Monster Fiction

When Josh Underwood is thrown through a wormhole and lands on an unfamiliar world, he is immediately attacked by flesh-eating worms and snarling wolves. He has one huge advantage. A ring sits on his finger, but it's no ordinary ring. It's alien tech designed to improve its host’s strength, speed, agility, durability and combat instinct. Not all boons are infinitely wondrous. This tech has to understand what Josh needs for it to evolve, and time is of the essence.

For Rich Cohen and millions of other fans, the 1985 Chicago Bears were more than a football team: they were the greatest football team ever - a gang of colorful nuts, dancing and pounding their way to victory. They won a Super Bowl and saved a city. It was not just that the Monsters of the Midway won but how they did it....

I'm the new owner of a magical mansion. This mansion, well, it's not your typical building. It's a dungeon from another world, masquerading as just another private residence in the suburbs. It has enchanted rooms, can craft powerful items, build lethal traps, and produce incredible monsters. And it's my mission to protect and evolve its monstrous inhabitants.

It's been 1097 days and 14 hours since I've been locked in this place. And they've come to me every night. The monsters in my dreams worship my body, and when I wake up I'm desperate for more. But they’re never there to finish me off. Dr. Adams says I can leave the asylum if I start to take my meds, but I've always hated how they made me feel...and I'm not sure that I agree with them that I'm actually crazy. Because dreams don’t make you crazy, right?

One of the many engineers that keep Beta, the city under the sea, running, Mira only wants to make her family proud and to prove herself worthy. She knows the mysterious city better than anyone and it's her dream to help it flourish. Then, on a solo job in an abandoned section of the city, she encounters a monster of legend: an undine, a dangerous merman from an ancient civilization, long forgotten.

All his life, Mark Fields has dreamed of joining the Defense Force to fight the vicious, alien Exlian, just like the rest of his renowned family. But so far, he’s … a dishwasher, trapped in a dead-end job with no powers, no money, and even fewer friends. But an encounter with a dying woman changes everything—granting him the abilities he needs to join the training camps—and his life finally feels like it’s turning around, faster than a movie martial-arts montage (just ignore the weird cat).

She’s a fashion model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden freeway "accident" leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful center of attention to being an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exists. Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from becoming a real woman, who will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing your past and making up something better. And that salvation hides in the last places you’ll ever want to look.

In a world where power is everything, Aleks and Vaira Kercheval have rejected their magical heritage. When the siblings cross the threshold, a long-dormant magic awakens, thrusting them into a world of ancient feuds and twisted powers. As Vaira embraces her magical heritage, determined to claim her rightful place among the Mage Houses, the powerless Aleks accidentally summons Ilea, a monstrous prince from the Void, thereby binding himself to a creature of immense power and insatiable hunger.

New research has uncovered deeply buried military secrets—both the Allied and Axis special operations during WWII included monsters. Did the Soviets use a dragon to win the Battle of Kursk? Did a vampire fight for the Canadians in Holland? Did the US drop the second atomic bomb on a kaiju? This collection takes real events from World War II and injects them with fantastical creatures that mirror the “unreality” of war itself. Each story—and two poems—feature mythical, mystical, and otherwise unexplainable beings that change the course of history.

Rome Armanelli is supposed to be a monster—an enforcer for the strongest family in the Italian Mafia. Yet, when I saw him take a man’s life, he did it to save mine. Since then, Rome doesn't want me anywhere near him. Sparks may fly when we're in the same room, but his famiglia is all he cares about. He tells me to leave, but he, of all people, should know—the Mafia doesn't let anyone go. Blood, ties, and partnerships sink their claws in. And when we find out exactly why his family kept me around, there's no turning back.

My dating life was already hell before I was spirited away to this treacherous Labyrinth with pitfalls and traps around every turn. The King holds my best friend hostage, while the men in the maze play with my life like I'm a disposable toy. The Minotaur hunts the twisted corridors, while a mischievous fox tempts me into dangerous trials, where each encounter is more terrifying than the last.

In 1993, Fox debuted a strange new television show called The X-Files. Little did anyone suspect that the series would become one of the network's biggest hits - and change the landscape of television in the process. Now, on the occasion of the show's 25th anniversary, TV critics Zack Handlen and Todd VanDerWerff unpack exactly what made this haunting show so groundbreaking. Witty and insightful reviews of every episode of the series, revised and updated from the authors' popular A.V. Club recaps, leave no mystery unsolved and no monster unexplained.

On a snowy winter evening in 1982, 21-year-old Mary Brown accepted a ride from a handsome stranger in the resort town of Breckenridge, Colorado. The trip ended with her brutally beaten and raped. Mary survived, but her predator's violence had only just begun. After 10 years in prison, Tom Luther was released a far more vicious criminal. Soon, from the Rockies to West Virginia, like Ted Bundy, Luther enticed a chain of women into his murderous trap.

It's Peretti's ultimate monster story. And this time, the monster is real. Miles away from the hectic city, Reed and Rebecca hike into the beautiful Northwestern woods. They're surrounded by gorgeous mountains, waterfalls, and hundreds of acres of unspoiled wilderness. But something - or someone - begins closing in on them. Something no human has ever seen. And it's killing everyone in its path without remorse.

I’m out for revenge. He’s out to rule the world. Kirill and I are as different as day and night. We shouldn’t have been in the same frame or universe. But we meet under the strangest circumstances. He’s my superior in the military and the man who’ll introduce me to carnage.

Demeter just wants to do her job: shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, her passengers keep dying—and not from equipment failures, as her AI medical system, Steward, would have her believe. These are paranormal murders, and they began when one nasty, ancient vampire decided to board Demeter and kill all her humans. To keep from getting decommissioned, Demeter must join forces with her own team of monsters. Together, this motley crew will face down the ultimate evil—Dracula.

At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting - he’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It’s ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth.

Dominic Thompson becomes an Infernal dungeon core and is given one task: honor the dark goddess by killing adventurers. Choosing an avatar is merely the first step. To become the greatest, he must make the other dungeon cores submit to him. And that means shattering their jeweled hearts. Or seducing their avatars. Lucky for Dom, the dungeon’s avatars are beautiful monster girls. But they’re also the fiercest warriors in the realms, and there’s a fine line between murder and seduction.

From the USA Today best-selling author Rina Kent comes a new dark mafia romance. The continuation of Kirill and Sasha's twisted story.

After my ex announces his wedding to someone other than me, I'm eager to leave town. A new life and a new job are just what I need to restore my mojo. On the way to my destination, I overnight at a hotel where edible unmentionables and a tattooed orc construction worker rock my world. I sneak out the next morning, figuring I'll never see him again. Until I walk into my new job. That hot orc construction worker? He's my boss.