Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction

by Grady Hendrix

Because the mass murder of indigenous Americans is this country’s original sin, these stories are marinated in extra-strength cynicism, complete with conspiracies cooked up by mayors, newspaper reporters, law enforcement officers, and land developers who want to keep stealing artifacts, building condos on hallowed land, and generally being culturally insensitive, all with total impunity. It’s tempting to see hidden depths in these books; however, no one in these stories does much self-analysis and the authors rarely, if ever, engage with the dubious morality of, after wiping out the original Native Americans, now wiping out the few traces of their ghosts, however bloodthirsty, that remain. Skeleton Dancer (1989) is one of the few to engage with bigger issues, such as, “Why would skeletons want to take our son?”