Book Review: ‘Horror on the Brain’ by Austin Lim

Book Review: ‘Horror on the Brain’ by Austin Lim
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Updated 11 May 2025
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Book Review: ‘Horror on the Brain’ by Austin Lim

Book Review: ‘Horror on the Brain’ by Austin Lim

Why do we get a kick out of being scared? Why do we find it difficult to look away from a train wreck? In “Horror on the Brain: The Neuroscience Behind Science Fiction,” neuroscientist Austin Lim takes a scalpel to that question — examining fear, not just as a feeling nor merely as a survival mechanism, but as a thrill, and even a form of entertainment. 

Published recently by Prometheus Books, the work dives into the science of what horror does to our brains and why we keep coming back for more.

“Curiosity exists only because of the unknown. Conveniently, the unknown is also the birthplace of horror,” writes Lim. “Even before literacy, people had been making haunting ‘what-if’ stories about the biggest unknowable: what happens after death.”

I was hooked.

Lim, who teaches neuroscience at DePaul University in the US, has made a career of blending biology with pop culture. He brings that dynamic energy to this book, cutting through academic jargon to explain the science behind it: how blood, suspense and dread dig into our brain’s deepest wiring. And why. 

Each chapter dissects a different horror hallmark: jump scares, body horror, creepy music, monsters — even killer AI. Lim shows how horror stories hijack our neural pathways, from the amygdala’s panic response to the brain’s craving for novelty and resolution.

He argues that horror is more than shock value; it is a mental playground where we rehearse danger, confront taboos and make sense of the world’s chaos. Being scared jumpstarts us. Like a rollercoaster, that rush of blood and brush with danger make us feel alive.

Among the most provocative insights is his take on gore and violence. Why do we flinch — yet keep watching?

Lim explains how exposure to violence can affect empathy; how cultural background shapes what we fear and why some viewers are desensitized, while others are rattled for days.

“Horror on the Brain” is part neuroscience, part social commentary. A wicked read.

Lim also unpacks horror in literature and speculative fiction, tracing how science fiction from “Frankenstein” to “Black Mirror” taps into the same neural circuitry as slasher films. 

Lim’s writing is sharp and crystal clear. You do not need a science degree to follow — just a curious mind and maybe a strong stomach. 

This book will make you think twice about what really makes your skin crawl — and why you like it.


What We Are Reading Today: Cold War Civil Rights

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Updated 20 June 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: Cold War Civil Rights

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  • Soon after World War II, American racism became a major concern of US allies, a chief Soviet propaganda theme, and an obstacle to American Cold War goals throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America

Author: Mary L. Dudziak

In 1958, an African American handyman named Jimmy Wilson was sentenced to die in Alabama for stealing less than two dollars. Shocking as this sentence was, it was overturned only after intense international attention and the interference of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.

Soon after World War II, American racism became a major concern of US allies, a chief Soviet propaganda theme, and an obstacle to American Cold War goals throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Racial segregation undermined the American image, harming foreign relations in every administration from Truman to Johnson. Mary Dudziak shows how the Cold War helped to facilitate desegregation and other key social reforms at home as the US sought to polish its image abroad, yet how a focus on appearances over substance limited the nature and extent of progress.


What We Are Reading Today: Top Ten Ideas of Physics by Anthony Zee

What We Are Reading Today: Top Ten Ideas of Physics by Anthony Zee
Updated 18 June 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: Top Ten Ideas of Physics by Anthony Zee

What We Are Reading Today: Top Ten Ideas of Physics by Anthony Zee

Could any discovery be more unexpected and shocking than the realization that the reality we were born into is but an approximation of an underlying quantum world that is barely within our grasp? This is just one of the foundational pillars of theoretical physics that A. Zee discusses in this book. Join him as he presents his Top Ten List of the biggest, most breathtaking ideas in physics—the ones that have fundamentally transformed our understanding of the universe.

“Top Ten Ideas of Physics” tells a story that will keep readers enthralled, along the way explaining the meaning of each idea and how it came about. Leading the list are the notions that the physical world is comprehensible and that the laws of physics are the same here, there, and everywhere. 

As the story unfolds, the apparently solid world dissolves into an intertwining web of dancing fields, exhibiting greater symmetries as we examine them at deeper and deeper levels.


What We Are Reading Today: Forest Euphoria by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian

What We Are Reading Today: Forest Euphoria by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian
Updated 18 June 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: Forest Euphoria by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian

What We Are Reading Today: Forest Euphoria by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian

In “Forest Euphoria,” Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian introduces readers to the queerness of all the life around us.

In snakes, snails, and, above all, fungi, she saw her own developing identities as a queer, neurodivergent person reflected back at her — and in them, too, she found a personal path to a life of science.

Nature, Kaishian shows us, is filled with the unusual, the overlooked, and the marginalized — and they have lessons for us all.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘You Will Find Your People’

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Updated 17 June 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘You Will Find Your People’

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Author: Lane Moore

Most would agree adult friendship is hard. TV shows made us believe we would grow up with a tight-knit group of best friends, but real life often looks very different.

In her 2023 book “You Will Find Your People: How to Make Meaningful Friendships as an Adult,” Lane Moore walks us through this tough reality.

It opens with the line: “I really thought I would have friends by now.” Relatable, right? Moore reflects on how the ages of 18 to 22 years old are prime friendship years. After that, things get harder.

As the author of “How to Be Alone” (2018), Moore shifts from solitude to connection. She explores how making friends as adults — especially for those with trauma or rejection — is a messy, emotional process.

Friendship, she says, can feel like a game of musical chairs that started before we noticed.

The book is not a tidy guide. There are no checklists or guaranteed strategies. Instead, Moore offers her own stories — raw, funny, and deeply honest.

She speaks to those who have felt left out or always been “too much.”

For the exhausted over-givers and the hopeful hearted, this book does not offer easy answers — but it does offer comfort. And sometimes, that is enough.

Also, she dedicates it to her dog.

 


What We Are Reading Today: The Ghana Reader

What We Are Reading Today: The Ghana Reader
Updated 16 June 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: The Ghana Reader

What We Are Reading Today: The Ghana Reader

Editors: Kwasi Konadu, Clifford C. Campbell

“The Ghana Reader” provides historical, political, and cultural perspectives on this iconic African nation. 

Readers will encounter views of farmers, traders, the clergy, intellectuals, politicians, musicians, and foreign travelers about the country. 

With sources including historical documents, poems, treaties, articles, and fiction, the book conveys the multiple and intersecting histories of the country’s development as a nation and its key contribution to the formation of the African diaspora, according to a review on goodreads.com.