Anthony J. Fonseca and June Michele Pulliam have crafted a second volume (covering works from 1998 to 2002) of their popular work Hooked on Horror: A Guide to Reading Interest in Horror Fiction. Fonseca is Instructional Services Librarian at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. Pulliam is Instructor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Both have lectured on the topic of horror fiction and Pulliam edits the online journal Necropsy: The Review of Horror Fiction.
Hooked on Horror is not a book of reviews of horror fiction; it is instead an annotated guide to selected works in the horror genre for reader’s advisory, collection development librarians and horror fans. Fonseca and Pulliam have categorized their book into sub‐genres including Golem, Mummies, and the Reanimated Stalkers: Wake the Dead and They’ll Be Cranky; Small Town Horror: Villages of the Damned; and Splatterpunk: The Gross Out, to name a few. The first chapter defines each sub‐genre and gives examples of books in that genre. Each sub‐genre is then given its own chapter; these chapters include a brief introduction to the topic, what the appeal of that topic is, and a selected annotated bibliography. A brief list of similar titles is included at the end of each annotation. The book also includes chapters on non‐fiction resources, periodicals, journals, magazines, E‐zines, and Web sites.
Unlike the first edition of Hooked on Horror, this volume includes a discussion of selected films and graphic novels. The authors feel that film has played a large role in the popularity of horror fiction and have included a brief annotated list of films that should be included in libraries that have a strong group of horror readers. The film annotations also direct fans back to books that fit into that sub‐genre. The small list of graphic novels is included to show that authors and readers of horror fiction are beginning to explore this alternative format. Another unique addition to this volume is the inclusion of an appendix that lists a core collection of horror novels, authors, and works of horror‐related non‐fiction that libraries in the process of developing a horror collection should consider including.
This second volume of Hooked on Horror will join its predecessor as an excellent resource for anyone advising readers of horror fiction or developing a collection of this interesting genre and is highly recommended.
