Audge Shrewsbury’s Reviews > American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond > Status Update

WHOOOOOOO we’ve made it to supernatural!

Beloved mention!

“…although statistically a postwar rise in delinquency is complicated to prove…the fear of it certainly shot up, as did the attention paid to it…almost every meeting opened with the insistence the phenomenon was on the rise and…that some aspect of mass media or popular culture was primarily to blame.” Both comforting and frustrating we’ve always blamed media for behavior instead of parenting and class

Unexpected “Hiroshima” by John Hersey mention! (Read that book, it’s not long)

“…the arguable most famous Hawthorne story from this period, published in 1835 in Boston’s New-England Magazine, is, in its own way, the most pessimistic of them all.” *proceeds to describe the plot of the story but doesn’t give the title once in 2 pages dedicated to talking about it*

For my own records keeping: switched from audiobook to physical copy @ 30%, began second attempt on 11/18

Ain’t NO WAY this man just claimed HG Wells “essentially” invented modern science fiction after JUST talking about how horror can revolve around fear of women and their autonomy. Yeah, let’s just gloss over Mary Shelley 🙄

Kinda disappointing that in a book about American horror, indigenous stories are given like 2-3 paragraphs before immediately jumping in to Salem, esp since part of what made Salem such a hotbed of blame-gaming was their fear of indigenous people and potential raids

We love seeing a book start right out with a content warning