Creatures: Thirty Years of Monsters

by John Langan (Editor), Paul Tremblay (Editor), David J. Schow

Monsters: As old as the oldest of stories, as new as our latest imaginings. From the ancient stone corridors of the labyrinth to the graffitied alleyways of the contemporary metropolis, they stalk the shadows. Leering from the darkness of the forest, jostling for space in our closets, they walk, crawl, creep and scuttle through our nightmares. Close as the clutter under the bed or the other side of the mirror, they are our truest companions.

Creatures features the best monster fiction from the past thirty years, offering a wide variety of the best monster stories including original stories from the field's most relevant names and hottest newcomers including Clive Barker, Sarah Langan, Joe R. Lansdale, Kelly Link, China Miéville, and Cherie Priest.

Godzilla's twelve-step program / Joe R. Lansdale --
Creature from the Black Lagoon / Jim Shepard --
After Moreau / Jeffrey Ford --
Among their bright eyes / Alaya Dawn Johnson --
Under cover of night / Christopher Golden --
Kraken / Michael Kelly --
Underneath me, steady air / Carrie Laben --
Rawhead Rex / Clive Barker --
Wishbones / Cherie Priest --
Hollow man / Norman Partridge --
Not from around here / David J. Schow --
Ropy thing / Al Sarrantonio --
Third bear / Jeff VanderMeer --
Monster / Kelly Link --
Keep calm and carillon / Genevieve Valentine --
Deep end / Robert R. McCammon --
Serpent and the hatchet gang / F. Brett Cox --
Blood makes noise / Gemma Files --
Machine is perfect, the engineer is nobody / Brett Alexander Savory --
Proboscis / Laird Barron --
Familiar / China Miéville --
Replacements / Lisa Tuttle --
Little monsters / Stephen Graham Jones --
Changeling / Sarah Langan --
Monsters of heaven / Nathan Ballingrud --
Absolute zero / Nadia Bulkin

Genres: Horror, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fantasy, Fiction, Monsters, Horror Thriller

384 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2011

About the author

John Langan is the author of two novels, The Fisherman (Word Horde 2016) and House of Windows (Night Shade 2009), and two collections of stories, The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies (Hippocampus 2013) and Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters (Prime 2008). With Paul Tremblay, he co-edited Creatures: Thirty Years of Monsters (Prime 2011). He's one of the founders of the Shirley Jackson Awards, for which he served as a juror during its first three years. Currently, he reviews horror and dark fantasy for Locus magazine.

John Langan lives in New York's Hudson Valley with his wife, younger son, and many, many animals. He teaches at SUNY New Paltz. He's working toward his black belt in the Korean martial art of Tang Soo Do.

Reviews

[Bogdan · Rating 5 out of 5]

OH…WOW!
This was such a tremendous Anthology from the start until the end.

Honestly I didn`t expected to encounter so many amazing texts. Usually I`m not so happy with the choices made by the ones who edit the Anthology but this time I was really blown away.

I wanted vile Creatures and that`s what I got…

In another previous review I saw that somebody was complaining that this wasn`t a good
Anthology because the Monsters, The Creatures, The F. Animals, in, at least five stories, (Yes, I`ve counted them) are going on a rampage and are eating children. Really?! No, Really?!

What has more logic, a hundred years evil, mean, creature from hell, to eat a child because is in his animal nature, in his guts, or you, whining like a kid about the contents of some of the stories.

I guess the horror is a genre not for everyone around…

Anyway, for the record, I want to note that I had two stories that I didn`t enjoyed much, but I`m not really counting them.

Even these writers that I didn`t enjoyed much have good stories that were a real surprise to me.

There is a wide range of creatures and monsters that will surely overwhelm you…

I think that this is a great volume and a must read for all the real horror fans out there.

[Justin Alcala · Rating 3 out of 5]

Technically, I'm giving this book 2.5 Stars. When I first saw it in the bookstore, I was thoroughly impressed. The cover art was wonderful and eerie, it had stories by Clive Barker as well as Christopher Golden, and the "Contents" page featured some wonderful topics. However, as I began to read the short stories, unfortunately, nothing seemed to blend together. There were tales about Godzilla (though by itself somewhat entertaining) mashed together with a camp monster who speaks with the elegance of a college English professor and a story that has a creature unnecessarily pissing all over the roadside during the closing paragraph. And while I admit that I did read this while also reading the likes of Stephen King and Dean Koontz, truth be told, I was a little let down.

[Gwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My second time reading this for a book club. My pick! I only re-read "Among Their Bright Eyes," "The Deep End," "Monster, "Not From Around Here," and "Rawhead Rex." I enjoyed them all. Certainly the last two the most. I'm surprised I enjoyed "Rawhead Rex" even more on this second read, and it wasn't quite as intense as "Not From Around Here" this time, which also surprises me. Both are very well written, and very dark. I still think the creature in "Not From Around Here" is the most horrific!

[Richard Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I love most about anthologies is you can always expect to find at least one story that really speaks to you, and sticks in your mind long after you've put the book down. I’ve lost track of the number of authors I now consider my all-time favourites, that I first read in an anthology book. The downside, of course, is you can typically find an equal number of stories which feel like a slog, that you just need to get through in order to sample the next story. Anthology books are a fantastic source for new and important authors, but consistency is a tough standard to expect, with so many different stories by different voices vying for your attention.

I’m hard-pressed to think of any other anthology I've read (except perhaps Silver Scream edited by David J Schow who, coincidentally, features in Creatures as a contributor) which was, at the same time, quite so simultaneously consistent and varied as Creatures was. The book is intended as an overview of the best Creature related horror stories spanning thirty years. A bold undertaking, but editors Paul Tremblay and John Langan (two stellar writers themselves) prove themselves up to the task.

The book starts out with a very funny, completely bizarre story by Joe R Lansdale, about Godzilla, who is long past his glory days and is now in a 12-step program to help manage his desire to destroy. It was a hilarious and oddly melancholy opener which set expectations for the other stories to come, which the book then gleefully subverted.

There truly is something to cater for every taste here. I found a great mix of literary, pulp, old, new, comedic and serious and I can genuinely say, out of all 26 stories, I found something to enjoy about every single one.

There are some big horror names here, Clive Barkers perversely blasphemous ‘Rawhead Rex’ being perhaps the most well-known, one of my favourites from his seminal Books of Blood. Robert McCammon also has a particularly strong story about a grieving dad and a creature in a swimming pool that may, or may not, be responsible for his son's death. There were equally, a lot of names I didn't recognise (Alaya Dawn Johnson and Carrie Leben have some standout stories early on). It was gratifying that the editors did not choose the easy route of filling the book solely with well-known, more obvious Creature Features (Stephen King, for instance, does not feature, despite having easily a dozen stories worthy for contention in any monster based best of) which means there was plenty on offer here that was new to me.

There are some more light-hearted stories (Kelly Link’s Monster was charmingly quirky) among the more horrifying (Sarah Langan's the Changeling was an exquisitely bleak fairy-tale esque offering). There are also some earlier (this book was published in 2011) stories by writers who have gone on to be far more well known in 2020 (Nathan Ballingrud's darkly surreal ‘The Monsters of Heaven’ and Stephen Graham Jones short but certainly not sweet ‘Little Monsters’ both appear).

I found a few of the stories a bit of a challenge on their first read, namely Laird Barron’s (Proboscis) and Norman Partridges (The Hollow Man). Neither offers a straightforward narrative and make the reader work to get the most of the story. Proboscis, in particular, is an absolute masterpiece, and deeply horrifying in what it suggests (not shows) but is so subtle in dropping its hints about what is actually going on that it is an incredibly rewarding story to revisit.

If I had to pick a favourite story, and there are a lot of contenders in this book, I'd probably go with ‘Not From Around Here’ by David J Schow. The less you know about the story going in, the better, but it just hits all the things I love in a horror story (great characters, horrifying creature, unexpected developments and deeper meanings and themes outside of what is being presented). I can’t, in all good conscience, wrap this up without honourable mentions to Christopher Golden's ‘Under Cover of Night’ (action-packed army versus monsters), Cherie Priest's ‘Wishbone’ (Urban Fantasy meets horror with perhaps the creepiest monster the book has to offer), and Lisa Tuttle's ‘Replacements’ (Blooksucking pets as metaphor). In a lesser anthology, any one of these would be an absolute stand out.

For those of you who enjoy horror anthologies, this is as good as it gets. If you are sometimes put off by hit and miss offerings then, rest assured, Creatures was a fantastically varied read, without a single dud of a story. A well-deserved 5 stars.


