Making Monsters: A Speculative and Classical Anthology

by Emma Bridges (editor), Djibril al-Ayad (editor), Megan Arkenberg (Contributor)

We have always made monsters: in art, in myth, in religion; out of clay or bronze, pixels or hybrid flesh; from the stuff of human nightmares; by cursing women with bestial traits. This anthology brings together fiction and accessible academic writing in conversation about monsters and their roles in our lives—and ours in theirs.

Cover artist: Robin Kaplan

Genres: Mythology, Anthologies, Nonfiction

220 pages, Paperback

First published August 29, 2018

Reviews

[Holly-Anne Eilander · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love mythology then you'll love how classic monsters are reimagined and even thrown into our modern day (some with some cool sci-fi twists!) in this anthology. I loved the language and the heart found in the stories and found the essays very interesting.

(Also, I have a poem in this so you should check it out! 😜)

[Gina Lucia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like pretty much any anthology, there will be some pieces you love, and others you don’t love quite as much.

In this case, there wasn’t a bad piece in the bunch. Each and every one was well-written and engaging.

There were, however, a few that particularly stood out to me. The Last Siren Sings was beautifully written, as was Aeaea on the Seas. Field Reports from the Department of Monster Resettlement had some fantastic characters. Justice Is a Noose was captivating and left me wanting more. Water and When Soldiers Come got creative with the source material. I enjoyed them all.

A few others I skimmed or didn’t quite feel as engaged with. It’s not that they were bad, far from it. They just didn’t interest me as much as the others did.

Anthologies are hard to rate for this reason. Some of the work was 5-star material, others, more like 3 - again for my personal taste. In this case, I think 4 is fair.

Well worth a read if you’re itching for more mythology from some fresh perspectives.

For more reviews and book recommendations, check out my YouTube channel

[El · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a delight! Obviously some were more appealing to me than others, but I didn't have a bad time reading any of the essays, poetry or stories in this collection. I have a little gripe with the repeated mention of the Ovid version of Medusa's mythos, though that was mitigated by the acknowledgement in the afterword and one of the essays that there was an original myth before that anyway.

My favourites were the stories from L. Chan and Rachel Bender - though partially because I really enjoyed the inclusion of monsters that weren't the same cut and dry Ancient Greek ones through the rest of the book (not that that's a bad thing by any means!)

[Christina Dongowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an engaging and smart collection of stories, poems and more or less scholarly essays about & with monsters & monstrosity. It focuses heavily on Classical Greek, female gendered monsters (Medusa & the Sirens), but there are some other monsters in it to. The essays run from pop cultural appropriation of the siren’s call to classicist and anthropological analyses on the uses and functions of monsters and monstrosity. I really enjoyed reading it, learned a lot about being a monster and some of the monsters I encountered, will stay with me for a long time.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed most of this: some of the stories in particular were really good. It's mainly focusing on Classical reception, so lots about sirens and Medusa, but a few other stories based on different mythical creatures too, which I enjoyed.