Book Reviews: Creepy Bitches: Essays on Horror From Women in Horror

 Horror has been seen as man's domain, and I've never quite understood why. I'm the biggest horror fan I've ever met, and I have a lot of femme friends that like horror a lot too. There are also a ton of women out there working in the horror field, and Creepy Bitches collects some of those women's essays on the genre in one entertaining book.

The essays range from analytical to personal to a cross between the two. I enjoyed almost all of them. There were some that I liked better than others and only two that didn't really work for me. My favorites include "Underground Horror: The New York City Subway Scene and its Effect on my Daily Commute" by Jean Wexler, "Taking the 'Ick' Out of Icthyology: Gender in the Creature from the Black Lagoon Trilogy" by Heather Hendershot, and Stacie Ponder's "Passing Into Myth: Candyman and the Final Woman." (Ponder is also the writer of the excellent Final Girl blog). I admit I almost skipped Hendershot's essay (I'm not a huge fan of the Creature from the Black Lagoon) but am glad I didn't, as it turned out to be one of the most fascinating in the collection.

Creepy Bitches is a must read for horror fans in general, but especially those of the women-identifying type. This feminist horror fan, at least, was not disappointed.

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