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Be Scared of Everything
Be Scared of Everything: Horror Essays | Peter Counter
6 posts | 1 read
Literary Nonfiction. Film. Music. Horror. Slinging ectoplasm, tombstones, and chainsaws with aplomb, BE SCARED OF EVERYTHING is a frighteningly smart celebration of horror culture that will appeal to both horror aficionados and casual fans. Combining pop culture criticism and narrative memoir, Counter's essays consider and deconstruct film, TV, video games, true crime, and his own horrific encounters to find importance in the occult, pathos in Ouija boards, poetry in madness, and beauty in annihilation. Comprehensive in scope, these essays examine popular horror media including Silent Hill, Hannibal, Hereditary, Alien, Jaws, The X-Files, The Terror, The Southern Reach Trilogy, Interview with the Vampire, Misery, Gerald's Game, The Sixth Sense, Scream, Halloween, The Blair Witch Project, The Babadook, the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Slenderman stories, alongside topics like nuclear physics, cannibalism, blood, Metallica, ritual magic, nightmares, and animatronic haunted houses. This is a book that shows us everything is terrifying--from Pokemon to PTSD--and that horror can be just as honest, vulnerable, and funny as it is scary. "BE SCARED OF EVERYTHING is a command directed at everyone: punks, normies, horror film fans, UFO abductees, telemarketers, pet necromancers, you, no one will leave this book in their current form who permits the devious, curious, always-illuminating Peter Counter over their mental threshold."--Meredith Graves "Peter Counter's writing on horror is thoughtful, lively, and strangely touching. From classic movie monsters, to personal demons, to a genuinely surprising (and funny) analysis of Frasier, BE SCARED OF EVERYTHING faces horror's thrills, problems and paradoxes, with shades of Noel Carroll, Eugene Thacker, and Stephen King circa Danse Macabre."--John Semley "BE SCARED OF EVERYTHING is a heady mix of memoir and critical essays. Discerning, unafraid to examine larger questions without easy answers, the collection is also warm and entertaining."--Paul Tremblay
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Robotswithpersonality
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1/? Sincere and simultaneously off-the-wall.
Many essays start with an interesting discussion, raise a new perspective I follow eagerly and then say something I couldn't agree with - and then I'm arguing with the author in my head. Stimulates discussion! Felt like the controversial air waned the further into the collection I got.

Robotswithpersonality 2/? Occasionally you just get the chance to revel in the spookiness, i.e. this thing is destined to be scary and it is, but a lot of the time the emphasis is placed on things that aren't meant to be scary but are, or the fact that there are scary things in life you are unable to avoid. 2mo
Robotswithpersonality 3/? The author covers real life events and reflections on media and the horror genre, a good mix. I should emphasize that there is a fair amount of sad and difficult mixed in with the good writing about fictional horrors.
Manifest Doom is definitely my favourite of the collection.
On a separate note, I finally know what creepypasta is.
2mo
Robotswithpersonality 4/4 There is a content warning in the beginning of the book, but I'd argue it's incomplete, see below:
⚠️Mental health concerns, PTSD, attempted suicide, self-harm, gun violence, gore, animal death, discussion of cannibalism
2mo
9 likes3 comments
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Robotswithpersonality
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Today's 'scratched my brain just right' sentence.
Sidebar: My dad had a pair of orange Husqvarna suspenders when I was a kid, and a chainsaw to turn deadfall on our property into firewood, and it never occurred to me to ask if the suspenders came with the chainsaw or if he was a big enough fan that he went out and bought branded merch, or maybe he was in the hardware store and they were in sale? 🤔🤷🏼‍♂️

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Robotswithpersonality
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That sounds more like typical American military paranoia than proof of conspiracy. 🤨

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Robotswithpersonality
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Basic survival instinct or love of life?
I certainly prefer the second hypothesis.

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Robotswithpersonality
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Reader beware...🤫😱

julesG 😁 2mo
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AllDebooks
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