Review: Watching Evil Dead: Unearthing the Radiant Artist Within by Josh Malerman

Rating: 8.25/10

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

“A fun, modern take on Stephen King’s On Writing . . . Malerman’s trustworthy insights and experiences will no doubt offer its readers who are struggling creatively a healthy dose of inspiration.”—Booklist, starred review

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

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Del Rey for the invite to the eARC. Malerman has been an auto-buy author for me for years (check out my reviews for: Incidents Around the House, Hark! The Herald Angel Scream, Christmas and Other Horrors, & It Waits in the Woods). So I was excited to see something so different from him for the first time, a nonfiction. 

Malerman is offering readers a chance to partake in an incredibly personal and transformative evening with him, his then girlfriend, her cousin and his partner. With snapshots of profundity and also hilarity, this one ticked off some boxes I didn’t even know I was looking for. It features far more ups and downs than I was expecting, and offers a true glimpse into the author’s life and writing thought process. I have seen it compared to King’s On Writing, but to me it’s absolutely its own thing. A living, breathing piece of art. And unlike King’s which features an almost lifelong autobiographical summary, Malerman does his best to never stray too far from that one single night. 

Josh, Allison, Kenickie and Rose gather together with alcohol and weed to traverse an immensely important (current) miss—Allison has never seen The Evil Dead. It also happens to be the night Josh aimed to answer a question that has been following him like a hellhound: What does a writer deserve? Mentioned previously in interviews, this is much more exhaustive in his journey for the answer. To me, it is a reminder that writing is supposed to happen because you want to do it, you love to write, you even feel a need to get the story out. Everything else that follows is not the prize, telling the story is. 

I loved that their night continued with young love, dying love, and of course, Bruce Campbell. From one film to the sequel, to even the remake that must have led hours into the night. There was even mentions of tackling Army of Darkness! I loved the view-screen readers are offered into the author’s processing of art. I feel like I even finished the read with a different take on Evil Dead too, and last night I switched the cable on and BOOM Evil Dead II was on, right at the start of the first demon scene. Love when things all line up. 

Profound (IMO):

“Can I really expect the non-artist to understand that the victory is not in sales but in writing the book itself? Can someone who doesn’t write be expected to understand that the words THE END and not on the dotted line are the finish line?”

Hilarious:

“Usually two movies or more means six drinks or more and once you get to three movies … chances are you could be watching Air Bud and not know the difference.”