Creepy Crawls: A Horror Fiend's Travel Guide [Paperback]

Leon Marcelo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2006

Macabre and morbid city offerings and various vile movie locations are explored in hair-raising detail in this entertaining travel guide. The names and addresses of assorted people, places, and things associated with the horror genre—such as the real-life Baltimore haunts of Edgar Allan Poe, the final resting place of Bela Lugosi, and Stephen King's Maine—are coupled with trivia, travel tips, photographs, and a ghoulishly fun narrative, making this a creepily informative alternative to traditional guidebooks. The old haunts of cult classics such as Dawn of the Dead, The Exorcist, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are also discussed.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Creepy Crawls will make armchair travelers happy to be in the safety of their own homes."  —Associated Press

"Marcelo's book is thorough and informative, packed with real data masquerading as a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore."  —Boston Phoenix

"For road trippers who are also horror fans, this book is a nightmare come true!"  —RoadTripAmerica.com

"Every chapter of Creepy Crawls is packed with a hefty itinerary of museums, crypts, and other landmarks of note."  —Fangoria

About the Author

Leon Marcelo is a horror writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including Carpe Noctem, Fangoria, Morbid Curiousity, and Rue Morgue. He lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Santa Monica Press (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595800131
• ISBN-13: 978-1595800138
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #959,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I have been a horror fiend since first reading Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" at the tender age of thirteen. Since then, my life and work has been driven by the desire to experience all that is macabre and morbid - all that is horrid. My writing has been featured in such magazines as Deep Red, Fangoria, Rue Morgue, Chiller Theatre, Ultra Violent, Horror Biz, Carpe Noctem, Morbid Curiosity, and Virus (Germany). I am a Ph.D. candidate in English at the State University of New York at Stony Brook where my work concentrates on composition and rhetoric and, of corpse, Horror in literature and film. CREEPY CRAWLS is my first book.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting subject marred by writing style., December 13, 2006

By 

Chris Samuel "moycon" (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Creepy Crawls: A Horror Fiend's Travel Guide (Paperback)

I'm a huge horror fan, and the thought of someone going to visit locations that are a part of horror history sounds very interesting to me. Unfortunately the authors choice of writing style pretty much ruined the experience. I would always chuckle at Forry Ackerman`s silly choice of words describing pictures or in brief articles in the old Famous Monsters magazine. Who didn't get a kick out of the Crypt Keeper introducing the latest episode of Tales From the Crypt or enjoy the Cain and Abel in the old DC House comics?

This writing style was amusing as it was brief, I can stomach someone refering to "Boys and Girls" as "Boils and Ghouls" or using a slew of adjectives beginning with the same letter for a bit, but let's face it, it gets in the way after awhile. It takes the focus off the subject you find yourself counting the number of times the author uses the word "verily" I was interested in the locations and what they look like now, not reading a bunch of horror puns and extremely redundant plays on words.

Bottom line, reading an entire book written like this is just plain annoying. Had the author chosen to just write like this for one chapter, or at the beginning of chapters, it might have worked. Of course without all those goofy adjectives, the text would be considerably shorter. All the better, then the pictures could have been bigger.

I swear if I never read the words "your cruelly" or "creepy reader" again it'll be too soon.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational for Writers and Horror Fans, July 17, 2007

By 

Phantom Lover (Hackettstown, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creepy Crawls: A Horror Fiend's Travel Guide (Paperback)

Creepy Crawls is an inspirational book for both aspiring writers and horror movie fanboys. Originally published as a series of articles in various top notch horror magazines, collecting all of the travel log entries and locales into one place spares everyone the trouble of searching through back issues. Most importantly, Mr. Marcelo did something that a lot of fans never do: he actually did something with his fandom and wrote a book about his interests and experiences. The detail of his book indeed does come from a lifetime of traveling and indulging in his dark delights, to copy Mr. Marcelo's Crypt Keeper style of writing. I'm hoping that others follow in his footsteps and learn to take their passion and indulgences and turn them into something we all can enjoy and learn from.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Amusing and dissapointing all in one binding, July 9, 2007

By 

Penumbral Shadow (hackettstown , NJ , U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creepy Crawls: A Horror Fiend's Travel Guide (Paperback)

Well I have to say the writer's cheeky style of writing reminded me of a wanna be elvira.. except the writer had abused a thesuraus to make this tome. I purchased this book hoping to see good photography of these sites. If you are seeking alot of decent photographs, i suggest looking them up on the internet, you will not find them here save but a few. I am an artist, and as such really purchased this to get some reference material. In that department it was lacking. The writer gave much information about the sites, and the visiting and i can not fault him there, i just wish he didnt try to come off as a mister and mrs of the dark in every sentence in this travel log.

hmm what am i listening to right now? Misfits - Skulls

yours crue.. oh god the writer has me typing it now. ;)

buy this is you want a travel log of these horror sites written in a very cheesy horror esque manner ( its like plan 9 from outer space meets the typerwriter!), if you want reference on these sites , seek other sources.