Monster Fiction

All that stands between rowdy long-haul trucker Jill MacLeod (aka Junkmouth) and her family back in Boston is two thousand miles of asphalt. Well, that and the monstrous game the System has had her playing ever since it descended on Earth. The reward: mana. Jill's goal: kill, score, drive—and stay alive. Behind the wheel of a turreted forty-ton semi named Bertha, Jill hammers east from Montana through a gauntlet of every kind of chomping, hissing, rabid creature imaginable. Barreling forward in her magical soulbound big rig and chalking up a bumper crop of roadkill, Jill isn't alone for long.

Introducing "The Monsters" by Robert Sheckley, a thrilling sci-fi audiobook that explores the fascinating and bizarre world of a distant planet inhabited by sentient aliens who refer to themselves as "humans." On this strange planet, the aliens may look nothing like us, but their society is both intriguing and terrifying. While they pride themselves on being rational and ethical beings, their tendencies towards violence and argumentation make them truly monstrous. Witness their struggles with truth and deception.

So . . . I didn't handle the zombie apocalypse well. I used to be a third-grade teacher, but since the Gorging, my life has been . . . kinda rotten. I lost my group to the undead, became indebted to one of the gangs, and now I've been sold as a blood-slave. My new owner is Atlan, one of the vampire warriors who guard Blue City's walls and defend us from the zombies. The vampires are like celebrities around here. It's my job to provide Atlan with a clean blood source and any other services he needs.

A psychologically twisted story of the escape of a lifelong prisoner.

My labyrinth is dying. For my kingdom to survive, I must convince my fated mate to invoke the most ancient of magics—the carnal kind. Too bad my mate's a human who didn't know monsters existed until she saw me.

Claudia de Santos has always looked out for every witch but herself. She fought from the shadows as her coven turned dark, and with a little help from her half-witch/half-Alpha werewolf cousin, Teresa McCaide, Claudia is doing everything she can to keeper friends and family in the light. Now the coven has splintered into two factions: Luciana's army of witches wielding dark magic, and Claudia's few stragglers who fight with the wolves. War is coming, and it won't be much of a battle if Claudia can't find the spells to counteract Luciana's demonic power.

For most kids, catching fireflies is a fun summer activity. For twelve-year-old Serwa Boateng, it's a matter of life and death. That's because Serwa knows that some fireflies are really adze, shapeshifting vampires from the forests of Southeastern Ghana. Adze prey on the blood of innocents, possessing their minds and turning them into hulking monsters, and for generations, slayers like Serwa and her parents have protected an unknowing public from their threats.

What's it like to be a monster in a town full of monsters, who don't know you're a monster? Complicated and a little scary, but doable. What's it like to be the girl who can't die - that everyone seems to always want to kill? Frustrating as hell. What's it like to accidentally raise a psychotic alpha vampire everyone fears, who drops a lot of bodies on his first day out as a gift for your troubles? Terrifying, if I'm being honest. I really don't know how this stuff keeps happening to me.

Tessa McCaide has a unique talent for getting into trouble. Then again, it isn’t easy for a girl with psychic visions to ignore what she sees. Luckily Tessa and her family are leaving California and moving halfway across the country, giving her the perfect opportunity to leave her reputation as “Freaky Tessa” behind. But Tessa doesn’t realize that kissing the wrong guy in her new Texas town could land her in far more trouble than she ever imagined. Like being forced to attend St. Ailbe’s Academy, a secret boarding school for werewolves.

A wild band of smoking-hot shifters rescue me from hunters who claim I’m Death’s daughter. I want to be grateful, but the shifters turn out to be assholes as well, especially Jared, the Alpha Heir and apparently my fated mate. He’s chosen another, a powerful shifter princess, over a nobody like me. Even worse? He claims I’m a spy for the vampires and drags me to the fortified Shifter City. After dumping me at a shifter military academy, he thinks he can forget about me. Only he underestimates his hot and heavy lust for me.

