Monster Fiction

Cole Harper is struggling to settle into life in Wounded Sky First Nation. He may have stopped a serial killer, but the trouble is far from over. A creature lurks in the shadows of Blackwood Forest, the health clinic is on lockdown by a mysterious organization, and long-held secrets threaten to bubble to the surface. Can Cole learn the truth about his father's death? Why won't Choch give him a straight answer? Where the heck is Jayne? Oh, and high school sucks.

I ended my life to protect Lucian from his enemies. It should have been the hardest decision to make, but it wasn’t. Now I find that Lucian kept even more secrets, deadly ones that threaten to destroy me. I thought I won the game that he and Katarina played, but he’s never stopped shuffling the pieces on the board. Even so, I’ve found peace in his violence and learned to accept my fate within his embrace. As our enemies are revealed, and worlds crashed down into ours, everything is on the line again. Could we survive his latest betrayal, or would it destroy us all?

Stories of famous monsters in a new horror anthology featuring Joe R. Lansdale, F. Paul Wilson, Jonathan Maberry, Ramsey Campbell, and many others.

Sixteen-year-old Skye is done playing the knight in shining armor for her insufferable younger sister, Deirdre. And moving across the country seems like the perfect chance to start over as someone different. In their isolated new neighborhood, Skye manages to fit in, but Deirdre withdraws from everyone, becoming fixated on the swampy woods behind their house and building monstrous sculptures out of sticks and bones.

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.

After a wedding cake catastrophe, local decorator Tegan finds herself being helped by a solid wall of fur and fangs named Atlas. She's never met anyone like him and finds herself enamored by his wolfish charm. After their sweet encounter, Atlas invites her to his gym anytime she needs his cake-lifting services. Tegan decides that instead—she wants to lift the cakes herself. She signs up for a membership with Leviathan Fitness, determined to build her strength.

Kajal knows she is not a good person. If she were, she wouldn’t selfishly be risking her sister’s soul in a dangerous bid to bring her back to life. She would let Lasya rest in peace—but Kajal cannot stand the horror of living without her. As Kajal prepares for the resurrection, the worst happens: Her sister’s soul warps into a bhuta—a murderous, wraith-like spirit—and Kajal gets sentenced to death for her sister’s rampage. There seems little hope of escape until two strangers offer to free her.

Xar and Wish are on the final leg of their journey—first stop: the Mines of Unhappiness. Here, starvation is never far away for the magical creatures who toil in its horrible depths. Xar and Wish must escape and fast; Xar needs to take control of his ever-growing Witchstain, and Wish must achieve her destiny. But the Tazzelwurm is in their way, a grotesque monster who threatens to block every entrance. Time is not on their side, but the forests are calling them. Will their combined strength be enough for the biggest quest so far, to defeat the Kingwitch once and for all?

Enter a land of wizards, warriors, mythical creatures and powerful Magic in an exciting fantasy adventure. Wish and Xar are outlaws on the run, hunted by Warriors, Wizards and, worst of all, Witches.... Can they find the ingredients for the spell to get rid of Witches before the Kingwitch gets his talons on the Magic-that-Works-on-Iron? Their next Quest is the most terrifying and treacherous of all...and someone is going to betray them. Are you ready to Knock Three Times?

Who answers the call when the mundane police dial 911? Matt Bordelon—former Silver Griffin, wizard, and the Big Easy Bounty Hunter. Matt has a good thing going. Deliver justice to magicals? Check. Keep the world safe from threats? Check. Make good money doing it? Cha-ching. Unless his bounty ends up dead when the paperwork specifies alive, that is. Good thing he’s a pro at avoiding that. Then he stumbles across a dark witch embroiled in a vicious spell battle with a dark wizard and feels compelled to aid her.

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.

Max Best is not living his—ahem—best life. His job's a drag, his home's a shooting gallery, his hopes are nil, and lately, even his beloved game of football has devolved from a chaotic, ecstatic delight into a cold, calculating equation complete with stats, tech terms, and mindless lingo. But then Max rescues a mysterious old man from a mugging. "Nick" seems friendly enough . . . until he innocently asks his savior, "Would you sell your soul to be a top football manager?" Naturally, Max says yes, and in that instant, everything changes.

A trip to the grocery store changed my life. That's where I bumped into my "straight" coworker and good friend, Jake Perez. I decided to invite him to my book club night, not realizing the chain of events that invite would kick off. Immediately our chemistry became too explosive, making our friendship and work relationship complicated. That same night, a bloody package addressed to me lands on my doorstep. Falling for Jake was never in the plans—then again neither was being targeted by a dangerous stalker. This was going to be interesting.

"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.

The F-Rank Foot Soldier Became An S-Rank Monster Rancher is a light-hearted story of new beginnings and new potentials. Follow Riven as he makes the best of his forced retirement, tames monsters, finds friends, and uncovers the mysteries surrounding the world.

Nita doesn't murder supernatural beings and sell their body parts on the internet - her mother does that. Nita just dissects the bodies after they've been "acquired". Until her mom brings home a live specimen and Nita decides she wants out; dissecting a scared teenage boy is a step too far. But when she decides to save her mother's victim, she ends up sold in his place - because Nita herself isn't exactly "human". She has the ability to alter her biology, a talent that is priceless on the black market.

Before the Age of Monsters, there was Monster Island. Top-secret habitat for genetically-resurrected dinosaurs. But something has gone terribly wrong. Somehow, the beasts have escaped – first there were scattered sightings worldwide – then people went missing. But now a pleasure-cruise shipwrecked on a tropical beach has discovered an entire savage prehistoric jungle.

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.

This Science Fiction Collection brings together 20 iconic works from some of the genre's most influential authors. Featuring Ray Bradbury's atmospheric The Monster Maker and Rocket Summer, Isaac Asimov's thought-provoking Youth, E.M. Forster's dystopian The Machine Stops, and H.G. Wells' timeless masterpiece The Time Machine, the anthology explores a wide range of speculative themes. From futuristic worlds and artificial intelligence to time travel and human survival, this collection delves into the challenges and possibilities of the future.