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The Humans under the Bed
500 years after monsters wiped out the human race, a quiet calm has settled over the population of nightmare creatures that go bump in the night. They work their monster jobs, raise their monster families, tend to their monster homes, and generally enjoy the peace and prosperity of life without their sworn enemies, the human scourge, that so blighted the land for so many centuries.
In fact, the only inhabitants of this new monster world that even still speak of human kind are the children who share hushed secret fairy tales about evil humans coming up from underneath their beds, pulling the little monsters to their deaths. But of course these are just stories. Of course all the awful humans are dead. Or are they?
Bizarro mainstay Kevin Strange brings this kids story for adults straight from the pages of the STRANGE FUCKING STORIES anthology as a stand-alone novelette that can best be described as Monsters, Inc. meets Full Metal Jacket if directed by David Cronenberg.
In fact, the only inhabitants of this new monster world that even still speak of human kind are the children who share hushed secret fairy tales about evil humans coming up from underneath their beds, pulling the little monsters to their deaths. But of course these are just stories. Of course all the awful humans are dead. Or are they?
Bizarro mainstay Kevin Strange brings this kids story for adults straight from the pages of the STRANGE FUCKING STORIES anthology as a stand-alone novelette that can best be described as Monsters, Inc. meets Full Metal Jacket if directed by David Cronenberg.
- GenresBizarro Fiction
62 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 11, 2013
2 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Strange
41 books188 followersKevin Strange is a two time nominee of the Wonderland Book Award for excellence in bizarro fiction, recipient of the 2014 editor's choice award in the Lewis and Clark college literary magazine The Peppermint Rooster Review and his short story THE TWINS was listed on TangentOnline.com's 2015 year end recommended reading list.
He is the author of 18 books, and the writer/director of 7 films. He loves schlocky B-movies, cult fiction and Iron Maiden records.
He is the author of 18 books, and the writer/director of 7 films. He loves schlocky B-movies, cult fiction and Iron Maiden records.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 7, 2025
I want you to imagine a world where humans fear actual monsters under their bed. And these monsters eventually rise up to battle humans for supremacy of the earth. But these monsters have been greatly enhanced with weaponry and armor and all sorts of add-ons. And a giant global conflict begins. Ok, now let's flip that whole thing around and put the monsters are the protagonists and the humans in their previous role. Pretty great. As always with Kevin Strange, there is a ton of creativity here and the entertainment value is off the charts. Big scenes, vivid imagery, exciting and emotional characters, it all worked well together. My only critique here is that they ending felt very abrupt and didn't fully explore the Overmind as much as it could've. It just felt a bit like a rush job with an information dump to wrap things up, when it had a much bigger opportunity to explore. Otherwise, another very enjoyable experience from Kevin Strange.
August 8, 2024
Kevin Strange does it again!
I absolutely love this unique story that he came up with. I'm not sure why some people are rating/reviewing low on this because I loved it!
Monsters are the new society in the world, while humans try to fight back and take their revenge. I was definitely rooting for the monsters over the humans, haha. Our three main characters are monster children and I was rooting for them the whole way!
All of the creature characters are likeable, the dialogue is great, and there is a lot of action! Especially in the third act.
This is Bizzaro at it's absolute finest! If you are a fan of the genre, do not avoid this one!
4/5
I absolutely love this unique story that he came up with. I'm not sure why some people are rating/reviewing low on this because I loved it!
Monsters are the new society in the world, while humans try to fight back and take their revenge. I was definitely rooting for the monsters over the humans, haha. Our three main characters are monster children and I was rooting for them the whole way!
All of the creature characters are likeable, the dialogue is great, and there is a lot of action! Especially in the third act.
This is Bizzaro at it's absolute finest! If you are a fan of the genre, do not avoid this one!
4/5
December 18, 2016
The best part of the book is the artwork on the cover.
December 4, 2023
Meh. Too grandiloquent for such an average story building.
I came without any other hopes than what the title promised. And I ended up disappointed 😞
I think the story would have been better if it has focused on the foundation of the narrative rather than just trying to add up.
I frequently let my eyes leave the Kindle screen, losing focus and that says long enough.
