Uncovering the Dark Side of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction: A Retrospective Look at Paperbacks from Hell

Jimmy Billy: The 80's were a great time in horror, the books were good and the cover art was even better, every horror fan should read this book to expand their horizons or relive their memories of finding these books in the local bookstore.

United States on Sep 28, 2023

Rolf Bucher: This is a great book that fills in some gaps about how the horror fiction genre took off.

Recommended.

Sweden on Sep 28, 2023

I. M. Imboden: If you read Flowers in the Attic and loved it, this is the book for you!
This book took me back to all of the pulpy horror novels I devoured throughout Catholic school, hoping to shock the nuns with what I was reading: The Sentinel, Nathaniel, all of V.C. Andrews's books...so many horror novels of the 1970-1990s. Just fabulous.
I loved seeing the covers and reminiscing about how ridiculous and over the top they are.
I'm not a person who wants to re-read books, I've got too many others to plow through, so this was just a cool way to re-visit those books without having to go through that many pages. It has inspired me, though, to go buy a copy of Nathaniel and see if it's as good as I remember!
If you loved those books with dark covers and brightly colored titles: buy yourself this book!

United States on May 30, 2023

R. Jones: Hendrix provides an excellent overview of the horror paperback boom of the 70s and 80s and does so in a witty and entertaining way. I lived through that era and read a few of the books he writes about, but there were dozens discussed here that were new to me. His descriptions of the often ludicrous plots are marvelous and his background information on the writers, publishers and cover artists was an added treat. Highly recommended for anyone interested in horror fiction in general and the tons of stuff published in that era especially.

United States on Mar 25, 2023

CoffinJoe: Informativ, sicher nicht erschöpfend, aber interessant und lustig geschrieben. Es gibt eine Menge Abbildungen der wirklich abgefahrenen Cover-Artworks, auch zu diesen erzählt der Autor einiges, von Infos zu den Künstlern bis hin zu Trends ihrer Zeit.
Dicke Empfehlung!
Einziges Manko; die vordere Hälfte des Buches hat sich von der Mitte bis zum Boden während des Lesens aus dem Einband gelöst, aber vielleicht hab auch nur ich da eine blöde Kopie bekommen.

Germany on Mar 23, 2023

Mr.Aligator: Análisis y recopilación de una gran cantidad de títulos de terror de los 60/70/80.

Con multitud de imágenes y portadas de los libros que se reseñan.

Es un imprescindible para los fans del terror.

Lo recomiendo.

Spain on Aug 08, 2022

Merluzo sideral (Búscame en Youtube): It is an incredible book, it is very cool, for the price and its format, it is worth it, in general ten, my congratulations to its author.

Spain on Aug 07, 2022

Mark West: Aside from childhood books (some of which, like Peter Haining’s “The Restless Bones” and the World Of Arthur C Clarke, made a proper impression), my first introduction to ‘grown-up’ horror was when I picked up “Salem’s Lot” in a 2nd hand shop in the early 80s. I hit the genre just right, there for Clive Barker to blow my world apart with his “Books Of Blood” and to be steered in new directions by Dennis Etchison’s “Cutting Edge”, while all the time, horror novels were being churned out that were never quite as good as their wonderfully lurid covers promised. My love for that cheesier end of the market has never dimmed and I’ve spent the last ten years or so re-building my collection and hugely enjoying reading some of those treats that are, often, now sadly forgotten. But not by me or the likes of Will Erricksen or, indeed, Grady Hendrix. This book feels like it was written for me, a round-up (by sub-genre) of all those glorious, trashy, brilliant, infuriating, genius, rubbish novels (and yes, some can be all of those things at once, that’s their real beauty). Filled with magnificent reproductions of covers, some affectionate comment and remembrance...

United Kingdom on Oct 09, 2021

James P. Ebert: As I mentioned a few books back, we're now returning to the glory days of pulpy horror paperbacks, most often found littering the shelves of the local grocery store. This time courtesy of Grady Hendrix, who evidently fell into a used books store, wound up with a cart full of late 70s-90 horror, and got inspired to write a history of them in Paperbacks From Hell.

While the subject matter might be a bit on the cheesy side, the book is lush in its treatment, with pictures of several of the more lurid covers printed in full color. Indeed, what ended up helping me decide to add this to my collection was the fact that a few titles displayed in the front cover were ones I remember having at a young age.

With this being non fiction, it's arranged by subject matter, starting with Satan and ending with Splatterpunk, meaning we go from Blatty's The Exorcist to Bright's Lost Souls, with such luminaries as V. C. Andrews and Graham Masterson in between. For the most part, he avoids going too in depth with the really big names to give the spotlight to much lesser known authors, although he generally does start with the big book(s) that started a trend, and explore what flooded the...

United States on Nov 03, 2020

SciFi-Kaiju-Guy @ TeePublic: BOTTOM LINE: If you enjoy reading older, obscure, gory, disturbing and just plain weird horror-themed books from the past then this book will act as a bright candle to help light your way through the dusty stacks of yellowed, well-thumbed softcover spook stories. A fun & funny read, PAPERBACKS FROM HELL is a worthwhile addition to any horror novel lover's collection.

THOUGHTS: My reading desire often goes in spurts; I'll read voraciously for a period then tire of it, stop, and then a few months (or years) later, the cycle repeats itself. I love to spend rainy afternoons scouring through used book stores looking for a new-to-me book or discovering an author I hadn't heard of before. I prefer the occasion science fiction book and delight in finding a solid horror novel, especially if it's got weird monsters of some kind rampaging thorough it. I go out of my way to track down these little shops whenever my wife and I go out of town on vacation. You never know what's waiting for you; a new guilty pleasure treasure is almost certain to be lurking somewhere among those musty-smelling shelves. Digging up some long-forgotten, time-rotted terrors from the heyday of the scary...

United States on Oct 28, 2018