Nonfiction Books
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Zombies and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Werewolves, both by Nathan Robert Brown (Alpha), are reference guides to lore and popular media on zombies and werewolves respectively, each including a chapter on literature. American Zombie Gothic: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Walking Dead in Popular Culture by Kyle William Bishop (McFarland) provides a cultural and critical analysis of the cinematic zombie tradition, starting with its origins in Haitian folklore and tracking the development of the subgenre into the twenty-first century. Dario Argento by James Gracey (Kamera Books) is a concise introduction to the filmmaker’s work. Top 100 Horror Movies by Gary Gerani (Fantastic Press/IDW) will engender violent disagreements among fans for the movies he leaves out and some that he includes as he rates his favorites in ascending order. Confessions of a Scream Queen by Matt Beckoff (BearManor Media) is a series of interviews with actresses associated with horror films (using a very loose definition of the term “scream queen”). Wild Unrest: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Making of “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz (Oxford University) draws on writings by Gilman, her first husband, and the prominent neurologist who Gilman turned to during her nervous breakdown to argue that the story was a protest against traditional marriage (not a new theory). Monsters, Mutants and Heavenly Creatures by Tom Weaver (Midnight Marquee) is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of classic movies such as The Blob and It Came From Outer Space. The Shrieking Sixties: British Horror Films 1960–1969 edited by Darrell Buxton (Midnight Marquee) features reviews of 150 movies, including Brides of Dracula, Scream and Scream Again, and Witchfinder General. The Literary Monster in Film: Five Nineteenth Century British Novels and Their Cinematic Adaptations by Abigail Burnham Bloom (McFarland). With notes, bibliography, and index. Richard Matheson on Screen: A History of the Filmed Works by Matthew R. Bradley (McFarland) is an overview of Matheson’s mostly horror scriptwriting for television and films. Wanted Undead or Alive: Vampire Hunters and Other Kick-Ass Enemies of Evil by Jonathan Maberry and Janice Gable Bashman (Citadel) is an entertaining, far-ranging guide to popular culture’s romance with evil. The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead (third edition, originally titled The Vampire Gallery: A Who’s Who of the Undead) by J. Gordon Melton, Ph.D. (Visible Ink). Popular Ghosts: The Haunted Spaces of Everyday Culture edited by Maria del Pilar Blanco and Esther Peeren (Continuum) has twenty-two essays about ghosts in popular culture. Fantastic Spiritualities: Monsters, Heroes, and the Contemporary Religious Imagination by J’annine Jobling (Continuum/ T&T Clark) is a critical exploration of religion in fantasy and dark fantasy. Lilja’s Library: The World of Stephen King by Hans-Ake Lilja (CD) is a 500+ page compilation of material from the Stephen King fansite. Thrillers: 100 Must Reads edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner (Oceanview Publishing) is a guide to thrillers from ancient times to 2003, ending with Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, with members of the International Thriller Writers such as F. Paul Wilson, Joe R. Lansdale, Douglas Preston, and Lee Childs writing essays about their favorite thrillers. Included are Frankenstein, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Beowulf. Akin to Poetry: Observations on Some Strange Tales of Robert Aickman by Philip Challinor (Gothic Press) is a chapbook of eight essays on the fiction of Robert Aickman. Touchstones of Gothic Horror: A Film Genealogy of Eleven Motifs and Images by David Huckvale (McFarland) explores the origin of Gothic cinema in art and literature, tracing its connection to the Gothic revival in architecture, the Gothic novel, Egyptology, occultism, sexuality, the philosophy of Hegel, and a host of other aspects of the Romantic and Symbolist movements. When There’s No More Room in Hell: The Sociology of the Living Dead by Andrea Subsissati (Lambert Academic Publishing) outlines the underlying social critique that underscores Romero’s entire series. Asian Horror by Andy Richards (Kamera Books) is a guide for the casual viewer. Real Zombies, the Living Dead, and Creatures of the Apocalypse by Brad Steiger (Visible Ink) is an unfocused catchall guide to vampires, ghouls, mummies, wendigos, and zombies. Shadows over Florida by David Goudsward and Scott T. Goudsward (BearManor Media) is an entertaining little guide to hauntings and other supernatural events in Florida (including horror movie scenes that take place in the state). Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside by Brad Steiger (Visible Ink) collects over two hundred and fifty “true” monster stories. When Werewolves Attack: A Field Guide to Dispatching Ravenous Flesh-Ripping Beasts by Del Howison (Ulysses Press) provides a lot of the usual information about werewolves but does it informally with an engaging voice and liberal touches of humor. Poe in His Own Time edited by Benjamin F. Fisher (University of Iowa Press) is a compilation of early notices and criticism of Poe's work. The Ghost Story from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century edited by Helen Conrad O’Briain and Julie Anne Stevens (Four Court Press) includes essays on writers ranging from M. R. James, Margaret Oliphant, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Edgar Allan Poe to Shirley Jackson, New Zealander Keri Hulme, and Chuck Palahniuk. Down Among the Dead Men: A Year in the Life of a Mortuary Technician by Michelle Williams (Soft Skull Press) is a riveting memoir of a young British woman’s year in what she calls “one of the most amazing jobs you can do.” And reading about her experiences you believe her. Against Religion by H. P. Lovecraft (Sporting Gentlemen Publishers), edited and with an introduction by S. T. Joshi and with a foreword by Christopher Hitchens, contains Lovecraft’s major nonfiction writing on religion. The book is divided into: “Some Personal Reflections,” “General Thoughts on God and Religion,” “Religion and Science,” and “Religion and Society.” Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance by Robin Furth (Cemetery Dance) is a massive 850+ page volume meant to be the definitive guide to the series’ characters, themes, timeline, cultural, and political references, and anything else an interested reader could dream of. The Devil’s Rooming House by M. William Phelps (Lyons Press) is the true back-story to the play and movie Arsenic and Old Lace. Four years after a rooming house for the elderly and chronic invalids opened in 1911 in Windsor, Connecticut, a reporter noticed a sharp rise of obituaries for residents of the rooming house. On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Greatest Fears by Stephen T. Asma (Oxford University Press-2009) is an engaging, wide-ranging cultural history of monsters including imaginary ones, genetic mutations, psychological monsters, and possible future monsters, like robots and cyborgs. The Philosophy of Horror edited by Thomas Fahy (The University Press of Kentucky) is an absorbing examination of why horror fascinates us (mostly concentrating on filmic horror rather than literary) by “exploring the social, moral, and artistic statements of the genre.” The fourteen original essays cover everything from “The Justification for Torture-Horror: Retribution and Sadism in Saw, Hostel, and The Devil’s Rejects” to “Hobbes, Human Nature, and the Culture of American Violence in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.” The Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti (Hippocampus Press) is the author’s philosophical treatise on the human condition and as such is erudite and utterly bleak.