Review: 'Be Scared of Everything: Horror Essays' by Peter Counter

 I love horror. I love essays. I love discussing life by discussing movies. So of course Be Scared of Everything would be right in my alley. And yet I hadn't expected it to hit quite as close to home as it ended up doing. While usually I tend to stick to books from well-known publishing houses, Invisible Publishing's Be Scared of Everything told me I really do need to look further and enjoy everything that's out there. Also, will you just look at that perfect cover! Thanks to Invisible Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 10/13/2020
Publisher: Invisible Publishing

Horror essays that read like Chuck Klosterman filtered through H. P. Lovecraft.

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 andtrue crime 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, the Alien films, Jaws, The X-Files, The Terror, The Southern Reach Trilogy, Interview withthe 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 Pokémon to PTSD—and that horror can be just as honest, vulnerable, and funny as it is scary.

Horror has always been a big part of my fiction, and even non-fiction, intake. Initially I pursued it for the thrill of it, that shiver down the back that makes you look twice at the darkness in the corner of your room. But as I got older and became, sadly, more acquainted with the trials and hardships of life, horror took on a different meaning for me. Not until this collection of horror essays was able to truly put it into words, because Peter Counter seems to feel exactly the same way. When the illusion of safety and normality shatters, even if just for a moment, it is only really in horror that you can find relief. While the rest of the world seemingly clings to the idea that everything is fine, deep down you know it isn't. It is the horror film or the horror book that gives you an opportunity to not just accept but thrive on the knowledge that yes, something is seriously wrong and you're right to be suspicious and wary. I have found that horror films and books let me explore that fear and worry and even anger in a way that no other genre does. In that way I can probably credit horror with a certain stability I have reached in life. In this way I resonated with Be Scared of Everything, except that Peter Counter is much more eloquent and knowledgeable when talking about horror or mental health.

In Be Scared of Everything Counter has collected a number of personal essays all centred around horror. Each essay explores deeply human emotions, whether it is working through personal trauma, the numbness that comes with the slow, inevitable collapse of the world, or dealing with grief, by deconstructing horror films, books, short stories and even songs. Each time Counter made a connection between one of these texts and his own life, I felt something click. They all feel natural and he makes it look easy, which surely belies the hard work put into these essays. It would be impossible to discuss every single essay, so below I will discuss just a few. In 'The FBI's Basement Office' Counter makes a surprisingly effective and emotional case for UFO sightings which acknowledges our engrained need to disbelief without mocking the believers. His essay 'The Shattered Teacup' on Hannibal Lecter and specifically the recent TV show resonated so strongly with me I had to stare out of the window for a bit after reading it. This is also largely what my first paragraph refers to. 'On Madness' had a similar effect. 'Where the Creepypastas Are' is a brilliant essay about the medium of creepypasta and its allure. I also adored 'Cannibal Symposium' which was basically a transcript of a conversation about cannibalism between three people over lunch. It was funnier than it should be and more insightful than the premise might suggest. 

Counter is a great writer. I hadn't had the pleasure of reading any of his writing before Be Scared of Everything, but reading his essays feels like a good conversation with a friend who may or may not have tapped into something genius along the way. The essays read easily and especially for those actively engaging with the horror genre there will be many recognizable references and meaningful links. Something I really appreciated was how Counter was able to highlight H.P. Lovecraft's central position in the horror community while unapologetically stating just how racist that man was. I understand the idea of separating the artist from the art, but how can we do that when the artist actively shoved his assholery into his art? It is something often avoided by horror fans but I think it's very important to confront since Lovecraft was not just a horrible person but also let his own prejudices affect his work for the worse. By engaging with it, Counter was actually able to somewhat salvage the good from Lovecraft's work for me, which was a nice bonus. 

I give this collection...

5 Universes!

I must say I adored Be Scared of Everything a lot more than I expected. I was looking forward to essays about horror movies but got essays that have changed how I look at horror and have given me a language to discuss what the genre means to me. For that, I am enormously grateful. I'd recommend this to anyone who feels the pull to the dark.