Monsters

by L. Andrew Cooper (Editor), Brandy Ball Blake (Editor)

Monsters is part of the Fountainhead Press V Series of Readers. It s under the bed; it s in the closet. It s the thing in the basement, but it s also the thing in the mirror, hot breath on the back of your neck, cold eyes staring at you with loathing and hunger. The monster sometimes inspires heroes: a community s bravest members rise up and defend people s livelihoods against an indescribable threat. But in the dead of night, when no one can hear, even a hero might admit that a monster inspires one thing more than any other: fear.

250 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

L. Andrew Cooper specializes in the provocative, scary, and strange. His current project, The Middle Reaches, is a serialized epic of weird horror and dark fantasy on Amazon Kindle Vella. His latest release, Records of the Hightower Massacre, an LGBTQ+ horror novella co-authored with Maeva Wunn, imagines a near-future dystopia where anti-queer hate runs a program to "correct" deviants. Stains of Atrocity, his newest collection of stories, goes to uncomfortable psychological and visceral extremes. His latest novel, Crazy Time, combines literary horror and dark fantasy in a contemporary quest to undo what may be a divine curse. Other published works include novels Burning the Middle Ground and Descending Lines; short story collections Leaping at Thorns and Peritoneum; poetry collection The Great Sonnet Plot of Anton Tick; non-fiction Gothic Realities and Dario Argento; co-edited fiction anthologies Imagination Reimagined and Reel Dark; and the co-edited textbook Monsters. He has also written more than 30 award-winning screenplays. After studying literature and film at Harvard and Princeton, he used his Ph.D. to teach about favorite topics from coast to coast in the United States. He now focuses on writing and lives with his husband in North Hollywood, California. Find him at www.landrewcooper.com.

Reviews

[Courtney Doss · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a truly impressive collection of essays about monsters in popular culture and what they say about us as a culture.

[Joey DeLuca]

I have a read a few short stories in the book Monsters. In particular I liked thesis five which identified how different monsters exist in different cultures. Jeffery Cohen uses racism, sexual discrimination, and religion as examples of how certain people were labeled monsters. These examples also show that the society at whole accepted these labels.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best reader that I have ever had in my entire teaching career. I'm teaching English Composition 102 with a Monsters theme. This is the first and, so far, only time I have made a syllabus where I am teaching from the entire book. The literature selections are good and the criticism is also good. I strongly recommend this to all teachers.

[Katy]

Randomly ran across this guy at Dragon*Con and he was kind enough to give me a copy of this book. He actually teaches from this for a class. I'm quite looking forward to reading through it...

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monstery.