It was just an ordinary garbage dump on peaceful Cape Cod. No one ever imagined that conditions were perfect for multiple breeding, that it was a warm womb, fetid, moist and with food so plentiful that everything crawling, creeping and slithering could gorge to satiation. Then the change in poison control was made and the huge mutants began to leave their nest – in search of human flesh… I’ve had Paperbacks From Hell sitting next to me at the kitchen table (where I do probably 85% of my reading) for a long time now. I’ve been slowly chipping away at it…for me, it’s not the kind of book I’d just read all the way through, more something to savor over time. It’s a fucking gorgeous book (full color on every page, and ALL THE GLORIOUS & GORY COVERS YOU CAN FATHOM), and clearly a labor of love for Grady Hendrix and Will Errickson. In it, they track the history of the paperback horror novels of the 70’s & 80’s. They attribute the horror craze of the time to the success of three books: Rosemary’s Baby, The Other, and The Exorcist.

Suddenly, everyone was writing paperback horror novels. The covers were the real draw, and according to Hendrix & Errickson (again, labor of love), despite the badass cover art, a lot of the books were just…terrible. So they partnered with Valancourt Books for one of the coolest projects I’ve ever heard of. Reissuing horror novels that they have read & personally loved, with the original artwork, under the Paperbacks From Hell banner. How fucking rad is that? And you can buy the books individually, or sign up to have them delivered as they release! So far, I’ve signed up for the first two waves of books, and it’s just awesome when it shows up…I was in the Hard Case Crime Book Club (back in maybe 2005-ish?), and this gives me such a similar vibe.

But anyway, how about I finally start reading some of these Paperbacks From Hell?!

I chose The Nest as my first one, not just because I like movies & books where animals eat people, but because it’s set on Cape Cod, where I’m originally from! Well…it’s actually set on an island off the coast of Cape Cod, called Yarkie Island. Annnnnd that’s not a real island, but whatever. It’s still cool.

If you’re also into animals eating people, The Nest should be right up your street. The Rats, JAWS, Piranha…The Nest fits right in, and brings giant disgusting cockroaches into the mix. If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to have a cockroach burrow into your skull via your eye and start feasting on your brain, look no further!

So, according to the introduction, Gregory A. Douglas (a pseudonym for Eli Cantor) was a bit of a renaissance man…he wrote plays, studied law & music, worked in television. The Nest is his only foray into horror, and it’s pretty intense! It’s a bit overwritten at times, and also suffers from having way too many characters (that are hard to keep track of), but it still delivers a lot of fun & gore.

The plot is exactly what it needs to be: huge-ass cockroaches start eating people & everything goes to shit. So chaos. Much corpses. And this book is fucking AGGRESSIVE about it…as Errickson mentions in the introduction, no one is safe from Douglas’s mutant cockroaches: little kids, dogs, main characters…all cockroach food.

All in all, this is a good read. It’s not gonna set your heart on fire, but it’s worth checking out if you’re in the mood for something that’s gory & strangely literary. This would be a solid 3.5 FLESH-EATING COCKROACH OVERLORDS out of five from me!