You can read more reviews of new and upcoming horror releases at https://www.myindiemuse.com/category/...

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty great anthology. The editor did a great job of breaking up the collected text into four categories: It Came and We Knew it; It Came, We Could Not Stop It; It Came for Us and It Came from Us. Editors John Langan and Paul Tremblay give great little one page or so introductions to each section which help connect all the text really well.

I enjoyed nearly ever single tale that was in the book. However, it should be noted this is a book geared towards a more mature audience. These “creatures” are not the Hollywood sympathy beasts we create today were, if we could just see things from their perspective all would be great. No, these creatures are mostly violent, and have monstrous natures that require blood, violence, sex, ect. to slake their thirsts. That being said, it’s great halloween read!

A few of my favorite stories were:

Godzilla’s 12-step Program (Joe R. Lansdale)
Under Cover of Night (Christopher Golden)
Rawhead Rex (Clive Barker)
The Hollow Man (Norman Partridge)
Not From Around Here (David J. Schow)
Monster (Kelly Link)
The Deep End (Robert R. McCammon)
Blood Makes Noise (Gemma Files)
Familiar (China Miéville)
Little Monster (Stephen Graham Jones)

[wittycakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice collection of spooky short stories. Really enjoyed "Not from around here" and "Familiar"
"The Deep End" was also really interesting
"Rawhead Rex" made me wanna barf

[Gwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this was quite a refreshing collection of horror short stories. I was disappointed with my last foray into modern Gothic fiction, however, these stories do not disappoint! I was thoroughly impressed (and creeped out)!
I really like the format of the book: there are four sections with very poignant introductions titled "It Came and We Knew It," "It Came, We Could Not Stop It," "It Came For Us," and "It Came From Us." I had favorites from each section, however, my absolute favorite story in the collection is "Not From Around Here." It has some great imagery and a very satisfying end, although dark, mysterious, and far from happy.
I also really enjoyed "Among Their Bright Eyes," "Rawhead Rex," "Monster," and "The Deep End." What I like about this collection is that these creatures are not sympathetic characters, they're quite brutal, and the stories really explore what it means to be monstrous. I've never read anything like these stories before and "Rawhead Rex" is, by far, the most brutal monster I've ever encountered in horror fiction.
I have a pretty vivid imagination, however, I would've never dreamed up some of the creatures presented in this book. It was difficult to wrap my head around most of them and I ended most stories with so many questions, a sense of awe, and a lot of food for thought!
I definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves the horror genre and isn't faint of heart. I'm so taken with it that I bought a copy (the one I read was from the library).

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short story collections, especially ones by multiple authors are, of course, only as good as the strongest entry and as bad as the weakest. This collection, spanning roughly thirty years worth of short stories all of which have some kind of monster in them, is no exception. Clive Barker's the big name author here, and his story is one of the longest and one of the strongest, but other stories were just kinda weird. The better ones are in the beginning of the volume (I dug the story about the survivor of Dr. Moreau's island, the Hippopotamus Man, musing over what really happened and what his life was really like), while weaker entries follow. I have two quibbles with the book. The first, though probably a "happy" accident given the 26 or so authors all working independently over the course of three decades, is there is an awful lot of small kids and babies getting eaten by things. Yes, its scary, even to people who aren't parents, but it also seems very wrong and a quick thing to go to as an easy out to horrify readers. The second is, for all the editors try to make the various sections of the book fit some theme, I really didn't see it and thought they were reaching for overarching ideas.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've often compared reading anthologies to mining. Sometimes you find a rich vein, other times you find an inferior vein. Perhaps this particular book is like archeology. In archeology, you may find some historically significant artifact, but most often you find broken potter, trash or coprolites (that's fossilized poop, fyi).

There are a few good stories, in here, but by and large there are very few examples of good writing here. Many are juvenile and seemingly obsessed with bodily functions and especially sex. I have no problem with relationships that form and evolve in the course of the plot to something more, something physical. Some restraint should be used, if all of you ever eat is chocolate, a) you'll die of malnutrition, and b) you'll get sick of it after a while. Some of these stores are a lot like too much chocolate, only they don't taste that good the first time around and it doesn't take a lot for you to get sick of them.

