This is my second outing into the “A Very Short Introduction” series. My first one was about literary theory, and that one was just okay, but good enough for me to explore other subjects in the same series. This one was even better! If you love horror, you get exactly what you want and need here. Even though it’s supposed to be a very short introduction, I found it to be a highly informative survey of the genre. Keep in mind it’s not limited to literature, which I initially assumed, but it’s all the better for it. The topics were well-chosen, and Darryl Jones introduced the most important monsters and tropes along the way, carefully adding critical analysis into the mix and connecting the dots intelligently and with a bit of personality. He managed to keep me engaged all the way through!

Here is a table of contents:

Acknowledgements
List of illustrations
Introduction
1 Monsters
2 The occult and the supernatural
3 Horror and the body
4 Horror and the mind
5 Science and horror
6 Afterword: horror since the millennium
Further reading
Index

I intend to keep this for reference, actually, as I was inspired to do a deeper dive into some of the topics discussed here. The further reading section and bibliography gave me tons more to explore! Much thanks to Darryl Jones for inspiring me with his enthusiasm and knowledge.