In the end, I'm not sure what the point was. If the goal is to make you smile, it does work. If there was an hidden message or so, it fails to.
I came without any other hopes than what the title promised. And I ended up disappointed 😞
I think the story would have been better if it has focused on the foundation of the narrative rather than just trying to add up.
I frequently let my eyes leave the Kindle screen, losing focus and that says long enough.
In the end, I'm not sure what the point was. If the goal is to make you smile, it does work. If there was an hidden message or so, it fails to.
November 23, 2013
What is every child's worst nightmare? What lurks in the dark after they sleep? What horrors hide under the bed after mommy and daddy turn off the light? Well....if this was any other tale of terror the answer would be Monsters, but this is a Kevin Strange tale and when little monsters go to sleep the same nightmarish thoughts plague them as well...but what lurks under their beds is something more sinister.....
Just like every good little monster, when bedtime comes it's lights out and off to monster snooze land or whatever dreamland they go to . And, just like any good monster sibling sharing a bedroom, scary stories are must to tell. How do you scare a little monster? Tell them about the legend of the humans. A terrible race that was eradicated centuries ago that lurk under monsters beds while they sleep until the right moment to snatch them up! It's a legend told to many a monster but it's only legend right?
Dexantheon is a monster that knows that legend all too well being forged from the Overmind's (a human built computer that called upon mankind's most vile creatures) mutiny against it's creators, the humans. All Big Dex wants for his lil monster children is to live in peace from the humans that are said to be eradicated from the Earth monsters now call home. This is no easy task when an army of metal/flesh hybrids of humans come out from under his children's bed and wage war on his family and the whole of Monster kind.
It is now up to Dex Jr., his sister Willex, and their pal Buxtak to figure out a way to take back what is theirs and save their race from annihilation! But they are just kids! With the army of crazy ass body modificated, human bullet launching, kamikaziesque, flesh/metal gyroscopic modified "humans" coming in drones and multiplying in numbers by the minute it is up to these three little monsters to show courage and bravery in the face of adversary. It is up to them to learn and master their special powers quickly before it is too late. Each little monster has a particularly special power they posses but none of them have ever practiced or used it. I have to say that I love each one of them and even more so my favorite has to be Buxtak. He reminds me of Ickus which is the only hint I'll give without a spoiler.
The Humans Under the Bed is like Ahh Real Monsters meets the playground that is Kevin Strange's brain. I could tell I was reading a Strange story when the army of body modification humans come into play. Kevin is notorious for his robotic/human convergence which is what makes his worlds quite entertaining. In this author's mind you can not JUST be human and seeing these new humans by the monsters most def. gave their race a run for their money in the story of survival. Another key that gives this away as a Mr. Strange story is the ending. It is rather poignant and deep for the content of the story.
My addiction to Mr. Strange's writing are his characters. I love that each one has it's own voice and personality and I can distinguish them in my own head when reading. I feel more for his characters and crave more from them as well. The world's Kevin creates are horrifically fantastical and well descriptive. That being said, I felt like this particular tale could have used more dialogue between the characters. This is only a 54 page story and a lot of it is descriptive which the author does very well but it got very long and I would have rather gotten to hear the characters describe where they were or anything to break up all the descriptions.
I love this short short short short story.....I want more which is a main reason I end this with a four star rating.
Just like every good little monster, when bedtime comes it's lights out and off to monster snooze land or whatever dreamland they go to . And, just like any good monster sibling sharing a bedroom, scary stories are must to tell. How do you scare a little monster? Tell them about the legend of the humans. A terrible race that was eradicated centuries ago that lurk under monsters beds while they sleep until the right moment to snatch them up! It's a legend told to many a monster but it's only legend right?
Dexantheon is a monster that knows that legend all too well being forged from the Overmind's (a human built computer that called upon mankind's most vile creatures) mutiny against it's creators, the humans. All Big Dex wants for his lil monster children is to live in peace from the humans that are said to be eradicated from the Earth monsters now call home. This is no easy task when an army of metal/flesh hybrids of humans come out from under his children's bed and wage war on his family and the whole of Monster kind.