[Shalini Gunnasan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed
Creature from the Black Lagoon
-- Very interesting protagonist, sad ending but somehow fitting
Under Cover of the Night
-- Wonderfully suspenseful, element of unknowable horror, left wanting for more.
Rawhead Rex -primally terrifying! Excellent.
Hollow Man - Dread and hopelessness, unknowable terror. Sad for the first hollow man, but the second probably deserved it, that dampened the horror.
Not From Around Here - genuinely terrifying, overtly erotic but that is cleverly used as a horror element. Triumphant and bittersweet ending.

Really disliked
Among Their Bright Eyes
-- pointless, sexual element unnecessary and contributes nothing, do not care for the protagonists

The rest are just so-so, either not so memorable or not at all terrifying. At least even the story I disliked made an impression, the rest just went off-radar. That's worse than being disliked, I think.
Rated 4 because the good stuff is really good.

[Jeff Stockett · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a few good stories in here. There were several I would give 4 stars to, individually. A few of those were terrifying, or intriguing, with interesting and new ideas.

However, there were others that were downright boring. Or that tried to compensate for lack of good frightening story telling by over compensating with gratuitous violence. Nearly all of them had unnecessary language. Many of those I would have given 1 star individually.

Therefore, I give the whole collection a 2. If 2.5 were an option, I probably would have done that, but I just didn't like the collection enough to round it up to 3.

[Orrin Grey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review here.

[Midnight Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome anthology! I thoroughly enjoyed almost every story in this book and I would recommend it to anybody who is a fan of the horror genre.

[Heidi Fogelberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anthology of horror short stories with an emphasis on cryptid content. 3 really outstanding stories, for me, were Under Cover of Night (Christopher Golden) which combined the chupacabra and the southern border of the US in a very chilling story; Not from Around Here (David Schow) which was ... weird ... and I'm not sure precisely where the beast involved fits into any previous mythos, if it does, but it is deeply unsettling anyway; and The Deep End (Robert McCammon), which is sad and elegiac and brave. The whole book is good, really. I've seen a couple of the stories before (Rawhead Rex by Clive Barker), and the structure of the book seemed meaningful to the authors but annoying to me (though that's a small point and it wasn't a huge irritant - I just don't think they sold it well or that it particularly made sense). I do recommend the volume. I'd buy more that they put out.

[Jaffa Kintigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Monsters and creatures of a wide variety are gathered together in this collection from modern classics such as Godzilla and the Creature from the Black Lagoon to older international folk classics such as Mexico's el chupacabra and Japan's Gashadokuro. Other stories turned to monsters in an absurdist way and yet others for allegory. The variety was nice, especially with the attempt by the editors to steer the reader toward appreciating the variety in their four micro-essays leading the anthologies sub-sections.

Perhaps the qualification of a story containing a monster was too broad, as the various styles of the 26 stories didn't ultimately jell into a greater understanding of any certain type of monster. Without rising above its parts, I rate this anthology as equal to the average of the stories contained therein: some hits, some misses, some in between. I've reviewed each story contained within, but my favorite was Lisa Tuttle's "Replacements" which earned the lone 5-star review from me. Her urban fantasy takes allegory to a new level showing the dysfunctions that can arise within a relationship. The tale gets my highest recommendation.

Eight more tales earned 4 stars and are highly recommended:

Joe R. Lansdale's "Godzilla's Twelve-Step Program" is an absurdist take of the mega-monsters of the nuclear era.
A border patrolman faces more than he bargained for with the appearance of El Chupacabra in Christopher Golden's "Under Cover of Night".
Cherie Priest's "Wishbones" smartly introduces the Japanese Gashadokuro to America.
The horror of losing a son takes monstrous shape in Robert R. McCammon's "The Deep End".
China Mieville's "Familiar" shows a refreshingly new form of witch's familiar.
A Japanese horror film could be adapted from Sarah Langan's "The Changeling".
Nathan Ballingrud's "The Monsters of Heaven" is one of a few tales taking an allegorical approach to showing tension between spouses and the loss of a child--this manages both beautifully.
Finally, "Absolute Zero" by Nadia Bulkin turns the tables by showing a young man come to terms with an absentee father and the deceased mother.

