Monster Fiction

I only got into trucking because my granddad was a trucker, and he was the best damn person I ever met. I'd always thought I was your average dude with an 18-wheeler and an addiction to energy drinks, but it turns out there might be something more brewing in my blood. Now instead of some desert highway, I'm stuck in a whole new realm, and it's full of worm cults, actual lot lizards, one seriously smoking catgirl mechanic, and enough sand and bloodthirsty creatures to make me think I took a wrong turn somewhere. But I might be able to add a whole new career path to my resume.

Wounds is a confounding, strange, and utterly entrancing collection of six stories, including one new novella from Shirley Jackson Award-winning author Nathan Ballingrud. From the eerie dread descending upon a New Orleans dive bartender after a cell phone is left behind in a rollicking bar fight in The Visible Filth to the search for the map of hell in “The Butcher’s Table”, Ballingrud’s beautifully crafted stories are riveting in their quietly terrifying depictions of the murky line between the known and the unknown.

Do you know that the Olympians weren’t the original immortals? Or that the Goddess Hera restored her virginity each year? The ancient Greeks wove one of the richest and best-preserved collections of stories of all the early civilizations, from the dawn of creation to the bloody siege at Troy.

Mattie can't remember a time before she and William lived alone on a mountain together. She must never make him upset. But when Mattie discovers the mutilated body of a fox in the woods, she realizes that they’re not alone after all. There’s something in the woods that wasn’t there before, something that makes strange cries in the night, something with sharp teeth and claws. When three strangers appear on the mountaintop looking for the creature in the woods, Mattie knows their presence will anger William. Terrible things happen when William is angry.

When Gemma’s supposed to terrify her appointed victim, she ends up captivated instead. Caleb, a romantic who believes in all things supernatural, finds her adorably pink-skinned, horned form more alluring than alarming. But as their steamy night unfolds and unexpected feelings bloom, Gemma must choose between her demonic duties and the human who makes her feel anything but monstrous.

While struggling to raise my little sister, I suddenly inherit a run-down B&B from a grandmother I didn't know existed. The only condition to inherit is that I marry and live with my husband for a year. One problem: I'm not dating, and the only one I want to propose to is the gargoyle I've been crushing on for months. When I explain, Goreg offers a marriage of convenience with a quickie divorce at the end. He's sweet and shy, and with his muscular frame and glorious wings, I'm kind of blown away by his offer, even if he does occasionally turn to stone and lurk on the roof.

I gave Braxton Smalls everything. I sacrificed myself and all I ended up with was a broken heart and a shattered soul. Now, I’ve got bigger things to worry about than an angry Eastpoint Heir hot on my trail. Brax may be the psycho who kidnapped me–but he’s nothing compared to the organization my brother works for. And me? I’m the monster ready to wreck them all.

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?

Two years after the Unravelling revealed monsters and their hidden realm to the world, garden designer Ellie Harding seems to have her life together, living out her cottagecore dreams on the picturesque island of Motuwai, New Zealand. What she never expected was for Van Livingston, the wealthy American she grew up with every summer, to walk back into her life nine years after a tragic event destroyed their romantic relationship. What's more, it turns out Van is a wolf—a hybrid werewolf/wolf-shifter, to be exact—with two wolves and two wolf forms.

Ever since the monster apocalypse hit town, average 13 year old Jack Sullivan has been living in his tree house, which he's armed to the teeth with catapults and a moat, not to mention video games, and an endless supply of Oreos and Mountain Dew scavenged from abandoned stores. But Jack alone is no match for the hordes of Zombies and Winged Wretches and Vine Thingies, and especially not for the eerily intelligent monster known only as Blarg. So Jack builds a team.

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 being an actual Monster. That was Rene’s entire life until a fateful day changed that. A day that the 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.

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.

After my husband left, all I wanted was to find myself again. Turns out that's a lot easier said than done when my chronic pain has me canceling plans and everything I try reminds me of my inadequacies. Things only get worse when my attempt at exploring submission is a total disaster. But hope comes in the form of my stoic, stunning vampire friend, Blair. She offers to teach me, giving me a space to safely explore a side of myself I've kept locked away. It's meant to be platonic. Just one friend helping another. So then why can't I stop imagining what it would be like to take things further?

Sorcha has spent her life helping raise her many siblings but now finally has the chance to seek her own adventures. At least, she did, before she was snatched from her horse and peddled by slavers. Taken far from home, she's brought to the worst place imaginable—the craggy western mountains infested with brutal, brutish orcs. All humans know to fear them and stay away, and now she's been sold to the cruelest clan chief of them all. But the first orc she meets is nothing like the stories. He's gentle. He frees her.

Hendric and his team face the unrelenting dangers of Levels Six through Ten, uncovering secrets that shake their understanding of the Dungeon of Despair. Joined by Dreo, the agile and fearless catkin, and Merenya, a unicorn-kin with powerful fire and ice magic, Hendric ventures into uncharted territories. From the icy corridors teeming with Chained Devils and Primordial Spirits to the dark, treacherous swamps that hold World Serpents and Tarrasques, each step brings new dangers and unexpected twists.

Dana, the overlooked human pet of an alien scientist, and Vlad, a genetically engineered vampire with a taste for more than just blood, find themselves unexpectedly alone on a deserted space station. As they plot their escape, they’ll have to navigate cramped quarters, steamy encounters, and the growing realization that they might be each other’s perfect match. But with their captors in hot pursuit, will their budding romance survive the vast emptiness of space?

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?

Have you ever lost yourself in a fantasy world you created? That's how I've survived the years alone in a reality where humans cower in fear of supernatural creatures hiding behind the veil. All I've ever had is my pen, my notebook, and the world I created to make it through the days as a ward of the state, suffering at the hands of the real villains of the world—humans. The pages of my notebook hold three sinful, feared monsters. Ones that I certainly shouldn't be pining over since they aren't even real.

He's tried to ignore them for too long. But the long-simmering conflict between Montana's holding at Coggeshall and the Night Goblins who also occupy the valley is about to boil over. Usually, goblins aren't anything to write home about: an enemy without much size, intellect, or weaponry. But these goblins? Well, that's just not the case. These are goblins with limitless resources, never-before-seen tactics, and horrifying monsters at their disposal. Worst of all, they don't fear death in the slightest. They just might force a good guy to become what he has always struggled to defeat.

With New Orleans out of control, Chad Oliver Gardenier, one of Monster Hunter International's premier hunters, has been dispatched from Seattle to reinforce the beleaguered members of MHI'S Hoodoo Squad in their fight against the darkness.