Monster Fiction

Lili’s family migrated to Australia from Asia when she was a teenager. Now, in the 1980s, she’s teaching in the south of France. She makes friends, observes the treatment handed out to North African immigrants, and is creeped out by her downstairs neighbor. Lyle works for a sinister government department in near-future Australia. An Asian migrant, he fears repatriation. He’s also preoccupied with his ambitious wife, his wayward children, and his strong-minded mother. Islam has been banned, the air is smoky from a Permanent Fire Zone, and one pandemic has already run its course.

It's been two years since Emily and Jess Volnik visited ancient Castle Keep in Scotland and made the acquaintance of the Boggart, a mischievous shape-shifting spirit who has lived in the castle for centuries. Now they've returned for another Scottish adventure, joining their old friend Tommy and Mr. Maconochie, the new owner of Castle keep, on a trip to Loch Ness, where a new expedition is determined to find the fabled monster. Of course, the fun-loving Boggart comes along for the ride, and wherever the Boggart goes, things are bound to get lively. But this time the Boggart has a serious mission....

Kal Anderson is a stone-cold fixer, both in the literal and figurative sense. Nicknamed Doctor Death, he prefers to keep his messes confined to his workspace and out of his personal life. Still, when it comes to the notorious Ricci crime family, he can't seem to catch a break. He's not supposed to notice his boss's daughter or engage in any way with her, considering the sordid history he has with both of her parents. Elena Ricci won't let him go without a fight, though. Not with the date of her arranged wedding on the horizon.

The Morgan brothers led a vicious syndicate in the streets of Oolytau for over twenty years. It all came crashing down when a legendary cleaner put one of those brothers in the ground and gave the other a grim ultimatum. With the empire he and his brother built in shambles, weary of the outlaw life and faced with the prospect of revenge against a nightmare no one could kill, Will Morgan chose exile. Carina said goodbye to her husband, knowing she might never see him again.

Ninth House meets Legendborn in this thrilling first book in a dark academia fantasy series about a teen who’s willing to do anything to find her brother—even infiltrate a secret society full of monsters.

My role as Moric—ruler of a small and prosperous fiefdom in a quiet corner of the world—has always been painfully dull and stifling. Until a beautiful, otherworldly creature with pink skin and a mane of golden hair falls through a strange void that has appeared in my guestroom. I am instantly captivated by him. I have never seen anything like him. I have no idea where he came from, and what else is through that unsettling void—another world filled with soft-skinned, defenseless creatures like him? No tails, no horns, no claws, no sharp teeth. Tiny clothing, rounded ears, bright blue eyes.

For my kind, to be without a mate is to be doomed. I know it is too late–all that awaits me is retirement and death, and I’ve embraced it. But when a suicide mission lands on my old boss’s desk, I’m the one he calls. Who better to tackle the mission in the deep, oppressive mines of my own ancestral homeland, if not an Arachnae already slated to die? And it’s not a rescue mission–he wants me to retrieve the corpse of a billionaire’s daughter kidnapped by a terrorist organization. Except our intel was wrong. She’s alive. Tortured and injured–but alive.

Heidi Waters, CEO of billion-dollar startup Vitality+, is all the rage in Silicon Valley. Her company’s promises to roll out a neurochemical cure for caffeine-related anxiety are set to change the game, a godsend for anyone who’s ever got the jitters from upsizing their morning coffee order. There’s just one problem. There is no cure. The product doesn’t work.

Ben and his tribe of beautiful monster-girls have a new mission: Sail to the island of dragons, rebind them to Ben’s women, and use the fire-breathing beasts to wipe the orcs off the map. But a storm knocks them off course, and they end up on another mysterious island. An island inhabited by winged, butterfly-women who are faced with a deadly and unknown enemy.

Courtney is a total show-off. She thinks she's so brave, and she's always making Eddie and his friends look like wimps. But now, Eddie's decided he's had enough. He's going to scare Courtney once and for all. And he's come up with the perfect plan to do it. Eddie's going to lure Courtney down to Muddy Creek. Because he knows that she actually believes those silly rumors about the monsters. That there are Mud Monsters living deep inside the creek. It's just too bad that Eddie doesn't believe the rumors, too. Because they just might be true.

This classic and much lauded retelling of Beowulf follows the monster Grendel as he learns about humans and fights the war at the center of the Anglo Saxon classic epic.

Ben is really coming into his title of Draco Rex. Not only has he discovered a new species of dragon, but now Jemma has bonded to the baby fire-breather named Tirian. And there are more dragons out there just waiting to be found.

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.

When a man in my village makes demands I'm not willing to give into, my younger brother and I flee into the forest. It's the night of the Monster Mate Hunt, but the orcs who are gifted with brides in exchange for protecting the village will be too busy with the other woman to notice me. Until Turren claims me as his mate. I'm not interested in marrying, and orcs scare me. But there's something sweet and endearing about this one. My brother and I planned to make a new life far from our village. Could that new life be with Turren?

I’ve always been a scrapper, so when I was snatched from my world by shadow creatures and hauled to another one, I did as I’d always done. I fought. But I still didn’t know anything about where I was. My luck was in, because I quickly had the good fortune of meeting a sexy prophetess and a gorgeous, blue-skinned, redheaded mage who said she was something called a moonwisp. Yeah, magic was a thing. The problem with that? Everyone in the world had some. Magic, that is. Everyone but me. I guess that’s what I get for coming from a non-magic world.

After the devastating events on Prism Lake, Grady and the other survivors head south, hoping to find safety in one of the rumored "Cities of Light". But as they embark on their journey, they quickly discover the monsters aren't the only things out in the snow they must fear.

From the “terrifyingly talented” (London Times) author of THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG-IN THE NIGHT-TIME and THE PORPOISE, eight mesmerizingly imaginative, deeply-humane stories that use Greek myths and contemporary dystopian narratives to examine mortality, moral choices and the many variants of love.

Julia Lombardi is a mystery even to herself. The beautiful model can’t remember where she’s from, where she’s been or how she came to live in Rome. When she receives an offer to accompany celebrated eccentric artist Salvador Dalí to the Sacro Bosco—Italy’s Garden of Monsters—as his muse, she’s strangely compelled to accept. It could be a chance to unlock the truth about her past…

Norse Mythology contains stories passed down from the ancient Norse religion, practiced by the Vikings and other northern people who live in modern-day Scandinavia, Iceland, and throughout the British Isles. In this book, you will also find many stories about the gods Thor and Loki and their exploits in the land of the giants. You will hear the story of the dwarf Andvari and his golden ring - the myth that is the basis for Robert Wagner’s famous opera The Ring of Nibelung as well as J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

It’s really hard to pretend like life is normal when you’re staring a monster in the eyes, though he’s both tempting and irritating in his human form. I put my days as a hunter behind me, unable to cope with the death and pain anymore, to become an upstanding citizen and for what? To assist Lake, a man who claims he’s not a monster but keeps talking about me like I’m edible and–even worse–wants to woo me?