Alone for too long, the last of vampire Draven’s humanity is slipping away. Needing a mate to anchor him and keep the monster at bay, he strikes a bargain with a young hunter to find him a bride. Newly widowed, historian Charlotte is desperate for a fresh start. When she's presented with the unusual proposition of becoming a vampire's bride for a year, she cannot pass up the chance to speak with one of the oldest creatures on the planet.

Darkness and bitterness have become my constant companions. Even though I'm angry, what else can I do but watch from the darkest corners of Screaming Woods while everyone goes on? I'm not expecting a light to appear. Caroline isn't all monster, but, as a child of our resident wolfman and his mate, she's not all human either. As much as I want to give into the pull to her, I've spent far too long existing within the shadows.

Horror fans will get their thrills in this collection–from werewolves to vampires to zombies–all the time-worn horror baddies are there. But so are predators of a distinctly American variety–the horrors of empire, of intimate partner violence, of dispossession. And so too the monsters of Rogers’ imagination, that draw upon long-told Cherokee stories–of Deer Woman, fantastical sea creatures, and more.

A thief doing a final job and the dragon caught in a precarious situation that changes both of their lives. He’s powerful and wealthy and he hates me. But I have something he wants. It wasn’t a part of the plan. I’m the thief stupid enough to break into a dragon’s hoard… and walk away pregnant with his baby.

If there's something wrong with your tentacle monster, who are you going to call? Dale Clearwater: Monster Whisperer. With her own ship and a menagerie of tentacle monsters, she travels from world to world, rehabilitating monsters and training the people who love them. From the amorphous, fluid Kritzoan to the stonelike Nalcheka, Dale embraces the monsters and records her encounters for a reality show that broadcasts to countless worlds.

I'm lost in the middle of nowhere on a freaking alien planet. Running away from the Hyrrokin mafia. It's as terrible as you can imagine. I haven't eaten in two days and it's raining in the wildlands. Lightning strikes overhead and thunder rumbles in the distance. I slip and fall in the mud. And then I sit at the bottom of a ravine, crying. There's a blur in the distance. Is that a mirage? No, its a deadly, satanic-looking male with a bare chest, huge black horns and a barbed tail racing right for me. I scream as this monster looms overhead.

Auroro, the man with a countdown on his life and his two assets, the wildland elf, Rynissie, and the strange catgirl, Chesheer are finally nearing Cerulean-in-the-Mountain. Auroro is set on accomplishing the task given to him by the woman he's smitten with, but things aren't so easy when one is easily distracted by the strange delicacies offered by the city with the most toxic hospitality.

Twelve-year-old Rowan is destined to be Queen; her twin brother, Rhydd, to be Royal Monster Hunter. Rowan would give anything to switch places, but the oldest child is always next in line, even if she is only older by two minutes. She resigns herself to admiring her monster hunting aunt's glorious sword and joining her queen mother for boring diplomatic teas. But tragedy shatters the longstanding rule, and Rowan finds herself hunting the most dangerous monster of all: a gryphon.

Get this: you wake up in the hospital. You're not feeling so hot—to put it mildly—and also, you're surrounded by hordes of zombies! After trying to run away, you eventually find a map of the building, but guess what? It's in French! Why? 'Cuz you're in France! You've got nothing on you but a baseball bat, and the zombies are just one step away from biting you on your bare backside. But don't worry, there's still hope, because you've got your own personal shelter in spacetime.

On a volcanic island, in the middle of shark-infested waters, stands the Cruel School. The lessons are appalling, the school dinners are revolting and the teachers are terrifying—especially the mysterious science teacher Doctor Doktur. When Larker is sent to the school, she quickly realises something very odd is going on...something involving Doctor Doktur, a pair of strange spectacles and a ‘Monsterfication Machine’. And ultimately she finds herself face to face with a real life Megamonster.