Also included are:
Barker, Clive-- Rawhead Rex --3 stars
Cox, F. Brett--"The Serpent and the Hatchet Gang"--3 stars
Files, Gemma--"Blood Makes Noise"--3 stars
Johnson, Alaya Dawn--"Among Their Bright Eyes"--3 stars
Partridge, Norman--"The Hollow Man"--3 stars
Sarrantonio, Al--"The Ropy Thing"--3 stars
Shepard, Jim--"The Creature from the Black Lagoon"--3 stars
VanderMeer, Jeff--"The Third Bear"--3 stars
Barron, Laird--"Proboscis"--2 stars
Ford, Jeffrey--"After Moreau"--2 stars
Jones, Stephen Graham--"Little Monsters"--2 stars
Kelly, Michael--"The Kraken"--2 stars
Link, Kelly--"Monster"--2 stars
Schow, David J.--"Not From Around Here"--2 stars
Valentine, Genevieve--"Keep Calm and Carillon"--2 stars
Laben, Carrie--"Underneath Me, Steady Air"--1 star
Savory, Brett Alexander--"The Machine is Perfect, The Engineer is Nobody"--1 star

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty typical anthology. Some of the stories were good, some not as good. I personally liked McCammon's story THE DEEP END the best. I think sometimes writers try too hard to make their monster stories deep and meaningful, which I would rather just read something scary. Some of the stories were a little too experimental for me, but some were really good. As the case with most horror anthologies, a mixed bag.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed most of the stories in this anthology, especially those by Kelly Link, Robert McCammon, and Jeffrey Ford. A few of the stories left me cold, or actively turned me off. Still, an interesting collection with a few really high spots.

[Umpyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tiny tales of terror. Some of these stories will definitely haunt me for a while.

[wasuretta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read just "Godzilla's Twelve-Step Program".

[Oisín · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF, skipped a couple stories. Only 1 really stood out to me as strong (chupacabra)

[Vickie Woodard · Rating 3 out of 5]

UNEVEN

A story collection usually has one problem: the stories just aren't of the same quality.
So it is with this one. There are a few gems amongst the lumps of coal.

[voiceofmadness · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the best stories in here were the classic monsters. And by classic, I mean the I know I'm bad and I love being bad monsters, with only a couple exceptions. I can't get enough of the unapologetic bloodthirsty nasties! And this book has them!

This gathering of short stories are all very good horror, however, I will say that not all fit my own personal taste. The wonderful thing about reading a book like this is the variety and the introductions to unknown (for me) authors and horror legends Clive Barker. Some stories entranced me from start to finish! While others bored me and I skimmed through their predictable plots. For this, I'm only going to review the ones I enjoyed and have reread.

The stories toward the beginning seemed the strongest to me.
The Creature from the Black Lagoon by Jim Shepard was a good creep-fest with the monster simply lurking and watching.

After Moreau by Jeffrey Ford gives us a glimpse at the madness and chaos that follows the doctors' death. The human/animal creations are slowly turning into their animal selves, or as much as they can, eventually loosing everything that once made them human. The remnants of human biology have trickled down to grunts and sparse words, most don't even wear clothing. This story held a lot of internal thinking and somewhat stunted (but understandable) reasoning. I felt empathy for these monsters, even the ones who turned into man-eaters/ the hunters they had been repressed from being while the doctor was alive. The decay of humanity and the sense of resignation of always being in the state of incomplete "animality" lets us sympathize with the Hippopotomus Man.

Among Their Bright Eyes by Alaya Dawn Johnson was my absolute favorite story. Very emotional, despite the horror of the creature's reality and his sadness and desperation to just stop being. The loneliness was so palpable it was at times painful to continue. It was like reading from the point of view of an exposed nerve.

He doesn't understand what it's like, to hover at the edges of the light while he spends each day within shining distance of their eyes. I've seen my eyes in still pools after the rain. They have two different colors, blue and brown, but they're mismatched and never shine. Even if I bring a fire right by my face, evern if lightning strikes a few feet away, they never shine.

Among Their Bright Eyes was from page 35-47 in this edition and although it was on the shorter side, this one stayed with me after I finished the collection. The brutality of the monster of the Frankenstein monster and a hybrid Kaapi's shared desire for an end to the daily suffering lingered beyond the final word.

Rawhead Rex by Clive Barker was my first reading of his work. As the creator of the Hellraiser franchise, it was not disappointing. I won't go into more detail because this is a story that should be read.

