Watching Evil Dead - by Josh Malerman (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From the bestselling author of Bird Box and Incidents Around the House, an impassioned book about a night that changed the author's life and put into perspective the writing life--and how you too can be inspired to face the fears that might hold you back from doing your best work

One night, bestselling author Josh Malerman--then just an aspiring writer--watched Sam Raimi's Evil Dead with his fiancée and two friends. It was a gathering that could've gone unnoticed, another date night with a movie, but for Malerman, it became a landmark. It changed the course of his life, and it will inspire you to reflect on your own journey and to discover existing triumphs that are within you already.

Describing the course of the night, Malerman reflects on his life, from his career as a musician to his stack of rough drafts, written prior to ever being published--and on how meeting the love of his life, a fellow creative, opened him to new experiences and new ways of viewing the world they now quest through together.

Malerman deploys his own story to help readers not only write their unwritten stories but celebrate their uncelebrated victories: to find their voice, their vision, and their joie de vivre. By simply describing an uncommon and uncanny night, he guides aspiring writers beyond the blank page to the immortal life of the writer.

Review Quotes

"This book is actually a beautiful, adrenaline-fueled love story about the love of Malerman's life, yes, but also the love of storytelling in all its forms. It's exactly what you need to feel confident in your own artistic expression. Brimming with Malerman's joy, vitality, and zeal for life, it's a timeless resource and an immeasurable treasure."--Sadie Hartmann, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of 101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered

"A raw-throated, wild-eyed, pulse-quickening sermon on not just art--but passion and persistence. You'll get an intimate tour of Josh Malerman's creative mind with its many curious, romantic, funny, frightening, and charmingly digressive warrens. You'll get a chronicle of a stubbornly expressive life that gives us an example of how to love with your whole heart and engage meaningfully with the movies, music, paintings, books, and people that surround us. This is a must-read book for creators of every kind. It will light an inspiring torch inside you and send you rushing to the keyboard or camera or canvas."--Benjamin Percy, author of The Ninth Metal, Red Moon, Refresh, Refresh, and Thrill Me

"Josh Malerman's Watching Evil Dead is a shout against the dark and a leaping, frenzied, joyous treatise on love, art, the power of cinema and horror. It is a love letter to film and a testament to the profound gifts available to those who embrace a creative life."--Keith Rosson, author of Fever House and The Devil by Name

"Watching Evil Dead is a love letter to those of us who have loved a piece of cinema so much that it had the power to shape our entire lives. Beyond a simple reflection on Sam Raimi's masterpiece and Malerman's own growth as a writer, this book is a beautiful look at the world: Malerman's Michigan is what California is to Didion. This is a must-read for fans and writers of the horror genre alike."--Lisa Kröger, author of Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction

About the Author

Josh Malerman is a New York Times bestselling author and one of two singer-songwriters for the rock band The High Strung. His debut novel, Bird Box, is the inspiration for the hit Netflix film of the same name. His other novels include Unbury Carol, Inspection, A House at the Bottom of a Lake, Pearl, Goblin, Daphne, Incidents Around the House, and Malorie, the sequel to Bird Box. Malerman lives in Michigan with his fiancée, the artist-musician Allison Laakko.