You may have heard how literature is a conversation, how writers build upon the stories of others to create a sort of dialogue between one another. The conversation is sometimes hard to follow since it often takes years between responses. That’s why a book such as Horror Fiction in the 20th Century: Exploring Literature’s Most Chilling Genre by Jess Nevins (Praeger) is a godsend. By walking readers through horror fiction of the past century, it’s much easier to follow that discussion and to spot emerging trends. You can see how horror fiction has responded to the times in which it was written. This is a book for anyone who has ever wanted to understand the evolution of the genre.

In his introduction, Nevins says his book was born from what was missing in existing histories of the genre—omissions such as sufficient coverage of writers outside the United States, the United Kingdom, and Eastern Europe; coverage of LGBTQ+ writers; discussions of more modern gothic stories; and horror found in different media such as comics and manga. All of these are sufficiently covered in Nevins’s well-researched survey, oftentimes in their own chapters.

Nevins first defines what horror literature is and how it differs from other categories. He notes that while other genres pepper their content with standard tropes (i.e. mysteries must contain crimes; westerns must include a certain setting; etc.), horror has no such requirement. Horror alone is singularly concerned with the effect it has on the reader—specifically the feeling of dread. Freed from the confines of what it must contain, horror possesses a unique malleability that allows it to be fused seamlessly with any other genres. Any story can be a horror story. Many additional texts can therefore be brought to the reader’s attention—books that would normally not be considered horror novels but are included for the emotions they evoke.

Horror Fiction in the 20th Century is divided into three parts. In the first part, Nevins covers the so-called Golden Age of Horror between 1901 and 1939. As he notes, literary periods rarely, if ever, coincide so evenly within decade boundaries. Thus, Nevins briefly addresses the trends of horror fiction leading up to 1901, including its earliest occurrences. British writers are discussed, among them the influential Machen quartet, consisting of Arthur Machen, M.R. James, Lord Dunsany, and Algernon Blackwood. American horror is represented through a discussion of the “east” and “west” schools of horror, the start of Weird Tales magazine in 1923, and sexism in publishing. While Nevins discusses the historical aspects of the genre, such as the impact of World War I, he also encourages readers to seek out new writers by summarizing their work within a historical context.

This same period saw the rise of pulp magazines. For horror, the big name in pulp was Weird Tales. While not the first pulp to feature horror, it did become the only place where you could find high quality horror fiction, especially after Farnsworth Wright took editorial control with the November 1924 issue. Weird Tales was home to some of horror’s most influential names of the time, including H.P. Lovecraft, Frank Belknap Long, and Robert Bloch. Nevins discusses each of them and what they contributed to the field.

The second part of Horror Fiction in the 20th Century covers the decades between 1940 and 1970. Here, Nevins details how the genre went through a transition in several ways. First, World War II led to paper restrictions that, in part, initiated the decline of pulp magazines. That void eventually led to digest-size magazines and the rise of the paperback, setting the stage for the bestsellers to come in the later parts of the century. Second, horror fiction began to leave behind cheaper thrills in favor of more stylistic approaches such as those of Ray Bradbury. Last, the horror field, which was predominantly driven by British authors in the earlier decades, was more and more being driven by American writers. Here, Nevins covers the careers and works of writers such as Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, and Fritz Leiber. British horror fiction suffered a decline during this postwar period but could still be found in the pages of mainstream fiction by writers such as Dorothy Macardle, Andrew Caldecott, and Russell Thorndike.

The third part of Horror Fiction in the 20th Century, covering the last three decades, is perhaps the most engaging, especially for people who grew up on the paperback horror of the 1970s and 1980s. Paperback novels were a cheap, easily accessible vehicle for the horror fiction audience and it was more culturally acceptable to be seen reading them. The era was essentially ushered in with Ira Levin’s bestseller Rosemary’s Baby (1967) and was cemented with books such as William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist (1971), Jaws by Peter Benchley (1974), and Stephen King’s Carrie (1974). Nevins covers the booming business of horror during those decades as well as the decline that ended the century—though he’s careful to note that horror is still alive and well today, despite that lull. Also discussed is the more graphic content that pervaded horror fiction as the result of cultural shifts. Just as cheap thrills gave way to small-town horrors, the latter also waned in favor of horror stories with more sex and violence. Rounding out this part of the book are chapters dedicated to short fiction and horror fiction for children and young adults. And, like the other sections, this one features a handy survey of horror fiction outside the Anglosphere.

Horror Fiction in the 20th Century is both an educational and informational resource that is thoroughly researched and inclusive of the genre in all its forms. Perhaps even more valuable, it serves as an indispensable resource for your next thrilling horror read.

Science Fiction/Fantasy correspondent John DeNardo is the founding editor of SF Signal, a Hugo Award-winning blog. Follow him on Twitter @sfsignal.