dark-libraries

[dark-libraries]

I guess Barnes & Noble carries Valancourt's Paperbacks from Hell reprints now, which is good, bc it's wild to encounter a book that looks like Hell Hound by Ken Greenhall in a bookstore in 2024, but also in context it's funny to have the horror table right behind ones for romantasy and Sarah J Maas. It's 2024 and there's one step between Heartstopper and Let's Go Play at the Adams'

#horror lit #horror books #books #paperbacks from hell

[dark-libraries]

Without Warning, 1981, by Fern Michaels (a prolific romance novelist whose Wikipedia page doesn't even list this one, lol)

When I first started looking for old horror paperbacks, this wasn't the first one I bought, but it was the first one that awakened me to the joys hiding in the racks. This one was in the lobby of a second-floor bookstore, who had lined the entryway and stairs up with shelves of cheap paperbacks; the delight I felt when I reached in to look at this one and saw SANTA HOLDING A BOMB is indescribable.

The cover is literal, too: this is a book about a psychic girl hunting a killer mall Santa. There's an entire middle passage where she goes and lives in his house for a few hours, which turns out to be irrelevant, bc it's a psychic impression left in another person's photo that cracks the case. There's also a memorable vignette about a sick little kid across the street begging to go to the mall to meet Santa seeing him leaving the bombs on the roof, and waving to him cheerfully

SPOILER ALERT: in a shocking twist, they fail to stop the Santa, and the mall is bombed. Lots of children are dead but a cop's wife had her baby so it all balances out, probably

#horror books #vintage horror #christmas horror #horror lit #pulp horror #pulp novels #paperbacks #horror paperbacks #books

[dark-libraries]

Still adore this weird ass cover. Dig the dead cat floating inches off the ground. Dig the evil child. Dig the giant alien-from-V head in the background. Dig the NES-adventure-game ass room. And the glorious title SATAN SUBLETS.

Love how it doesn't exist in good quality anywhere online since only like five people have ever found this book, & I'm so glad one of them was Grady Hendrix, so he could include it in Paperbacks from Hell & do a review revealing how it's dedicated to a liquor store

#horror lit #horror books #horror #animal death //

[dark-libraries]

Extremely 70s ads from late 70s/early 80s paperbacks

#no idea which book sadly i'd have to look #these photos are from 2018 #1970s #pulp horror #pulp novels #horror fiction #horror books