Monster by Kelly Link was a good old "I'm bad because I like it" monster. It has dark humor, sassy writing, and a monster you would NOT want to find in your Bungalo.

If you're not sure what horror you're into and want to find out, I recommend this. Not only will you see which stories end up speaking to you, you'll find out what scares you!

[Crookedtalks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full review: http://crookedtalks.tumblr.com/post/1...

I started Creatures last year as my halloween read of the year though I only managed to finish in this year ^^; This is the first short story collection that I’ve read through completely as far as I can remember (I’ve probably read short story collections before, but none remembered in any degree of clarity). I’ve also consciously picked up this book precisely because it was a short story collection by different authors, to try and get a taste of a variety of short horror stories in different writing styles. Obviously, with short story collections or anthologies, there will be stories that resonate with you, and there will be stories that you don’t enjoy. There were a lot of stories in this collection, however, that I essentially did not have any reaction to; they didn’t pique my interest, I didn’t like nor hate the stories, and the stories weren’t bad; I just didn’t care much for them (kinda like a “meh” feeling) and only got through them because I wanted to finish the book. I would sustain a mild interest while reading those stories and promptly forget its plot as I move on to the next story in the collection.

Which is why I would say that this short story collection is probably not the best book to start with if you are new to the genre; I haven’t read many short story collections so I can’t judge if this collection is “good” or “bad”, only what I felt when I was reading it. The theme of this collection sounded exciting and right up my alley, so honestly I think I am a little disappointed with this collection. There were some great stories that I enjoyed a lot in this collection that helped to soften the blow a little though.

Overall, I would give this 3.5 stars, but since goodreads doesn’t have a .5 star rating, and my 3.5 stars is closer to a 3 stars than a 4, on my goodreads it is voted as a 3 stars.

[michael dempsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this one..The McCammon story was good..I enjoyed 95% of the stories.

[Oscar Loveless · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thirty Years of Monsters is a collection of short stories from various authors that are monster stories but told from the perspective of the monster. The stories include monsters that we've all heard of (like godzilla) and monsters that were just made up on the spot. The theme in Thirty Years of Monsters varies from story to story. However they all base around the common idea of giant destructive beasts that may or may not breath fire. There are a few stories that go beyond that though, imagining monsters living lives just like you and me. It is in those short stories that the book really comes alive. We all think of monsters as giants that go RAR, but when they are placed in a society much like our own, then our image of them takes a completely different spin.
The monsters you will see in this book are those that were commonly used about twenty years ago. You wont find any vampires, werewolves, or demons.

[Dave Pope · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nope! I wouldn't reread this and basically skimmed over the final few stories. Some were ok and interesting but nothing really stood out and grabbed me other than for those penned by the "big name" horror writers - many of which I'd read in other collections anyway. Some of the stories just took many pages to go absolutely nowhere. A horror short story must capture me and have a bite to it for me to enjoy it - besides that I do have a penchant for horror that is horror and not the slow burn kind of thinking man's tale that you have to contemplate what was perhaps horrific about the story. There are some "horror" stories here but, to my mind, there is a lot of filler as well.

[Shell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely done anthology, at over 380 pages if you are a horror fan you are sure to find quite a few stories that you like. As usual with anthologies, some I liked better than others, but I now have a list of about 9 new (to me) writers that I want to find more stories by. There were also only 3 stories that I have read before (The Ropey Thing, Raw-head Rex, Replacements), which is pretty good for a book spanning 30 years. If you like shorts you should check this out.

[Sonia Real · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only read the first story and stopped at that. The monsters are turned into real people and it doesn't work out. There was a lot of bad language and the things they do are horrible. I wanted scary stories and this book didn't have any. I only read godzilla's and the story was about him dealing with his problems. I didn't even want to find out what the other ones were about.

[Leonca · Rating 3 out of 5]

So-so overall quality, like many anthologies tend to have. Four out of twenty-six interested me enough to want to seek out more of the author’s work. A depressing atmosphere is common while I find exciting and creative stories more fun, and some left me scratching my head as to what the author was trying to express.

[Frank Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this anthology up until about three-quarters of the way through. For some reason, and I can't imagine why it would have been so distinctly grouped this way, the stories went from having humor and original creatures and clear, smooth writing to having increasingly ambiguous creatures--if even having a creature at all--and opaque, confusing narratives and writing.