Monster Fiction

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.

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.

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.

Ben has saved the dragonkin women’s island from the ancient, ghostly maldungs, so it’s time for his next adventure. But when he and his crew of women set sail again, they discover the orcs have another enemy. A dangerous, fire-breathing, ship-destroying enemy. And Ben wonders if he can tame it.

When a truck ran down Tyler, he didn't think he'd wake back up...but he did. Now he's in a fantastical world filled with wonder, adventure, and battling monsters tamed by humans like one of his favorite video games.

"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.

I was protected by the monsters under my bed when I was a kid in the foster system. I have a feeling I could use them again. My time in the foster system wasn’t great. Maybe they were imaginary, but when things got bad, the boogeyman and an imp always came to my aid. If I needed to run, a beautiful white stag would appear at my window to let me know to get out of there. I’ve touched the stag. I know he’s real.

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.

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.

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.

Gloriously rich and utterly delightful, Miss Peregrine’s Museum of Wonders is an indispensable guide to the peculiar world, perfect for longtime fans and new listeners alike. Covering everything from how to blend in with suspicious normals to the most popular time loops to visit as a temporal tourist, this essential volume is ideal for anyone curious about the world of Miss Peregrine: its strange history, curious practices, fascinating places, most famous (and infamous) names, and much more.

Cryptozoologist Richard Freeman has spent years researching and tracking down mythical monsters. In this book, he recounts riveting monster hunt stories, globetrotting adventures from the dense forests of Sumatra on the trail of a mystery ape known as the orang-pendek, to Tasmania in search of the thylacine or Tasmanian wolf. Every corner of Earth has its own monster—even the traceless Gobi Desert as he searches for the Mongolian death worm. The author provides excellent advice on how to carry out your own cryptozoological expeditions. Join the hunt for mythical animals!

For centuries I have suffered. Solidified and silenced, all because I failed to destroy what I was created for. Except now, after so long… There is a female. One who always seems to be by my side. Day after day. Night after night. She talks to me. Touches me. Tells me things. She shares stories of a world I no longer know. She is a reprieve from my punishment. A sweet delight. She liberates me from my solitude. But when I rise, my adversary seizes his opportunity, and she's caught between us. He only wants her to get to me. She isn't his. And I'll do anything to protect what's mine.

If someone had told me that I'd find a haven among monsters, I'd have laughed in their face. But I've learned to expect the unexpected. Now, with the world's fate hanging in the balance, it's time to take a leap of faith. Faith in myself. It means leaving Shem, the watchers, and Bastian behind. It means walking into Michael's arms and trusting that he'll keep me alive long enough for me to complete my mission. Because the third relic piece is hidden in the enemy camp, and I'm the only one who can get to it.

Despite all of the odds, Joan achieved the impossible. She reset the timeline, saved her family – and destroyed the hero, Nick. But her success has come at a terrible cost. She alone remembers what happened. Now, Aaron, her hard-won friend – and maybe more – is an enemy, trying to kill her. And Nick, the boy she loved, is a stranger who doesn’t even know her name. Only Joan remembers that a greater and more dangerous enemy is still out there. When a deadly attack forces Joan back into the monster world, she finds herself on the run with Nick – as Aaron closes in.

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.

Follow Luke as he's transported to a world of magic and monsters. A mysterious goddess has tasked the Earthly game warden with protecting an all-female tribe with strange animal features. Cast off from civilization, he must help this isolated jungle people fortify their village against the rapacious Rakhasa, confound a wicked witch, and breed the next generation of monster children.

Hemlock Falls isn't like other towns. You won't find it on a map, your phone won't work here, and the forest outside town might just kill you. Winnie Wednesday wants nothing more than to join the Luminaries, the ancient order that protects Winnie's town—and the rest of humanity—from the monsters and nightmares that rise in the forest of Hemlock Falls every night. Ever since her father was exposed as a witch and a traitor, Winnie and her family have been shunned. But on her sixteenth birthday, she can take the deadly Luminary hunter trials and prove herself true and loyal.

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.

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