Monster Fiction

After my grandmother passed away, it left me with this feeling of emptiness. I had a dead-end job, no friends or family, and I was trying to navigate this new world while being utterly alone. The perfect solution? Take a once in a lifetime trip to Alaska and reconnect with the wilderness and all the things that make me happy.

Do you know that the ancient Egyptians believed that people were made out of clay by their river god? For eons, the wisdom cultivated by the Egyptian people has been extolled time and time again. These timeless myths are fountains of insight and, many would argue, beacons of light that can shatter the darkness of ignorance. For those of you that are ready and willing to receive these ancient messages, your time has come. All you need to do is start listening. Then the wisdom of Thoth will begin to stir inside you.

Something really strange is happening in the City by the Bay. People are dying, but their souls are not being collected. Someone - or something - is stealing them. No one knows where they are going or why, but it has something to do with that big orange bridge. Death merchant Charlie Asher is just as flummoxed as everyone else.

Two worlds threaten to crumble in the face of a common enemy in the epic conclusion to the New York Times best-selling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy—now with a gorgeous new package! What power can bruise the sky? Two worlds are poised on the brink of a vicious war. By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera's rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her.

On the brink of losing her position as a maid and with no prospects to go on, the offer of a place at Rooksgrave Manor - a house of ill and unusual repute - sounds like a perfect fit for a young woman with Esther’s inclinations. Even better, the invitation comes by the hand of the handsome Dr. Underwood, a delicate gentleman with a ferocious alter ego who knows exactly what he wants from Esther. Upon arrival, the men and the daily decadence of the manor feel too good to be true for a girl of Esther’s station.

Imagine searching your whole life for answers, and then finally finding them. A part of you is excited to know the truth. Another part of you is damaged, because you realize why it was so hard to learn answers. Secrets aren't usually very pretty. In the midst of all of it, the four monsters I've gotten too attached to are about to be reunited with the one woman they all once loved so deeply that they sacrificed everything for an eternity with her. They said they hated Arion, but I never see hatred when they're around him. I see frustration, resentment, anger, and pain, never hatred.

Two weeks ago, I was writing press releases in a cubicle. Now I’m hunting giant crustaceans to feed a tribe of beautiful women. I awoke on a strange shore, far from Earth, with a new power raging in my muscles. In this primitive world, helpless women look to me for protection against goblin slavers and wild beasts.

Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city - a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent - but he's one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music.

The monsters already own my body…but do they want my heart? Left to die in a monstrous land, I’m saved by the monster I least expect. He hates me, but he loves what my body can do for him. I shouldn’t want to keep him. I shouldn’t want to keep all of them. I’m just their plaything, after all. But, one by one, they find their way into my heart. Even as the world falls apart around me, I realize that I’ve become just as obsessed with my monsters as they are with me.

A town of magic and danger, where what one dons becomes who they are. A desperate priestess in another world calling for a champion, only to receive an unstoppable monster.

Not too long ago, I was just Dominic Thompson, a former employee of an American marketing firm. I have Lilith, the goddess of the Infernal Realms, to thank for my new state in life. Now, she's returned to my dungeon, hoping to strip away what she gave to me. I won't simply roll over and let her take it. I like what I've built. Sure, she started me on my quest for domination, but where was she when I carved out my first dungeon room or built my first trap? Was she present when I enthralled my beautiful champions: the troll and the storm dungeon core?

"Perfect deadpan marks the opening of Ali Simpson’s The Monster'" writes Susan Merrell of The Southampton Review in her introduction to this issue of Recommended Reading.

When a horrific loss throws Monster High into a state of grave upheaval, Draculaura and the other ghouls find themselves coping in different ways. For her part, the chaos at school is making Draculaura sick. She finds escape only by slipping away to the cemetery to pore over her mom's old journals. It's there that she meets Poe. If her ghoulfriends find out she's fallen for a normie, they'll freak. And if Poe discovers she's a vampire, his monster-hunting dad may have a stake in the matter.

Set in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian Riviera, Luca is a coming-of-age story about one young boy experiencing an unforgettable summer filled with gelato, pasta, and endless scooter rides. Luca shares these adventures with his newfound best friend, but all the fun is threatened by a deeply held secret: They are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface.

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

Dieter Harmon stared in shock at the sight of the hiker's corpse, the head hanging only by a tangled ribbon of flesh. But what horrified him were claw marks on the victim's chest. Something has gone terribly wrong with the government's plan to return wolves to Yellowstone.

As an outcast witch without a coven, I exist on the fringes of supernatural society. You don't know me unless I want you to, because that's how people like me stay alive. But I messed up—and subsequently caught the attention of three incredibly dangerous supernatural men.

It was an ordinary job. Another night, another asshole collector of the supernatural. I free some poor little beasties from their cages, pocket a few trinkets to pay my bills, and burn the place down on my way out. Just call me the Robin Hood of monster emancipation. I didn’t count on three manly monsters following me home like lost puppies. Stunningly hot lost puppies, but still. Now I’ve got a seductively cheeky incubus, a sweetly enthusiastic demon, and a grimly stoic angel camped out in my kitchen.

Trevor thought his zombie-busting days were over. Then his new teacher turned the gym class into radio-controlled jocks! Can Trevor save his zombified classmates from this muscle-bound madman?

Twelve-year-old Octavia grew up believing the town of Vittoria was the only one left in the world. The sole survivors of a deadly magical war and plague, the people of Vittoria know there’s no one alive outside the town walls - except the terrible monsters that prowl the forest. But then the impossible happens: Octavia meets another girl beyond the walls, someone who isn’t Vittorian. Everything she’s ever believed is thrown into question, and there’s no going back.