Recs if you like Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction...

Niche nonfiction, aka micro-histories!

This list was a winner of the Q2 2026 Community Voting event - if you'd like to participate in the Quest, a link is pinned in the comments.

microhistory: the intensive historical investigation of a well defined smaller unit of research (such as an event, community, individual or a settlement); it aspires to "ask large questions in small places"

Bibliophilia at its best - books about books, readers, libraries, bookstores!

Non-fiction about horror, those is the horror industry, horror-adjacent subjects, and down-right terrifying books.

emphasis on “in”. sister list to ‘absolutely rat-tastic’! for this list, rats do not have to be mentioned in the title, but they MUST be mentioned in the book, featured on the cover, or both! suggestions are extremely welcome🐀

... or pop culture leaning.

Nonfiction books about the mechanics, psychology, and other aspects of the horror genre.

Recommendations are always welcome!

Niche nonfiction books that dads are still likely to enjoy that either 1) are not military history at all or 2) a niche area of a war that is not military history

Books that discuss the horror genre in literature and cinema

you definitely don’t want to babysit the kids in these books!! these are some bad kids, some might even say evil kids, like they’re possessed by demons or something, think Damien from The Omen or the twins in Goodnight Mommy

as always, taking any and all suggestions!

Books that brought on Satanic Panic, or resulted from it.

Created from the list on Goodreads by Cybil and Sadie Hartmann (September 29, 2025)

Nonfiction books about horror as a genre in movies, television, and literature.

True stories of horror, authors who take a horror lense to their memoirs or historical, film, literary analysis of horror. There’s even a scientific analysis of cannibalism, including humans interest in the taboo subject.

Books about the horror genre from an academic lens because we need more of those!!

no? well, now you do Books about [niche subject] or [not so niche subject] that spam from the mysterious and the macabre to the weird and unsettling to just interesting and fun

the recommended reading list compiled by Will Errickson at the end of the book

who is horror? what is horror? when is horror? where is horror? why is horror? how is horror? (a list of nonfiction books about horror, generally in america)