Evelyn's Reviews > American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond

September is finally here and even though it’s still hot here I can detect a hint of 🍂 autumn 🍂in the air. It also means it is officially spooky season. I was lucky enough to receive this gifted copy of American Scary from @novelsuspects and @algonquinbooks and it was my most recent read and got me in the mood for spooky season. It also gave me a great deal of insight that will no doubt cause me to look at the books I read and the movies I watch differently and with a new depth of understanding.
Jeremy Dauber’s American Scary is an in-depth look at the history of horror in America. It asks the question what scares us and then ties it to the cultural landscape of the United States. It begins with colonial times and the hardships early settler faced, the witch trials and even into folk tales told by slaves. It looks in depth at the evolution of horror literature- from Lovecraft to Jackson to King. And of course there is horror in film. The eerie suspense films of Hitchcock to the cultural horror of Jordan Peele, it is all covered in this outstanding book.
I really enjoyed this book. It is not a quick read simply because it is packed with so much information, but I was glued to the pages throughout. I loved that in addition to being a history of the horror genre, it is also a cultural history of the United States. The way Dauber intertwines the two is fascinating. Hernandez dives deeply into the dark and ugly parts of our nation’s past and exposes our shame and then ties it to our collective fears.
This was such an interesting book. Well researched and packed with history yet it never felt like a textbook. I could not stop reading it. If you love horror pick this book up immediately. It is also perfect for people that love history and cultural analysis. I imagine this is a book a will refer back to for many years.