Monster Fiction

The Monster Hunters are back for more! Gabe, his brother Ben, and his best friends Sean and Tyler are off on a cross-country adventure. They track down cryptids—mythical legendary creatures that may actually exist—and help Ben film his Internet show, Discover Cryptids. What monstrous encounter will they face next?!

One night, when Ethan checks under the bed for his monster, he finds a note instead: “Gone fishing. Back in a week. --Gabe” What will Ethan do? He needs a monster under his bed. How is he supposed to get to sleep if his monster is gone? Substitute monsters appear, but none are just right. Herbert's teeth aren't sharp enough, Mack's slobbering induces giggles, Cynthia's tail isn't scary at all, and Ralph has nail polish on his claws! This will never work! How will Ethan ever get to sleep without his monster?

Humans and Werewolves do not mix. I tried that once and all I have to show for it is a broken heart. No thanks. When I have to pretend that Daphne is my mate in order to find the mystical artifact threatening my clan, I know it's going to end badly. But I'll do anything to save my family, so I decide to act like the cheerful bookworm with the body of a goddess doesn't affect me in the least.

After telling a goddess of love and passion that I would conquer her, I was dropped into another world: Mistrim. I have no memory of who I was, I have a wicked awesome power born from my desires, and I have a timer on my arm counting down to my death. Not the worst starting point, I would say. But where there is adversity, there is the opportunity for good fortune. Elves, werewolves, harpies, bunny girls, and more—Mistrim is inhabited by all manner of monsters given humanoid forms—Sentients. And, as I found out, harems are commonplace in Mistrim.

In a gauntlet-throwing essay at the start of this brilliant assemblage, Cynthia Ozick stakes the claim that, just as surely as critics require a steady supply of new fiction, novelists need great critics to build a vibrant community on the foundation of literary history. For decades Ozick herself has been one of our great critics, as these essays so clearly display. She offers models of critical analysis of writers from the mid-20th century to today, from Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, and Kafka to William Gass and Martin Amis, all assembled in provocatively named groups.

I'm having a hard time. And no, that's sadly not an innuendo. Depression is slipping back into my life like a toxic ex, and I know I need to do something before it consumes me. So when I run into the man of my dreams on my first attempt to get out of the house, it feels like fate.

London, 1861: Ten-year-old Nell belongs to a crew of mudlarks who work a stretch of the Thames along the Ratcliffe Highway. An orphan since her mother died four years past, leaving Nell with only broken dreams and a pair of satin slippers in her possession, she spends her days dredging up coals, copper and pieces of iron spilled by the river barges – searching for treasure in the mud in order to appease her master, Benjamin Murdstone. But one day, Nell discovers a body on the shore. It’s not the first corpse she’s encountered, but by far the strangest.

Everything I thought I knew about my world has been shattered. The only constant are the four Monsters keeping me and my people safe. My only comfort in my grief is Bastian, the last of my team. And our only certainty is that we need to find the pieces of the relic and put it back together. As Shem and I work together, I find myself dropping my guard around him. He's lethal, single-minded, and unyielding, and he's the only one that can help me put my world back to rights. But the road won't be easy, and trust comes at a cost.

Princess Candra must remain locked inside a tower for seven long years in order to protect her people from their goddess's wrath. Seven years without a friend—or a lover—by her side. And locked inside the tower with her? A fearsome winged Fellian warrior, Nemeth. He's terrifying, cruel, and disturbingly magnetic . . . and the only other living being in the tower. Candra is torn between wanting to kill him for his supplies or having her way with him. After all, seven years is a long time to be alone.

The last kids may have escaped the forbidden fortress by the skin of their teeth, but there isn't much to celebrate. Thrull has what he needs to complete the Tower, Rezzoch will most certainly come to Earth, and the world as they know it will cease to exist. Except Jack's Cosmic Hand is now even more powerful than he realized, and it might just be able to stop the inevitable from happening. To get the answers he seeks, he'll need to travel farther than he's ever been. He must go...to the monster dimension!