It is now up to Dex Jr., his sister Willex, and their pal Buxtak to figure out a way to take back what is theirs and save their race from annihilation! But they are just kids! With the army of crazy ass body modificated, human bullet launching, kamikaziesque, flesh/metal gyroscopic modified "humans" coming in drones and multiplying in numbers by the minute it is up to these three little monsters to show courage and bravery in the face of adversary. It is up to them to learn and master their special powers quickly before it is too late. Each little monster has a particularly special power they posses but none of them have ever practiced or used it. I have to say that I love each one of them and even more so my favorite has to be Buxtak. He reminds me of Ickus which is the only hint I'll give without a spoiler.
The Humans Under the Bed is like Ahh Real Monsters meets the playground that is Kevin Strange's brain. I could tell I was reading a Strange story when the army of body modification humans come into play. Kevin is notorious for his robotic/human convergence which is what makes his worlds quite entertaining. In this author's mind you can not JUST be human and seeing these new humans by the monsters most def. gave their race a run for their money in the story of survival. Another key that gives this away as a Mr. Strange story is the ending. It is rather poignant and deep for the content of the story.
My addiction to Mr. Strange's writing are his characters. I love that each one has it's own voice and personality and I can distinguish them in my own head when reading. I feel more for his characters and crave more from them as well. The world's Kevin creates are horrifically fantastical and well descriptive. That being said, I felt like this particular tale could have used more dialogue between the characters. This is only a 54 page story and a lot of it is descriptive which the author does very well but it got very long and I would have rather gotten to hear the characters describe where they were or anything to break up all the descriptions.
I love this short short short short story.....I want more which is a main reason I end this with a four star rating.
November 26, 2013
When you think Kevin Strange, you just don't think "adorable." Yet this story about a world of monsters in which the humans are villains is, well, adorable. If not for the gore level (and the out-of-left-field ending), this could very well be a kids story. As with much of his fiction, he pits an unlikely hero against insurmountable odds, in which the hero must rely on tremendous courage in order to see his doomed plan through. This time, it's a bunch of kid monsters who have no hope of coming through this ordeal. One can easily see this being an animated feature on Adult Swim as the scared, yet brave little monsters do their best to save their lives and their way of life. It's great fun.
November 14, 2015
THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING!!! Mr.Strange does something really special with this book. He makes you feel like a kid hiding under the covers reading Goosebumps with a flashlight. I actually did this while reading it! Haha! The he does this role swap of monsters and humans is in a way that only Kevin Strange can do. If you want an awesome sick and twisted adult children's book, this is for you. If you want an awesome sick and twisted book, this book is for you. Hands down a 5 star read!
May 14, 2016
The following is a combination review of three books by Kevin Strange: The Humans under The Bed, Robamapocalypse, and Vampire Guts in Nuke Town. This review can be found on the Goodreads Page for all three books.
Indie authors have it rough. Even though, in my opinion, some of the most interesting and experimental writings are being done and distributed by independent authors and small indie presses, it still is passed up by most readers for the mostly mainstream pablum called the New York Times Fiction List. That leaves the struggling indie writer to promote his books in any way possible. It is not unusual to see them giving away or selling their books for pittance. I can’t complain too much. Some of my favorite novels of late came from promotions like that. Books that I would never have known existed. Word of mouth becomes a very important tool for the independent author.
But Kevin Strange, an entrepreneur of the most bizarre, did something a few weeks ago I have never seen. For one day only, he placed all 11 of his Kindle books on Amazon free for the taking. Every single one. Of course I couldn’t resist and downloaded three of them. In hindsight, it may have been stupid not to download all eleven. However, I really wanted to find the time to read them. You have not seen my pile, virtual and real, of to-read books! Besides, I may be a cheap bastard but I am not a greedy one. Despite our reputations, we book reviewers do buy books on occasion!
