Monster Fiction

Ever since he nearly drowned in the ocean three years earlier, 10-year-old Jack Peter Keenan has been deathly afraid to venture outdoors. Refusing to leave his home in a small coastal town in Maine, Jack Peter spends his time drawing monsters. When those drawings take on a life of their own, no one is safe from the terror they inspire.

Daisy sees dead people—something impossible to forget in bustling, ghost-packed Toronto. She usually manages to deal with her unwanted ability, but she’s completely unprepared to be dumped by her boyfriend. So when her mother inherits a secluded mansion in northern Ontario where she spent her childhood summers, Daisy jumps at the chance to escape. But the house is nothing like Daisy expects, and she begins to realize that her experience with the supernatural might be no match for her mother’s secrets, nor what lurks within these walls…

It’s the night before Christmas, and Noelle is down on her luck…and the holly-jolly spirit. She thinks she’s going to have yet another quiet night alone, sipping spiked eggnog, when a helpful stranger suddenly appears. When she unknowingly invites the notorious Krampus into her home, Noelle’s night takes a sexy turn as he shows her exactly what happens to the girls on Santa’s naughty list.

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.

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.

I've always hated Christmas. With a name like Chris Kringle, it's hard not to. It's only gotten worse since I've been back from the war. Christmas is supposed to be jolly, but for me, it's a grim reminder of past failures. I need to get away from it. To be somewhere quiet. To heal. When I wake up in the South Pole after an accident to a Krampus tending my wounds, it feels like the perfect opportunity to get some much-needed R&R. Yet this gentle giant is so achingly sweet, I can't help but fall for him, even though he's a monster.

Children will laugh at these funny adventure stories from Bill Myers, bestselling author of McGee and Me, all while learning Christian character and godly wisdom. Join Wally on four hilarious, mishap-filled adventures as he faces a bully at camp, gets eaten by an alien in a film, competes in a hot-air balloon race, and plunges over a killer waterfall.

Dr. Brewer is doing a little plant testing in his basement. Nothing to worry about. Harmless, really. But Margaret and Casey Brewer are worried about their father. Especially when they...meet...some of the plants he is growing down there. Then they notice that their father is developing plantlike tendencies. In fact he is becoming distinctly weedy - and seedy. Is it just part of their father's "harmless" experiment? Or has the basement turned into another little shop of horrors?

When my father died and I stepped into his shoes as leader of Enigma, I vowed to protect the gang he’d built. And I won’t break that promise—no matter what I have to do to keep it.

The Battle of the Second Slayer is won, but peace in Dúramair is short-lived. Ylvain's darkling elementals still roam the kingdom in a violent storm, leaving chaos and destruction in their wake. Even Faer Dinnán, the faerie king, is fading, and unless the darklings are stopped soon, all of Dúramair will find itself in mortal danger. It falls to Alyen and the new Trianid to stem this evil and restore balance before all hope of victory is lost. But soon Alyen finds herself facing more than just the storm.

Jack Miller has spent his entire nine years in the same house on the same street in the same town with the same best friend. One day, while delivering papers on his same ordinary paper route, Jack finds himself amidst a very unordinary world. A world where strange and silly monsters become his friends. In this story, Jack and Annabelle face off with the a very difficult monster called Iris. What they learn while inside the house will change everything.

Former model and current recluse Jules Lowe would prefer to spend the rest of her life locked inside her apartment doing nothing more than fixating on her empty fish tank and chatting away on a local aquarium forum. But when her online crush sends her an inadvertently suspicious picture, Jules' curiosity gets the best of her. Who or what is Mack Vasser?

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?

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?

As Kelvin, the battle junkie Summoner hailing from another world, continues his extraordinary exploits, Goddess Melfina finally returns to his side, finally having completed her artificial body. When she grants him her blessing, he gains the power to summon a Hero of his own . . . who wants to become his stepsister?! As Kelvin and his party grow stronger by the day, he receives a summons for his Rank S promotion exam. The contents of the exam involve saving an elven settlement from the threat of a terrible monster, but just how much is the militaristic nation of Trycen involved?

When the Monster Relations Bureau tells me I've been identified as a kraken shifter's mate, my first instinct is to run. I learned the hard way what it means to be treated like someone's possession, and I'm not about to make the same mistake twice. Only, Elias is… different. Patient and careful with me, willing to wait as long as it takes for me to let him in. The more I learn to trust him, and the more he draws me under with the dark temptation of his touch, the more the defenses I've held onto for so long start to crumble.

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.

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.