Self-proclaimed conqueror Auroro and his contracted guide, Rynissie, have hit the road. They have had a simple errand (read: most important task) entrusted to them and are heading to the cave-elf city of Cerulean-in-the-Mountain.... Or at least that was the plan. Auroro has decided to be efficient. They're going to do some jobs along the way and make some money! Sounds simple enough, right? Unfortunately, things are not normal in the forests of Viridia.

Sam’s life has always been strange. After all, his family have no idea that he’s half monster, half fairy. But now he’s keeping an even bigger secret. He alone has the power to bring monsters to life! (He’s even got a tiny gargoyle hatchling hidden in his sock drawer.) When Queen Maggie finds out, she’s delighted. She wants Sam to create her a whole new legion of vile ogres. When he refuses, she vows that she will destroy everything Sam holds dear.

Sunny has spent years of her life hiding from her own desires and hiding them from those she loves. Forced to face the idea of denying that part of herself forever, Sunny takes a nose dive out of her routine and into her fantasies. All she needs is the help of Monster Smash Agency and one exceptionally talented Orc. Khell'ar has mastered his work with Monster Smash Agency, satisfying his clients with perfect expertise. Guiding inexperienced Sunny into a new realm of extreme pleasures should be easy, simple. All he has to do is follow her requests, play his part, and not form a mating bond.

I'm like a snowball rolling downhill. That's the first thing that pops into my mind when I try to explain my life. I don't know exactly "what'"I am, but I do know who I am. At least...I did. Sometimes life sends things your way that upend everything you thought you knew, and then slings you in another direction without any sort of harness or warning. Sometimes it drops someone like me off in the path of four wildly different monsters, who all used to be best friends, but now sort of hate each other and compete over absolutely everything, including...me.

Mary may have inherited the brilliant mind of her late mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, but she lives a drab life above her father’s bookstore, waiting for an extraordinary idea that’ll inspire a work worthy of her parentage—and impress her rakishly handsome (and super-secret) beau, Percy Shelley. Ada Lovelace knows a thing or two about superstar parents, what with her dad being Lord Byron, the most famous poet on Earth. But her passions lie far beyond the arts—in mechanical engineering, to be exact.

England, 1890. Vampires are alive and well in North Yorkshire, leastwise in the minds of the uneducated. Librarian Rosa Edwards intends to drive a stake through the heart of such superstitions. But gossip flies when the mysterious Sir James Morgan returns to his shadowy manor. The townsfolk say he is cursed. James hates everything about England. The weather. The rumours. The scorn. Yet he must stay. His mother is dying of a disease for which he’s desperately trying to find a cure—an illness that will eventually take his own life.

I'm the new owner of a magical mansion. This mansion, well, it's not your typical building. It's a dungeon from another world, masquerading as just another private residence in the suburbs. It has enchanted rooms, can craft powerful items, build lethal traps, and produce incredible monsters. And it's my mission to protect and evolve its monstrous inhabitants.

What’s better than three monstrous hotties? How about four.... While helping the trio of sexy-as-sin monsters who followed me home, I lost my apartment, my sense of security, and more blood than was really healthy. Somehow my new lovers make me feel like I’ve gotten the better part of the bargain. Unfortunately, their newly-rescued boss isn’t so keen on humans. I get the feeling he’d rather rend me limb from limb than give me the time of day. Too bad for him my mortal skills are just too useful to toss aside.

My husband killed me. Then he screwed his way through the city. The only problem? I didn’t stay dead. It seems killing me woke something deep inside, something so dark and buried so deep I never knew it was there. I don’t know what I am, I don’t really care. All I can think about is revenge, even as the monsters in the dark start to surround me. Their horns and black eyes, mouths filled with fangs claiming I am theirs.

An existence spent being forced to kill others to satiate a monster. Where the only thing to look forward to was the blessed, if brief, period of time between paying that bribe. Except that very same monster is and isn’t Rene. It just happened to live inside his own mind and force him to do what it wanted - rather than him being an actual monster. That was Rene’s entire life until a fateful day changed that. A day that his career as a hitman for hire built on the monster’s needs will end. Where Rene will be forced to atone for his actions. To be held accountable and judged.