Monster Folklore

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....

Discover the history and culture of over 50 of the most fearsome mythical creatures to capture the human imagination. Freaky Folklore is your guide to the world’s most terrifying beings, from ancient times to today. Hosts from Eeriecast, the leading horror podcast network, present the most...

The most important thing I’d ever read was scribbled on the door of a portable restroom, engraved into plastic at a carnival on the outskirts of Boston. Lust lingers, love stays. Lust is impatient, love waits. Lust burns, love warms. Lust destroys, but love? Love kills. Maybe it was always my destiny to fall in love with a monster. When other kids stayed awake at night fearing the pointy-toothed beast hiding in their closet, I longed to see mine.

As the daughter of Dracula, you would think I’d be born the perfect monster. You couldn’t be more wrong. As far as monsters go, I’m a screw up—if I’m not tripping over my own feet, I’m accidentally murdering someone (it’s a real issue, guys). Left with no choice, Dad decides to send me to Prodigium—otherwise known as Monster Academy—to train me on how to be a better monster. When bodies turn up on campus, I’m the prime suspect (not that I can blame them).

Mia is reluctant to go camping with her boyfriend and sister, who are graduate students working on a dissertation about American folklore. But ultimately, they convince her to help document the trip. The group sets off to Black Creek, a remote destination in the Pacific Northwest where Bigfoot has allegedly been sighted. They think they’re prepared for anything, but their sense of terror grows as they find more and more evidence to suggest the monster really is out there. Eventually, Mia realizes she’ll be lucky just to make it out of the woods alive.

"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.

Zach grew in power and thrived in the post-Framework world. He became a respected leader, a shining example of what it meant to be good. But as the world ended, he had only one thought: to punish the monster that had killed the world long before the Framework ended it. Yet not even with his incredible power was he able to stand against the World Ender. His arrival in the new realty, the Infinite Realm, gives him the chance to grow stronger, to find the monster again-and make it pay.

Leaving no headstone unturned, Sacha Coward will take you on a wild ride through the night from ancient Greece to the main stage of RuPaul's Drag Race, visiting cross-dressing pirates, radical fairies, and the graves of the 'queerly departed' along the way. Queer communities have often sought refuge in the shadows, found kinship in the in-between, and created safe spaces in underworlds; but these forgotten narratives tell stories of remarkable resilience that deserve to be heard.

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.

My life is out of control. Raphael is now my lover, Mygi is trying everything they can to kill me to get him back, and I’m still a ruler of a dying people with enemies lurking in every shadow. And for all of that, I only have a single lead that could unravel the mysteries of Raphael’s past. His mysteries, which are also the secrets of Mygi, a company very much willing to kill to keep those secrets. All I can do is focus on one problem at a time, follow the threads, and connect the dots. I need to take the fight to them and I won’t be stopped.

The first book of an epic progression fantasy series inspired by Scandinavian folklore, The Witcher, and Dungeons & Dragons, where a young man named Hallik has been training his whole life to become a magic-wielder, or Grimnir, to keep his island safe. But when monsters breach the shield...

More money, more murder... 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...

Traditional interpretations of the creatures of the Bible have sanded down their sharp, unsavory edges, transforming them into celestial beings of glory and light—or chubby, happy cherubs. Those cherubs? They're actually hybrid guardian monsters, more closely associated with the Egyptian sphinx than with flying babies. And the seraphim? Winged serpents sent to mete out God's vengeance. Demons aren't at war with angels; they're a distinct supernatural species used by Satan and by God. The pattern is chilling. Most of these monsters aren't God's opponents—they're God's entourage.

If you've ever heard a curious bump in the night, caught a glimpse of a strange-looking someone (or something) out of the corner of your eye, or seen an unusual craft dart across the sky before it vanished without a trace, there's only one person to call: Linda S. Godfrey. An expert in strange creatures and lore, she has offered reporting on bigfoots, werewolves, strange energy forms, and other bizarre beings for years.

The Changed are on the move. The Spared are out of time. The End…is now. When her parents died, Alex thought things couldn't get much worse - until the doctors found the monster in her head. She headed into the wilderness as a good-bye, to leave everything behind. But then the end of the world happened, and Alex took the first step down a treacherous road of betrayal and terror and death. Now, with no hope of rescue - on the brink of starvation in a winter that just won't quit - she discovers a new and horrifying truth. The Change isn't over.

There's an honesty in the turning of the earth, in the turning of the seasons, and I've always preferred its quiet, steadfast company over that of other people. Left alone with an inherited cottage and my beloved pup Rotho to look after, my days are largely given to tending the garden, save for periodic errands in town.

For more than a century, reports of a strange beast known as the Fouke Monster have circulated among the locals in southern Arkansas. Described as a large hairy man-like creature, it's said to haunt the vast Sulphur River Bottoms as it travels the secluded waterway known as Boggy Creek. Over the years, the creature has been seen by numerous witnesses including respected citizens, experienced hunters, famous musicians, and even a police officer. The encounters were often so shocking, they served as inspiration for the classic horror film, The Legend of Boggy Creek, by Charles B. Pierce.

This program features multicast narration. When Among Crows is swift and striking, drawing from the deep well of Slavic folklore and asking if redemption and atonement can be found in embracing what we most fear. We bear the sword, and we bear the pain of the sword. Pain is Dymitr’s calling...

Discover everything you’ve ever wondered about the legendary spirits, creatures, and figures of Japanese folklore including how they have found their way into every corner of our pop culture from the creator of the podcast Uncanny Japan. Welcome to The Book of Japanese Folklore: a fascinating...

A fascinating, beautifully illustrated guide to the monsters that are part of our collective psyche, featuring stories from the Lore podcast—now a streaming television series—including “They Made a Tonic,” “Passed Notes,” and “Unboxed,” as well as rare material. They live in...