Dr Erin Mercer is Senior Lecturer in English at Massey University. She is the author of Telling the Real Story (Victoria UP 2017) and Repression and Realism in Post-War American Literature (Palgrave 2011). Her research has also appeared as book chapters and in journals such as Gothic Studies, The Journal of American Culture and The Journal of Popular Culture.

Introduction: Thinking the Very Worst 1. Death and the Returning Dead 2. The Thing Without a Name 3. Second Sight 4. Still Lives 5. Special Children. Conclusion: Too Much Material of the Same Kind

Offering an insightful examination of Stephen King's fiction, this book utilises a psychoanalytical approach drawing on Freud's theory of the uncanny. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of contemporary and popular literature, gothic and horror studies, and cultural studies.