Strange seems to have developed his own weird little niche. He focuses heavily on that area of the weird called Body Horror, the terror of body transformation and biological atrocities. Mutants abound in his book and they usually take place in a much changed post-apocalyptic future. I occasionally call books like this “graphic novels with words” to set the tone of action-packed prose that encourage a visual mindset while reading. Kevin Strange is not graphic novel. He is pure comic book. His style can be described as EC Comics meet DC Comics meet R. Crumb. It is impossible not to have vivid and disturbing images bombard your head while reading his works. His reliance on visual descriptions belies his background as a filmmaker. His writing is fast, rude and sometimes very crude with both violent and sexual imagery abounding. Yet there is something totally fun about it on the level of a roller coaster ride through a slaughter house. If that imagery turns you off, you might want to look elsewhere for your reading thrills. But if a roller coaster ride through a slaughter house sounds like a blast, meet Mr. Strange.
The first book I read was The Humans under the Bed. I picked it first because it was a), short and b) sounded cute. For the first few numbers of pages, it was cute. It is five hundred years after the monster/human wars which the monsters have won. No humans have been seen since then and humans have become the “monsters under the bed” for baby monsters…until some very different and modified humans appear under the bed of two monster tykes, Dexantheon Jr. and Willex. The emergence is the beginning of the next human vs monster wars and it is up to the monster kids to save the day.
It is adorable and gross at the same time. It is a children story for very weird children or for adults who haven’t grown up…and I say the “adult” part fully knowing it applies to me. We get battle after battle yet this is a book in which we root for those cut little monsters even if those tykes are described as “a Twinkie stood on end” and ”a grotesque fly if it’s been cooked in a microwave and left out in the heat to spoil.” If anything I wanted more about cute monsters and less about slipping on intestines. For more of this novella the battle and violence take over but it is incredible imaginative violence and gore with the moral that even monsters have a right to defend their world. Take that, Humans! Rating it was a little tricky since the cuteness and the violence didn’t always jive together for me. But I was still thoroughly entranced. Four stars worth of entrancement.
Robamapocalyse, on the other hand, frustrated me. First of all I am not that enthralled with Bizarro books that involve real life characters. Jeff Burk with his Shatner novels is the only one that really pulls it off . The problem is made ten-fold when you take the president of the United State your target even if you make it clear there are no politics involved in the telling. The author does say that and deliver. Yet I feel it still took away from the plot. In this wild and complex work, Lord Obama is ruling the world in the far future as a robotic mutant. Robot Obama is ruling the only human city on earth still existing after the zombie apocalypse. It’s not easy. As Lord Obama says, “Maybe accepting the consciousness of an Elder God from a dark dimension totally unfathomable and incomprehensible to humankind wasn’t such a good idea.” What entails is a hodge-podge of robot warriors, zombies and American Gladiator styled death matches, Frankly it is a bit of a mess. It doesn’t really work for me. What saves it is that Strange’s imagination is first class. But in this book it is working faster than his typing, leaving his computer to gasp out of breath trying to catch up. I’m not sure but it feels like one of his earlier works. I have to give it two and a half stars. I may have given it more if I didn’t already read The Humans Under The Bed and the next book.
It is that “Next book” that kills them all. Vampire Guts in Nuke Town is a messy but exquisite marvel of Bizarro, vampire epic, and folk legend about a really grossed out human hero. The title is not just about vampire parts but also about our hero “Guts', one of the last of the humans after an apocalypse caused by a plague that leaves vampires the rulers of earth and the few humans who survive haunted by their own mutant transformations. Guts is a true anti-hero haunted by his past yet pulled on by some unseen force to rid the world of the vampire scourge. Vampire Guts et al may be a vampire tale but the author doesn’t “do” vampire. He has created a totally different and fairly disgusting variety. This is the author’s strength. The traditional creatures of horror literature just aren’t horrible enough for him. He tricked them out and revs them up to give the reader a totally weirded out version. Like the first two books I read, Vampire Guts never lets up on the action and violence. Yet it leaves the other two books disappearing in the rear view mirror and eating dust. Five stars. Easy.
So what we have with Kevin Strange is a man with a vision, one that seems to delight in mutants, apocalypses and scattered body parts. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea but there is something that is inspired about his prose that makes you not mind being in a world with humans under the bed, vampire’s vs human mutants, or a robot Barack Obama fighting zombies at least for a few hours of reading. Who cares if it is a slaughter house? Let’s ride that roller coaster!
