For as long as we've gathered by campfires to tell ghost stories, humans
have always loved a good scare. From the splatter flicks of the 70s, to
Japan's obsession with drowned girls, to creepy modern experiences like
the overnight ghost hunt at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, the
horror industry has thrived across time and cultures. Our obsession with
getting scared is obvious to anyone who visits ScareHouse, a haunted
house in Pittsburgh that is annually ranked among the scariest in the
country, and has become a booming attraction with nearly 150 employees
and lines wrapping around the block. It even has its own sociologist,
who conducts surveys and observations to make its performances ever more
terrifying. Her name is Margee Kerr.
In this surprising, scary, entertaining audiobook, Kerr puts her
expertise to the test. Not merely content to observe others' fear, she
confronts it in the form of things like skydiving, paranormal
investigations, and a visit to Japan's infamous "suicide forest." In her
willingness to explore the world's scariest attractions, Kerr shows why
we seek out terror even when there is plenty to fear in everyday life.
Whether she's dangling by a cable from a 116-story tower or experiencing
New York City's "Extreme Haunt," BlackOut, in which participants are
handcuffed, forced to crawl through dark tunnels, and given a gun and
told to shoot someone, Kerr parses the elements of fear with humor and
the precision of an expert.
Along the way, she takes a personal journey that leads to valuable
insights about what we fear--and what it says about who we are.
