Back in December 2019 I began a monthly series on the work of horror writer Charlee Jacob, who had recently passed away. Today the concluding post in that series – looking at Jacob’s final novel, Containment: The Death of Earth – has gone live at WWAC. In all, the fourteen essays I’ve written comprise 45,400 words.
I mention this because, while working on the series, I found that there was very little writing about Charlee Jacob’s fiction. She had won awards and been praised by a number of her peers in the horror community, yet until recently the sum total of criticism, analysis and scholarship relating to her work seems to have comprised a smattering of Goodreads posts, Edward Lee’s introduction to Dread in the Beast and a few reviews published here and there.
So, my essay series on Jacob’s fiction – which is long enough to fill a slim book – must surely be the most comprehensive body of writing on the topic. I’m not saying that to pat myself on the back; in fact, I’d be very pleased indeed to find that I’m wrong and that there’s some even more in-depth scholarship to be found out there. I’m saying it to express how surprised I am that this fascinating writer, a unique voice in the horror genre, hasn’t received more critical attention.
I’m proud to have done my bit to help rectify this situation; my only regret is that I never did so while she was still with us.
Doris V. Sutherland 