Partially Devoured by Daniel Kraus
There is nothing better than people who love movies writing about why they love movies and how those movies impacted them!!! While I don’t have a huge connection to Night of the Living Dead I was still totally taken by this book. As a cinephile and filmmaker, I’m uber impacted by films, and seeing such a raw passion and love for a film on paper is really special. Educational and passionate, this is a great recommendation to horror/sci-fi film fans!
Partially Devoured by Daniel Kraus, (List Price: $28, Counterpoint, 9781640097155, March 2026)
Reviewed by Lily, E. Shaver, Booksellers in Savannah, Georgia
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“I am obsessed with old Hollywood. I used to love Nick at Night and all the old classic TV shows. I’ve always been fascinated by that, but I’ve also always been fascinated by the fact that we all have a behind-the-scenes. And when I was touring for All the Bright Places, which is a young adult book I wrote years ago, the thing I heard most from my readers was, “Thank you for letting me know that it’s okay to be messy. It’s okay to be me, that, you know, I feel seen, and I matter.” And I just kept thinking about the fact that it’s so sad that so many people, well, all of us actually, have a behind-the-scenes that we aren’t always comfortable showing or sharing with other people. And so I wanted to write something about that. And then I thought, oh, I could combine it with my love for Hollywood because God knows there’s a lot going on behind the scenes there.”
“I had what feels to me like a bizarre, non-linear experience in the movie business. I was never a part of any union, and worked all kinds of non-union assisting jobs to finance my own projects, which had small crews and shot on film in a very guerilla fashion. I didn’t go to film school, so everything I learned about telling stories in that way came from asking a lot of questions of crew members on various sets, watching a lot of movies and interviews, and making things up as I went along.”
Last Chance LIVE’s premise was inspired by real-world death penalty reform efforts to raise the minimum age for capital punishment. Last Chance LIVE’s protagonist, Eternity Price, was inspired by a little girl I met during my undergraduate years at the University of Pennsylvania. While at Penn, I volunteered in Head Start classrooms in a West Philadelphia public school, and met a fouryear-old girl whose vivacious spirit deeply impacted me. I spent years contemplating how she was growing up in an impoverished neighborhood right next to an Ivy League university, but she would likely be unable to access most of its privileges and resources—and the trajectory of her life would likely be very different than the lives of most Penn students. To my knowledge, that little girl has not experienced or done anything like what Eternity has, but she and Eternity both grew up in the shadow of power and privilege. My hope for this young girl, and all children, is that they have what Eternity never did—confidence in who they are and what they are worth, and a community that reinforces this truth. I hope seeing America’s reflection in Last Chance LIVE! helps us ascribe more value to these children, and less value to “great television.” 