Indie authors have it rough. Even though, in my opinion, some of the most interesting and experimental writings are being done and distributed by independent authors and small indie presses, it still is passed up by most readers for the mostly mainstream pablum called the New York Times Fiction List. That leaves the struggling indie writer to promote his books in any way possible. It is not unusual to see them giving away or selling their books for pittance. I can’t complain too much. Some of my favorite novels of late came from promotions like that. Books that I would never have known existed. Word of mouth becomes a very important tool for the independent author.
But Kevin Strange, an entrepreneur of the most bizarre, did something a few weeks ago I have never seen. For one day only, he placed all 11 of his Kindle books on Amazon free for the taking. Every single one. Of course I couldn’t resist and downloaded three of them. In hindsight, it may have been stupid not to download all eleven. However, I really wanted to find the time to read them. You have not seen my pile, virtual and real, of to-read books! Besides, I may be a cheap bastard but I am not a greedy one. Despite our reputations, we book reviewers do buy books on occasion!
Strange seems to have developed his own weird little niche. He focuses heavily on that area of the weird called Body Horror, the terror of body transformation and biological atrocities. Mutants abound in his book and they usually take place in a much changed post-apocalyptic future. I occasionally call books like this “graphic novels with words” to set the tone of action-packed prose that encourage a visual mindset while reading. Kevin Strange is not graphic novel. He is pure comic book. His style can be described as EC Comics meet DC Comics meet R. Crumb. It is impossible not to have vivid and disturbing images bombard your head while reading his works. His reliance on visual descriptions belies his background as a filmmaker. His writing is fast, rude and sometimes very crude with both violent and sexual imagery abounding. Yet there is something totally fun about it on the level of a roller coaster ride through a slaughter house. If that imagery turns you off, you might want to look elsewhere for your reading thrills. But if a roller coaster ride through a slaughter house sounds like a blast, meet Mr. Strange.
The first book I read was The Humans under the Bed. I picked it first because it was a), short and b) sounded cute. For the first few numbers of pages, it was cute. It is five hundred years after the monster/human wars which the monsters have won. No humans have been seen since then and humans have become the “monsters under the bed” for baby monsters…until some very different and modified humans appear under the bed of two monster tykes, Dexantheon Jr. and Willex. The emergence is the beginning of the next human vs monster wars and it is up to the monster kids to save the day.
It is adorable and gross at the same time. It is a children story for very weird children or for adults who haven’t grown up…and I say the “adult” part fully knowing it applies to me. We get battle after battle yet this is a book in which we root for those cut little monsters even if those tykes are described as “a Twinkie stood on end” and ”a grotesque fly if it’s been cooked in a microwave and left out in the heat to spoil.” If anything I wanted more about cute monsters and less about slipping on intestines. For more of this novella the battle and violence take over but it is incredible imaginative violence and gore with the moral that even monsters have a right to defend their world. Take that, Humans! Rating it was a little tricky since the cuteness and the violence didn’t always jive together for me. But I was still thoroughly entranced. Four stars worth of entrancement.
Robamapocalyse, on the other hand, frustrated me. First of all I am not that enthralled with Bizarro books that involve real life characters. Jeff Burk with his Shatner novels is the only one that really pulls it off . The problem is made ten-fold when you take the president of the United State your target even if you make it clear there are no politics involved in the telling. The author does say that and deliver. Yet I feel it still took away from the plot. In this wild and complex work, Lord Obama is ruling the world in the far future as a robotic mutant. Robot Obama is ruling the only human city on earth still existing after the zombie apocalypse. It’s not easy. As Lord Obama says, “Maybe accepting the consciousness of an Elder God from a dark dimension totally unfathomable and incomprehensible to humankind wasn’t such a good idea.” What entails is a hodge-podge of robot warriors, zombies and American Gladiator styled death matches, Frankly it is a bit of a mess. It doesn’t really work for me. What saves it is that Strange’s imagination is first class. But in this book it is working faster than his typing, leaving his computer to gasp out of breath trying to catch up. I’m not sure but it feels like one of his earlier works. I have to give it two and a half stars. I may have given it more if I didn’t already read The Humans Under The Bed and the next book.
