERO time getting right to the goods: chapters on the Satanic novel boom in the wake of ROSEMARY'S BABY and THE EXORCIST's success, killer kids, animal attack novels (it was so nice to see John Halkin's bat shit crazy killer jellyish novel SLIME mentioned), splatterpunks, serial killers, weird science...you name it and it's probably mentioned here, often with synopsis' that will have you jotting down a To Be Read list. I can see Amazon's second hand market exploding after this book hits the shelves next week.

While Hendrix spends a good amount of time on certain authors, I was overjoyed to see some of the cover artists from this bygone era finally get the recognition they deserve. Seeing artist credits inside small press books is common, but in the 70s and 80s (and I'll assume even earlier) cover artists received no other recognition other than their paycheck, and Hendrix explains to us why this was so. There are a lot of little tidbits like this that makes PAPERBACKS FROM HELL must reading for any lover of horror novels.

I think this was the first time I went online and pre-ordered a trade paperback of an eBook review copy as I read it. I saw a couple of the trade page previews, and the eBook version just can't compare (at least if you're a total book freak like me). The cover reproductions are as pleasing to the eye as the crazy descriptions of some stories, and I'm looking very forward to going through this again in a hard copy. Extremely re-readable, I'm sure I'll be wearing out my copy in no time.

An absolute must for any genre fan's bookshelf.

We loved this book and raved about it on our podcast.

Get. This. Book. Hendrix certainly did his homework with Paperbacks from Hell. I really need to revisit so many of the titles he mentions. I recommend this title for those horror fans who want to take a trip down memory lane, or who want to add to their reading lists!

Oh, horror fans, is this the read for you! I normally steer clear of non fiction, but this was definitely an exception that I had to make.

One summer a few years back, Grady Hendrix and Will Errickson came together for a Tor.com series called "Summer of Sleaze." The two horror aficionados covered some of the schlockiest installments in horror history, beginning with a book about Nazi leprechauns (which turns out not to be leprechauns at all). And oh, I did love each and every post.

It wasn't all schlock, though. They took time out to focus on Thomas Tryon and James Herbert, Graham Masterton, and even Michael McDowell. For sixteen weeks (and then two subsequent series later on) they teased my TBR with posts about a bevy of horror delights that my itchy hands were (mostly) dying to find.

And that's a bit of the origin story behind Paperbacks From Hell!


Paperbacks From Hell is focused on the paperback (in particular) popularity of the horror genre that hit in the wake of the likes of Rosemary's Baby, The Other, and The Exorcist. (Levin, Tryon, and Blatty, if you're unfamiliar.), tracing the trends in both titles and cover illustrations that ruled over the course of roughly two decades.

Books about possession, devil worshipping, evil children, killer creatures and more captured the readers' imaginations! Hendrix touches on everything from the gory and grotesque to the literary classics that have survived the test of time. Many of the houses have died, some of the authors have too, but the shelves of used bookstores nationwide are still full to the brim with these gems. I should know, I've browsed enough of them to build my own small collection.

Let me be clear, I was not able to delve into the heyday horror fiction until the 90s due to age limitations. Mom but the kibosh on anything beyond the YA category until the summer I hit the age of fourteen and put my foot down - it was time to allow for adult horror reading!

So I missed out on a lot of the titles Hendrix is focusing on here, at least when they originally released.

But not all. Because there are some shining genre examples that have defied the inevitable death of most backlist, still read and released today! And Hendrix does take a breath to hit on the teen horror market of the day as well - Christopher Pike and R. L. Stine in particular, the gateway drugs for many of the horror fans of my own generation. And oh, what a glorious gateway it was for me! I can still recall my first Stine and Pike purchases (Haunted at a school book fair and The Chain Letter on a trip to Mandeville to visit a friend). I trolled the bookstore YA shelves for any and every creepy looking title I could find, all the while gazing longingly at the shiny Stephen King and Dean Koontz titles that beckoned from the forbidden adult section. And I'm always heartened to hear that I wasn't alone - lots of readers of my generation share almost the same story!

Horror is and probably always will be my go to when it comes to books and movies. I like to blame it on the fact that my parents admit to having taken me to the drive in with them to see Return of the Living Dead when I was a baby (in other words, way too young for it to have mattered, especially since I no doubt slept through it and probably couldn't see the screen). I can certainly trace it back to the first ghost story my parents bought me to try and encourage me to read back in second grade. And I can definitely trace it back to my discovery of R.L. Stine's Fear Street hiding out on a Scholastic book fair shelf in third grade. And while I may have missed many of the titles Hendrix talks about when they originally released, I'm making up for it now!

I had never seen this book before and only found it through netgalley, and what a treat! I have always loved horror, starting with R.L Stine, V.C Andrews, and Pike as a teen and then later on Anne Rice since I have always found vampires fascinating. This book was hard to put down, I enjoyed learning about the authors and different horror genres and loved all the full colour book covers, many I recognized, but some I had never seen before!

Skipping my weekly Abyss review for a special book I've been hearing about on the internet, it's been burning up the forums and Facebook groups ever since it came out: Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction by Grady Hendrix.


It's a magnificent volume, with hundreds of examples of classic, and not so classic, vintage horror paperback covers.


But it's not just pretty pictures (which are GORGEOUS, by they way,) but it's a subtle cultural history as well, the trends in publishing that reflect the moods and attitudes of the country, from the Satanic boom in the early seventies, through eco-horror, to splatterpunks and serial killers.


Hendrix not only gives an exhaustive look at the genre, but he spotlights major artists as well, giving credit where credit is due.


