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Book Review: Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature edited by Becky Siegel Spratford

Cover art for Why I Love Horror edited by Becky Siegel Spratford

Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature edited by Becky Siegel Spratford

Saga Press, 2025

ISBN-13: 9781668205099

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

Buy: Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com

 

 

Librarian Becky Siegel Spratford presents eighteen essays by current horror authors on why they love horror. The collection begins with a welcome to the reader by Sadie Hartman, followed by Spratford’s own essay, “Why Ask Why,” where she tells her story about how she found herself working with horror and curating this book full of talented horror writers. Before each essay, Spratford includes an introduction to the authors, a book recommendation to start with from their works, and a recommendation of an author in a similar vein.

 

My experience reading this was like opening a door to different times in my life where horror made significant appearances, despite having never really left me. Childhood memories and horror are foundational for some in this community. In “Brian Keene’s Giant-Size Man-Thing,” the author discusses his introduction to horror through comics and how horror helped him cope with dread and fear. John Langan writes of his childhood fascination with cryptids in “In the Bermuda Triangle with Sasquatch, Flesh Smoldering.” Jennifer McMahon’s “Monster Girl: How Horror Gave Me a Place to Belong” hit particularly close to home in terms of feeling out of place, being the weird girl who liked horror, and experiencing struggles at home. “My Mother Was Margaret White” by Cynthia Pelayo discusses abuse she experienced at home and at school, never feeling safe anywhere. Horror saved us both. “Permission to Scream” by Rachel Harrison and and “Tales From My Crypt” by Mary SanGiovanni specifically focus on girlhood and horror, both also speaking to similar experiences for me.

 

Horror providing comfort or a safe space is another thread that ties these essays together. Hailey Piper describes, in “The Giant Footprint of Horror”, how Godzilla introduced her to horror, and that there is joy in this dreadful genre. “My Long Road to Horror”, by Tananarive Due, describes horror as feeling. She writes a short but powerful history of her family and their personal horrors of racism and struggle.

 

Authors remind the reader that horror is more than a genre, it is an entire community. Alma Katsu’s “What You Can Learn from Horror: Don’t Run from Darkness; It’s Trying to Teach You a Lesson”, presents an essay questioning why people shy away from horror. A true crime writer I had a conversation with during my undergrad found it fascinating that there is a line in the sand between what his audience will and will not read: that line is fictional horror. Katsu states “I’m here to argue against running away from darkness,” (52) and provides personal information regarding past employment with government agencies as an intelligence analyst. Gabino Iglesias, in “Horror is Life: A Blood-soaked Love Letter,” discusses his life in Puerto Rico and discovering horror, which turns into a moving statement on how horror changed his life. In “A Day in My Psychedelic World,” Nuzo Onoh, dubbed the Queen of African Horror, reminds us there is horror for everybody.

 

There are so many great essays in this book. Other authors who contribute are Josh Malerman, Paul Tremblay, whose piece is accompanied by his daughter Emma, Grady Hendrix, Clay McLeod Chapman, Victor LaValle, David Demchuk, and Stephen Graham Jones. This would make a great addition to a general library collection, as well as essential reading for a course on horror. Highly recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on June 3, 2026 by , Reply

Graphic Novel Review: H.P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu (H.P. Lovecraft Manga), adaptation and art by Gou Tanabe

H. P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu (H.P. Lovecraft Manga) adaptation and artwork by Gou Tanabe, translated by Zack Davisson

Dark Horse Comics, 2024

ISBN-13: 9781506741406

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:   Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

 

Eisner-nominated mangaka Gou Tanabe adapts H. P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu, first published in 1928. Francis Thurston, the executor of the estate of the late Professer Angell, discovers that the academic was investigating a strange cult that worships an entity known as Cthulhu. Thurston, curious about the papers, journal entries, and strange clay idols, launches his own investigation that unearths something bigger than he could ever dream of—the city of R’lyeh.

 

The story is told in a series of journal entries and flashbacks to events in the aforementioned entries to construct the mysteries of the cult, mythos, and what happened to anyone who comes across even the mere mention of the Great Old Ones.

 

Tanabe’s artwork includes such intricate detail. The eye is forced to observe. He renders Lovecraft’s cosmic horror as visceral, beautiful, and maddening at the same time. There are panels where black text is outlined in white, and is overlaid on the artwork, which forces the reader to slow down, take in the words on the page, and then move to the surrounding artwork. Particularly visceral and intricate scenes include cultist activities and the discovery of and journey through R’lyeh. Tanabe’s large scenes, such as an overhead view of a seafaring vessel fighting to avoid being pulled into a whirlpool near R’lyeh, are impressive. Put these on a shelf next to such horror mangaka as Junji Ito and Q Hayashida. Highly recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on June 2, 2026 by , Reply

Book Review: These Familiar Walls by CJ Dotson

 

These Familiar Walls by CJ Dotson

St. Martin’s Press, 2026

ISBN: 9781250336583

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com

 

These Familiar Walls is a taut thriller, a major improvement over CJ Dotson’s debut novel, The Cut : it avoids all the problems that plagued that novel. It is a tightly written story that sticks to its premise, and does an outstanding job of throwing the reader off-base in terms of guessing the ending.  No sophomore jinx with this book: it’s certainly worth the read.

 

The book starts with a prologue, where thirty-something protagonist Amber Hughes’s parents are brutally murdered in a home invasion, and one of the killers(killed in the attack) turns out to have been Amber’s disturbed childhood friend, Nathan.  Amber inherits the house, and she and her husband Ben, and their two kids move in. Strange things start happening, and the author does a good job slowly building up the level of tension over the course of the book.  Dotson uses fairly basic items like sounds and images, but does it well, especially when using mirrors.  With a number of the incidents, it’s almost more psychological, as it seems like some of the characters go into a sort of fugue state, as they find themselves doing things, and being there, but not mentally in the moment.  It adds a nice touch, and will make the reader wonder: is the house really haunted, or are the characters mentally unstable, and dealing with the results?  The scene with the multiple candles, and the barbeque scene are good examples: they keep the story riveting while providing for some uncertainty for the reader.

 

The narrative is a split narrative, with parts taking place in the present, and sections in the past that document Amber’s time growing up as a teen with Nathan, who is every concerned parent’s worst nightmare.  Worth noting: there is a bit of animal cruelty associated with Nathan, and some people might want to skip those two sections.  It makes sense in terms of the plot, but can still be difficult to deal with.  The timelines tie together in the end, as the mystery of the house, as well as the mystery of the killer who escaped the night Amber’s parents were slain, are all resolved.

 

As good as the book is, it’s the last third of the book that’s a real gut punch, as all the answers are truly stunning and will completely throw the reader off.  As much as this is a thriller about a haunted house, it’s also a prime example of how the worst things in the world aren’t always supernatural: they can be contained within ourselves.

 

In closing, These Familiar Walls is a vast improvement over Dotson’s debut novel: let’s hope the author can keep it going in the future. Recommended.

 

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on June 1, 2026 by , Reply
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