It is that “Next book” that kills them all. Vampire Guts in Nuke Town is a messy but exquisite marvel of Bizarro, vampire epic, and folk legend about a really grossed out human hero. The title is not just about vampire parts but also about our hero “Guts', one of the last of the humans after an apocalypse caused by a plague that leaves vampires the rulers of earth and the few humans who survive haunted by their own mutant transformations. Guts is a true anti-hero haunted by his past yet pulled on by some unseen force to rid the world of the vampire scourge. Vampire Guts et al may be a vampire tale but the author doesn’t “do” vampire. He has created a totally different and fairly disgusting variety. This is the author’s strength. The traditional creatures of horror literature just aren’t horrible enough for him. He tricked them out and revs them up to give the reader a totally weirded out version. Like the first two books I read, Vampire Guts never lets up on the action and violence. Yet it leaves the other two books disappearing in the rear view mirror and eating dust. Five stars. Easy.
So what we have with Kevin Strange is a man with a vision, one that seems to delight in mutants, apocalypses and scattered body parts. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea but there is something that is inspired about his prose that makes you not mind being in a world with humans under the bed, vampire’s vs human mutants, or a robot Barack Obama fighting zombies at least for a few hours of reading. Who cares if it is a slaughter house? Let’s ride that roller coaster!
February 9, 2014
Let’s Get Ready to Rumble in Rumble Ready Preparedness
Once again the Sultan of Strangeness, Kevin Strange, proves that he is the master of battle sequences and human versus monster confrontational fiction in his latest sci-fi/horror/bizarro novella ‘The Humans Under the Bed.’
Violent confrontation and monstrous atrocities are par for the course when Mr. Strange unabashedly sets up and delivers a unique experience of self-preservation guaranteed to shock and amuse even the most otherworldly reader.
For the three unlikely young heroes in the story, victory is just a matter of matter over anti-matter and mind over overmind, as they fight against a double-talking multi-tasking team-working horde of hominids who are hell bent on mayhem and martyrdom.
Whether read as a stand-alone story, as featured here, or as part of the ‘Strange Fucking Stories’ StrangeHouse anthology, Mr. Strange takes his reader to the bedrooms and beaches of his wildest fantasies in this epic story of good versus evil (which side is which is left up to the reader to decide).
‘The Humans Under the Bed’ eventually asks the question: “Do monsters really exist or are the real monsters ourselves?”
Once again the Sultan of Strangeness, Kevin Strange, proves that he is the master of battle sequences and human versus monster confrontational fiction in his latest sci-fi/horror/bizarro novella ‘The Humans Under the Bed.’
Violent confrontation and monstrous atrocities are par for the course when Mr. Strange unabashedly sets up and delivers a unique experience of self-preservation guaranteed to shock and amuse even the most otherworldly reader.
For the three unlikely young heroes in the story, victory is just a matter of matter over anti-matter and mind over overmind, as they fight against a double-talking multi-tasking team-working horde of hominids who are hell bent on mayhem and martyrdom.
Whether read as a stand-alone story, as featured here, or as part of the ‘Strange Fucking Stories’ StrangeHouse anthology, Mr. Strange takes his reader to the bedrooms and beaches of his wildest fantasies in this epic story of good versus evil (which side is which is left up to the reader to decide).
‘The Humans Under the Bed’ eventually asks the question: “Do monsters really exist or are the real monsters ourselves?”
April 20, 2014
Fun read!! From the sick and twisted mind of Kevin Strange!! Finally a book that's equal parts funny and gross and weird! Loved it!
August 4, 2014
Wow! Absolutely amazing! :)
July 25, 2016
Rate: 3.5 stars
May 3, 2017
Not at all what I expected but a decent story. I little to weird for me to fully enjoy.
July 7, 2018
The amount of strange bizarreries crammed into this short book that barely reaches 50 pages is mind boggling. The bio punk descriptions of the future human race are a delight to read and the pacing of the whole story never lets up.
November 26, 2019
I love this twisted story!
It was great to see Monsters as hero’s! And Humans as scary creatures, which Kevin made sure that they were! Very creative! Best Bizzaro! Very good, fun times! I will be reading this again as well as more from Kevin Strange! Rick On!