There's a nice amount of back matter at the end where he lists the players, authors, publishers and artists, a suggested reading list from Will Errickson at Too Much Horror Fiction, and a impressive listing of cover credits for the book covers used in this.



Of course, the part I'm really there for is at the end: four pages about thle Dell Abyss imprint. Four sweet glorious pages, one of which is NOTHING but covers! Hendrix gives a TV Guide synopsis of the founding of the line, explaining that the market was in such that "the coroner had called it and the medical examiner was zipping up horror's body bag." But then came Jeanne Cavelos. I will be indirectly singing her praises a couple of times a month with this blog, because she was the motivating force behind the imprint.


(Final note: I've subscribed to Audible.com and they're offering an audiobook version of this. Seriously. What The Hell? I'm sure all the discussion about the books will sound GREAT but the strength of the book is the pictures. Hell, the first two times I "read" this, I was just looking at covers- the first time was just out of sheer joy; the second time I was in full covet mode. This book is the Sears Christmas Wishbook for horror fans.)

Great book if you're a fan of horror novels or horror in general. Features lots of great pictures of weird cover art from writers you've never heard of. After reading, you'll want to set out and find most of these books to read yourself.

The writing was pretty good, but sometimes the writer tried too hard to be funny or insert jokes where it wasn't appropriate. Otherwise, a fun read.

I always wanted to be a monster kid. I was jealous of the generations before me who got to build the Aurora monster models and who looked back so fondly on them. I couldn't find those models when I was younger, but I didn't realize I was a different kind of monster kid until I read Grady Hendrix's Paperbacks from Hell. I lived through the horror paperback boom and miss the time when even local stores had shelves and spinner racks full of covers with giant catfish, bloody puppets, and children with no eyes. It was wonderful. Just a book of covers would be good enough, but Hendrix includes a history of the publishing industry and how the design choices got made.

When I requested an advance reader’s copy of this from the publisher, my expectations were low. It might have been a boring catalog of authors and publishers. Or it might have centered around mocking old horror paperback cover art, while being light on historical detail. I’m pleased to say it’s neither. Firstly, it is an exceptionally informative and well-organized reference work: arranged partly in chronological order but also by theme, in a way that lends itself well both to cover-to-cover reading but also to quick reference if you should want to, for example, read about the important influence of the gothic romance, or find the best books featuring evil clowns. Secondly, the author seems to have actually read the books he talks about. From time to time he will wax rhapsodic about a book or series in a way that shows his genuine passion for the genre. I appreciate that. I don’t read horror, but Hendrix made me want to read some of these books. And lastly, but importantly: Paperbacks from Hell is incredibly entertaining. I laughed at so many things I shouldn’t have. (I won’t tell you what, because your opinion of me is probably low enough already.) I immediately purchased a copy for my store’s reference library and one for a Christmas present. If you’re even remotely interested in the topic, don’t pass this book by.

In a bit of a departure from his previous novels Horrorstör and My Best Friend’s Exorcism, author Grady Hendrix delves into the true history of horror with Paperbacks from Hell. It’s an interesting book outlining the history of ‘dime novel’ horror stories, largely from the 1970s and 1980s leading briefly into the early 1990s.
I’m going to be upfront with you all: there’s no hidden twist or narrative. It’s really a book about the history of horror paperbacks. Considering Hendrix’s clever style of storytelling I’m sure there are some people who may have wondered if it was more than meets the eye. Horror fans are absolutely going to love the witty commentary on the history of genre-fiction’s lesser known titles. But if you’re looking for a book that’s something more akin to Hendrix’s other stories, this isn’t the book for you.

That said, if you’re looking for a fun non-fiction read, then you’ll definitely want to check out Paperbacks From Hell!

You can tell from the introduction, too, that this book is going to be something else. Starting with a book about Nazi gnomes, Paperbacks From Hell doesn’t hold back on the weird. It takes a topic that most people may never have given a second thought and turns it into a captivating timeline of subgenres, historical context, and real-world influences.

The book is broken down primarily into various subgenres and focuses on the titles that changed the genre — as well as the plethora of others that followed after. There are sections on killer animals, disturbing gothic romances, satantic-themed tales, and more. Each section discusses some of the more well-known books that were published as well as many lesser known ones that will intrigue readers… and also sometimes disturb them. Seriously, there are some weird books out there.

Hendrix has a very clever, witty banter with the readers throughout. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t that into the topic at first but Hendrix is such a great writer that I quickly found myself chuckling along with his writing. The commentary is probably the best part of the book. Paperbacks From Hell isn’t some droll, academic take on horror fiction. Instead it’s a loving reflection on what made certain books hits, what made some of them flop, and what drove authors to hop on the bandwagon with certain subgenres.

Some of the books he featured I’d actually want to go back and read. Others are very well known and many have even been adapted for the big screen. It’s a great mix with some real odd gems sticking out now and again.

One of the other cool things about Paperbacks From Hell is the emphasis Hendrix places on the cover art for the books he features. He not only focuses on the books themselves or the authors but on the artists as well. Hendrix points out some of most iconic covers and artists and brings to light yet another aspect of horror fiction that readers may not have considered before. There are full pages dedicated to the various artists and illustrators, reflecting on their influences on the genre as a whole. It’s a really cool addition to the book.

Paperbacks From Hell is a clever, intriguing book that touches on an unusual, but not uninteresting, topic. Hendrix is a great author and his witty reflection on the titles he features keeps readers interested even when it starts dragging.

I recommend not trying to read the whole book in one sitting – space out your reading some and keep it feeling fresh. Paperbacks From Hell is a perfect book for horror fans and it’s a really cool book for anyone looking for a unique, non-fiction read.

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A REVIEW COPY WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER