This is more of a three and a half star review. Loose and very all-over-the-map survey of horror in American literature, movies, culture since the 1600s or so. It starts out extremely dry and unfocused, comes into shape around the beginning of cinema, hits high points after but also stumbles on unfortunate factual errors. Like getting Duane Jones name wrong writing about Night of the Living Dead. By the end it’s a sort of context-added list of reading and watching, with a critical eye that’s a bit hard to parse. For fans of the genre only.

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As a lover of everything horror and history, I’m basically the exact right audience for this book and it’s such a joy to read this October.

Applying current social issues to the past drives me nuts, I cannot imagine being in college at this point if guys like this are teaching.