It was great to see Monsters as hero’s! And Humans as scary creatures, which Kevin made sure that they were! Very creative! Best Bizzaro! Very good, fun times! I will be reading this again as well as more from Kevin Strange! Rick On!
December 5, 2017
This was a pretty fun read and fairly quick, too. The monster characters were well done and the humans cracked me up with their speech patterns.
April 16, 2016
Funny, Strange yet Kind of Wonderful
After browsing through books, looking for just the right one, but instead reading over and over again about another dystopian apocalypse inhabited by zombies, cannibals, psycho teens, etc., and the perky, yet antisocial teen girl or damaged teenaged young man who is going to evolve, kick ass and save the world. My personal opinion is enough is enough. It would be great to see a book where such girls and guys were pitted against virus toting government GERBS, Supersoldiers, Ancient Vampires, Randy Alpha Werewolves, AI assisted Hybrids in a Melee fight to the death -- winner owns the world grudge match.
The funny thing is, I actually found an author who feels the same way. According to his bio, and his friendly reviewers, Kevin Strange hates the common tropes that infest genre writing; such things like:
Vampires
Nuclear Holocausts
Monsters
Technology Updated Humans
Zombies
Dystopian Apocalypses
Gigantic Man-eating _______________
Robot Warriors / Soldiers
And the list goes on....
So Kevin created a series of books such as this one: described as Monsters Inc. meets Full Metal Jacket, and I agree with that at a superficial level, but it is really much more.
Instead of tending toward the silly in reaction to this glut of tropes in publishing, (Fat Vampire, being the top of the pyramid example ), Strange combined tropes into bizarre, violent and entertaining short stories, novellas and novels. His writing is lean, direct and character-driven. If you love cult B-Movie greatness, you will love Humans Under the Bed.
Flipping the standard setup on its head, monsters have wiped out the human race with the help of Overmind, a sentient AI who the humans created, who later decided that human just needed to go. Now, monsters have jobs, houses and kids. Those kids have nightmares of humans underneath their beds planning monster genocide. Monster parents reassure their monsterlings that humans haven't been seen for 500 years, so there is no need to worry -- or is there?
I actually like monster stories, so this one was funny, gross and surprising. It would have made a very good novel if the backstory was fleshed out it continued. Fantastic concept. Fun Read...
After browsing through books, looking for just the right one, but instead reading over and over again about another dystopian apocalypse inhabited by zombies, cannibals, psycho teens, etc., and the perky, yet antisocial teen girl or damaged teenaged young man who is going to evolve, kick ass and save the world. My personal opinion is enough is enough. It would be great to see a book where such girls and guys were pitted against virus toting government GERBS, Supersoldiers, Ancient Vampires, Randy Alpha Werewolves, AI assisted Hybrids in a Melee fight to the death -- winner owns the world grudge match.
The funny thing is, I actually found an author who feels the same way. According to his bio, and his friendly reviewers, Kevin Strange hates the common tropes that infest genre writing; such things like:
Vampires
Nuclear Holocausts
Monsters
Technology Updated Humans
Zombies
Dystopian Apocalypses
Gigantic Man-eating _______________
Robot Warriors / Soldiers
And the list goes on....
So Kevin created a series of books such as this one: described as Monsters Inc. meets Full Metal Jacket, and I agree with that at a superficial level, but it is really much more.
Instead of tending toward the silly in reaction to this glut of tropes in publishing, (Fat Vampire, being the top of the pyramid example ), Strange combined tropes into bizarre, violent and entertaining short stories, novellas and novels. His writing is lean, direct and character-driven. If you love cult B-Movie greatness, you will love Humans Under the Bed.
Flipping the standard setup on its head, monsters have wiped out the human race with the help of Overmind, a sentient AI who the humans created, who later decided that human just needed to go. Now, monsters have jobs, houses and kids. Those kids have nightmares of humans underneath their beds planning monster genocide. Monster parents reassure their monsterlings that humans haven't been seen for 500 years, so there is no need to worry -- or is there?
I actually like monster stories, so this one was funny, gross and surprising. It would have made a very good novel if the backstory was fleshed out it continued. Fantastic concept. Fun Read...
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