Paperbacks From Hell by Grady Hendrix

[dem]

Among the myriad joys of Paperbacks From Hell - I regularly get this from House of Fanatic publications, too - is finding entries on novels you somehow acquired over the years but have yet to get around to. In personal case these would include this fiendish foursome and it's fair to say they'd likely have remained on the to-read pile long after I'd given up the ghost were it not for PFH. Am now 50 pages into John Coyne's opportunist masterpiece off the back of a "real-life tragedy" that didn't actually happen (even so, should your children be bitten by the RPG bug, it's best to play safe and have them sectioned before they either commit suicide, kill everybody they know, or both) and it is really .... quite .... something. So how come Hobgoblin failed to entice until now? Could be because the back cover blurb criminally undersells it, although that lame excuse simply doesn't work in the cases of Totem, Berseker or The Tribe.

Frank Spiering - Berserker (Sphere, 1983)

Blurb:
From the frozen mists it comes ... an unspeakable evil that will chill the earth until the end of time ....

A brilliant New York doctor in love with a professional beauty, Christian Bangsted had come a long way from his tribal past in the land of freezing snow. Or so he thought.

But no man can escape his fate. Darkly, murderously, out of the terrifying whispered; myths of an Eskimo childhood – the razor-sharp chasms and bone-cold mists – a demon, has stepped. To clash in ultimate battle with the last of the sacred shamans. With a man who cannot begin to fathom the terror that lurks beneath the ice. With Christian Bangsted.

NOW NO ONE IS SAFE FROM THE FOUL EMBRACE, THE BURNING EYES, THE SAVAGE SPELL OF THE BERSERKER.

Bari Wood - The Tribe (NEL, Oct. 1982; originally NAL, 1981)

Blurb:

Hut 554 in Belzec Extermination Camp was different. The inmates were alive.
Shabby, pale, but in good health and well-stocked with food - official supplies that were better than even the German Army had by 1945.

But amongst the horror of the camp and the relief that some at least had sur­vived, one man noticed something strange about the Jews of Hut 554: a fine greyish dust that coated the interior and clung to their clothing. A small mystery that could be part of the big mystery: why had this one small group been kept carefully alive?

Thirty-five years later, in Brooklyn, police burst into the basement hideout of a teenage gang. This time the in­mates were dead. Brutally killed, bat­tered to death and torn limb from limb. And again, amongst the bloodbath, something strange: a fine greyish dust, scattered and clinging to the bodies.

'. . . an ultra-readable story of occult sus­pense.' Daily Mirror

[johnnymains]

Brilliant news, Grady's PAPERBACKS FROM HELL won a Stoker award. A very well done.

[ramseycampbell]

Grady's presentation at Stokercon of material from the book was our high point of the weekend. I very much hope he'll be giving it at the British Stokercon in 2020.

[dem]

Mar 12, 2018 10:51:22 GMT ramseycampbell said:

Grady's presentation at Stokercon of material from the book was our high point of the weekend. I very much hope he'll be giving it at the British Stokercon in 2020.

... and let's hope the book's success convinces Grady and publishers to compile a volume 2.

[Swampirella]

Oct 8, 2017 21:50:50 GMT mcannon said:

Oct 8, 2017 12:57:57 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

I've been gradually working my way through the book, a chapter a day or thereabouts, and greatly enjoying it. I don't find the author's style off-putting, partially because I've read a few of his columns at Tor.com and am used to it, but also because it's offset with his knowledge of the subject matter and affection for it (well, most of it).

I have spotted a couple of errors or disputable points, though. On page 81, authorship of "Watership Down" is attributed to Richard Harris, rather than Richard Adams - though a version written by the former might have been quite interesting.... On the following page, the author refers to 1974 as "The year that punk rock broke" - surely that would have been 1976? There were one or other occasions where I found myself thinking "Is that correct?", and there may well be others I've missed.

Still, you have to expect a glitch or two in a book with this amount of information. And surely nit-picking is all part of the fun!

A couple of days after PFH arrived, I received my copy of Kim Newman's collection of his "Video Dungeon" columns. I'm taking a similar approach to it, reading a few pages at a time, and already my "Ooh, I must see that!" films has become much, much longer. I think it would greatly appeal to most "Vault" members.

Mark

Treated myself to a copy yesterday; well worth it!

[Will E.]

I'm happy to hear people have enjoyed Paperbacks from Hell! Grady graciously asked me to help him with the enormous task of sorting out the paperback history of the genre, as well as providing cover art from my own collection. We were under a tight deadline so those mistakes readers have noted, & a few other typos & misattributions I spotted as well prior to the book coming out (my god, the typo that states Stepford Wives and Harvest Home came out in 1984 or something like that--!!), were not able to be fixed in time for publication. These were due only to Grady's exhaustion and editors who perhaps are not as horror-savvy as we fans (indeed they tried to correct my spelling of "Sematary" several times back and forth; did they actually think that's how I thought the word was spelled?!? Had they never heard of the book or film?!? Or song?!?). I'm not sure if these were fixed for subsequent printings. Believe me, we know and are sorry they're there--but think of them as a few bum notes in an otherwise spectacular punk rock album!

Speaking of punk, I was a bit chary about Grady's declaration that 1974 was the year punk broke, because I myself would put it several years later, 1976 or 1977, but it *was* the year the Ramones formed, so fair enough.

Winning the Stoker was the cherry on top of the bloody sundae, perhaps the high-point of my lifelong horror fandom. Thanks everyone for reading Paperbacks from Hell!

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

I see that Valancourt Books are to reissue a short selection of titles covered in the book in a Paperbacks From Hell limited series;
www.valancourtbooks.com/paperbacksfromhell.html

(I'm currently reading Grady Hendrix's My Best Friend's Exorcism and enjoying it tremendously.)

[𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr]

I found it on my ebook site. It looks interesting, and people have said it is good. It says it is multimedia.

This ENHANCED DIGITAL EDITION features TONS of TOTALLY AWESOME ’80s bonus materials—including Satanic Panic educational pamphlets, a do-it-yourself exorcism cheat sheet, a Spotify playlist of awesome ’80s tunes, animated cover artwork, and much more!


It has a playlist on sp****y. Which it includes a link to. The tunes are chapter titles.

[cauldronbrewer]

Dec 18, 2021 21:09:28 GMT 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr said:

I found it on my ebook site. It looks interesting, and people have said it is good.

I enjoyed it, along with another Grady Hendrix novel, We Sold Our Souls (particularly recommended for heavy metal fans). I'm currently reading yet another of his novels, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, and copy of his first novel, Horrorstör, awaits on my shelf.

[Jojo Lapin X]

Dec 18, 2021 21:20:28 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

his first novel, Horrorstör, awaits on my shelf.

On mine as well! It has done so for many years.

[The Lurker In The Shadows]

Dec 18, 2021 21:09:28 GMT 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr said:

I found it on my ebook site. It looks interesting, and people have said it is good.

I love this book. One of my favourite novels of recent years. Have enjoyed all of Hendrix's novels, but this one in particular got me 'right in the feels'.