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Showing posts with the label James Herbert

"Paperbacks From Hell" (Grady Hendrix)

  Today in "The Corner of Terror," we have a special Guest Reviewer: Jason H from " From the Basement ", so let's see what offering he brings to our dark corner of the internet... There was a time when books were sold pretty much everywhere. Grocery stores, drug stores, smoke shops, you name it. And individual paperbacks could sell 12 million copies in North America alone. That was back when writing a best seller really meant something. This was the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and one of the most prolific – and profitable – genres was the horror novel. What set these books apart from their modern counterparts was an unashamed desire on the part of the writer to gross out, offend, titillate and, at times, outright disturb. Or, at the very least, baffle.  Psychic Nazi dwarves who enjoy S&M? These paperbacks had them. Armies of mutant rats eating the populace of London, England? You betcha! Mystics that bite off young boys’ penises? But of course. This was a time when a...