Partially Devoured - by Daniel Kraus (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"A stroke of genius! This is the definitive love letter to the film, written with such meticulous passion and demented glee that you feel yourself standing on the set during the shoot." --Greg Nicotero

The New York Times bestselling author of Whalefall and Angel Down dives into a horror movie classic to examine his favorite film's importance to our history, culture, and psychology--a perfect blend of research and memoir for fans of the movie, the genre, and beyond

Daniel Kraus first saw George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead when he was five years old. Through watching it approximately three hundred times since, Kraus discovered the many ways the film is tied to his childhood trauma and how its influence has carried into his adulthood. He couldn't help but wonder: Are there other admirers of the film out there who feel the same?

Partially Devoured uses a frame-by-frame deep dive into Night of the Living Dead to produce a kaleidoscopic cultural investigation of the film's importance and to examine the author's early life of rural isolation and local violence.

Careening from film analysis to rabbit-hole tangents, Partially Devoured will take readers from screaming laughter to the depths of grief, all while illustrating how a beloved genre film has woven itself into so many facets of our lives.

Review Quotes

"Kraus, author of this lively, conversational study of the 1968 horror classic Night of the Living Dead, has the proper bona fides for such a project: An accomplished horror and thriller author, he completed a couple of unfinished fiction projects by Dead director George A. Romero, including 2020's The Living Dead. But perhaps more importantly, he's a Dead superfan, estimating he's seen the film 300 times. And as the book shows, he's drawn plenty of insights from the film and its legacy . . . [H]is storytelling isn't off-puttingly geeky or fixated on fans-only details. That's partly because he's so personable, weaving Dead details into his own history as a teenage filmmaker, writer, and horror fan. But mainly he's persuasive about the idea that the film is not just a horror classic but a passkey through America's darkest instincts . . . A sage take on a low-budget classic." --Kirkus Reviews

"Here it is--the ultimate autopsy of one of pop culture's master texts, capturing Night scene by scene, and everything outside of frame as well. Kraus is a sly, sympathetic, and funny tour guide, and he's concocted a lovely tribute to the grubby adventure of low-budget filmmaking and the delicate miracle that is the artistic process." --Colson Whitehead

"This meticulous, obsessive, and moving book is not only for fans of Night of the Living Dead; it's a stirring celebration of the beautiful and essential imperfectness of art and its creators." --Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts

"You don't have to care about Night of the Living Dead to be moved and inspired by this book. AN INSTANT CLASSIC." --Grady Hendrix, author of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

"A STROKE OF GENIUS! This is the definitive love letter to the film, written with such meticulous passion and demented glee that you feel yourself standing on the set during the shoot. It perfectly captures who George Romero was, and I can't wait to read it again." --Greg Nicotero

"A primal scream and an intensely, even painfully personal deconstruction that connects dots you never knew were there. Highly recommended!" --Mick Garris

"George Romero created a new idiom of horror, connecting monstrous terrors to real world politics and traumas decades before anyone uttered the phrase 'elevated horror.' No one but Daniel Kraus could write this combination love letter, memoir, and deeply insightful cultural analysis of the lord of the Dead and his most memorable work. Your reading lamp will burn deep into the night as one master storyteller reveals how he, and all of us, have been shaped by another." --W Scott Poole, author of Wasteland and Dark Carnivals

"In this sharply drawn dissection of one of the great masterworks of American cinema, Kraus shares a lifetime of inspiration, comfort, and heartbreakingly personal connections. An absolute must for people who relish finding themselves reflected within works of art." --Lucky McKee, director of May

About the Author

DANIEL KRAUS is a New York Times bestselling writer of novels, TV, and film. His recent novel, Whalefall, received a front-cover review in The New York Times Book Review, won the Alex Award, was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, and was named a Best Book of 2023 by NPR, The New York Times, Amazon, Chicago Tribune, and more. With Guillermo del Toro, he cowrote The Shape of Water, based on the same idea the two created for the Oscar-winning film.