Gore-Geous: Personal Essays on Beauty and Horror
From the author of Films of the New French Extremity, The 1990 Teen Horror Cycle, and co-host of the Faculty of Horror podcast comes Gore-Geous: Personal Essays on Beauty and Horror—a collection of essays where West seamlessly blends the genres of the personal essay and film criticism, examining gender norms, beauty standards, and cultural expectations. Gore-Geous: Personal Essays on Beauty and Horror is a journey through the overlapping darkness of the beauty world and horror films including Cat People (1942), The Witches (1990), Carrie (1976), Black Swan (2010), Audition (1999), Under the Skin (2013), American Psycho (2000) and Ready or Not (2019) among others.
“I absolutely tore through Gore-Geous. This is Alex West at her best: A wildly funny, razor-sharp exploration of what it means to live in a human body and try to feel at home there. Horror needs Alex West, feminism needs Alex West, and I, in particular, need Alex West to keep writing books like this for as long as possible. Read it and see what I mean.” —Jude Ellison S. Doyle (Trainwreck and Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers)
Fearless, fierce and staunchly feminist in her approach, with Gore-Geous Alexandra West reminds us just how political the personal can be and further solidifies her place as one of the most exciting horror critics working today.
— Alexandra Heller-Nicholas (1000 Women in Horror)
That Alexandra West is a formidable critic and scholar of horror is no secret. In Gore-Geous, she reveals a more vulnerable side to her criticism. Each page of this book is open, tender and full of insight into horror films, the expectations of beauty that weigh us down and the author herself. Brimming with smart analysis and raw honesty, this book had me rapt and nodding all the way through. — Anna Bogutskaya (Unlikable Female Characters)
An engrossing mix of fiercely smart film analysis and deeply personal reflections on West’s most intimate struggles, Gore-Geous is impossible to put down. — Emily Saso (Nine Dash Line)
Alexandra West knows that beauty and horror are two sides of the same coin, that the things we fear and lust after are endlessly enmeshed. With Gore-Geous she walks us through the dark cavern of this duality, illuminating as she goes — and occasionally lightening the mood, too, as any good tour guide does.
—Alex Manley, translator of Made-Up: A True Story of Beauty Culture Under Late Capitalism
In GORE-GEOUS, Alexandra West peels back the skin of cultural beauty standards to examine her own experience as a woman and lifelong spectator of horror films. Like the movies West holds up as mirrors, many of us will see ourselves reflected in this book. An indispensable collection of both academic and personal essays from one of the most vital voices in feminist genre film criticism.
—Jovanka Vuckovic, filmmaker XX and Riot Girls