The Monstrous

by Ellen Datlow (Editor), Peter Straub

"Superstar editor Datlow makes no missteps...."
—Publishers Weekly

Take a terrifying journey with literary masters of suspense, including Peter Straub, Kim Newman, and Caitlín R. Kiernan, visiting a place where the other is somehow one of us. These electrifying tales redefine monsters from mere things that go bump in the night to inexplicable, deadly reflections of our day-to-day lives. Whether it's a seemingly devoted teacher, an obsessive devotee of swans, or a diner full of evil creatures simply seeking oblivion, the monstrous is always there—and much closer than it appears.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fantasy, Fiction, Dark Fantasy, Science Fiction

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 6, 2015

About the author

Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for forty years as fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION. She currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com. In addition, she has edited about one hundred science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including the annual The Best Horror of the Year series, The Doll Collection, Mad Hatters and March Hares, The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea, Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Edited By, and Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles.
She's won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre," was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.

Reviews

[Char · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some powerhouse authors contained within this anthology themed around,(mostly non-human), monsters: Jeffrey Ford, Peter Straub and John Langan to name just a few. Surprising me, though, was the fact that it was the lesser known authors, (at least, lesser known to me), that really scored with me this time around. A few examples being:

Livia Llewellyn's "The Last, Clean, Bright Summer". I don't even know what to say about this story. A truly original and disgusting, (but in a good way), short story that blew me away.

Dale Bailey's "Giants in the Earth". This was another tale that I found to be rather unique. In a deep and dirty coal mine, something beautiful is discovered. What will the miners do?

Stephen Graham Jones' "Grindstone". (This author is not new to me, but I haven't yet read anything from him other than a few short stories.) This short story makes me want to hunt down everything he's ever written. I don't even know what to say about this tale, other than it includes sheep and asteroids/meteors (?), and it has one of those WTF? moments that I love.

Adam Nevill's "Doll Hands". This author I have heard of previously,(in fact, I have his latest novel lined up to read next), but I haven't read any of his work. This was my first story by him and it was a messed up one. The first line is just great: "I am the one with the big white head and the doll hands." One sentence and I was intrigued! This story was just plain awesome.

Overall, I found this to be an above average collection. Even though I enjoyed the stories of the lesser known (to me) authors the most, there are some excellent works by the powerhouse authors as well-Peter Straub's "Ashputtle" was a delicious little tale of nastiness, for example.

I believe that Ellen Datlow is one of the finest anthologists around, and when I see her name as editor, I always know I will find some literary goodness within. (Plus, this one has this KILLER cover: I mean look at that thing. It's freaking COOL!)

Highly recommended for fans of horror and dark fiction short stories!

*I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley, in exchange for an honest review. This is it!*

[Althea Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

***** “A Natural History of Autumn” by Jeffrey Ford
A very strong opener to the anthology.
As the scene is set, a Japanese couple are on their way to a retreat at a remote onsen. (bathing spa). This being a horror book, we might expect that not all that is to transpire will be romance and relaxation - and we would be right. However, the twists, turns, and gradual revelations about who this man and woman are, and who they might be to each other, are unexpected and sharp.

*** “Ashputtle” by Peter Straub
An unpleasant glimpse into the mind of a kindergarten teacher. The 'feel' of the piece reminded me just a bit of 'Misery', but all the horror here is hinted at around the edges. Still, I was left with the distinct suspicion that you might not want this lady teaching your kids.
The title clearly refers to the Brothers Grimm's Cinderella story, but I didn't see a strong connection there, although the main character has indeed lost her mother, and endured a difficult childhood.

**** “Giants in the Earth” by Dale Bailey
Setting charges off underground to open up new veins of coal is a dangerous job - but miners with families to support have little choice. One time, though, the explosion opens up more than expected... and the miners come face to face with something out of the realm of human experience.
The opening of the story is very, very strong, but the ending felt less-original and just a bit inconclusive. It's still a very good piece overall, I just wanted a little bit more.

**** “The Beginning of the Year Without Summer” by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Two scenes are contrasted: in one, the narrator discusses swans with a stranger in Providence's Swan Point Cemetery. In the second, the same narrator (we assume) attends a strange, ritual party in a house on Federal Hill, and tells a man about the strange circumstances of the rediscovery of a significant tome.
The piece raises many questions and offers no answers - but I didn't care; I still really liked it. It gave me vivid flashbacks to scattered memories of my own teenage years in Providence.

**** “A Wish From a Bone” by Gemma Files
A bit into this story, I began to think: 'this is really good, but the scenario seems rather familiar... oh, wait...' Yes, I'd read this before, in another of Datlow's anthologies, 'Fearful Symmetries.' I still read it all the way through, again.
'A fine entry into the ‘cursed tomb’ subgenre. A TV show crew gets more than they bargained for when they enter an ancient Middle Eastern crypt in search of some good documentary fodder.'

**** “The Last, Clean, Bright Summer” by Livia Llewellyn
The YA-sounding tone of the teen diary entries that present this story is deceptive.Sure, the narrative lets you know right off the bat that there are going to be some dark themes... our narrator's young brother has passed away, the family seems to be in some emotional upheaval, and they're relocating for some time. However, after setting this scene, the author went "Muah-ah-hah-hah," and grinned evilly as she went about writing the details of the lovely, traditional family reunion that these characters are en-route to.
You know Lovecraft thought about this sort of stuff, but didn't actually go there...

*** “The Totals” by Adam-Troy Castro
Many of the 'monsters' in this anthology are unexpected, but 'The Totals' features a very classic monster-monster - a giant, ogre-ish killer. And killing seems to be all he does; his brain doesn't seem to have the capacity for much else. But when this killer wanders into an odd meeting at some kind of interstitial diner, an unexpected twist is revealed.

*** “The Chill Clutch of the Unseen” by Kim Newman
In a small town, an old man is the last protection his neighbors have against an invasion of monsters. Little do they know that this town oddly attracts the uncanny and legendary beings which are a threat to humanity. But for own long can he keep up his secret defense?

**** “Down Among the Dead Men” by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
A vampire in a WWII concentration camp. One night, Isadore Bruckman discovers a secret that might even exceed, in pure horror, the dreadful atrocities visited on him and his countrymen by the Nazi guards. But where is a line drawn between evil and what someone will do to survive? A vivid and uncomfortable story. Very good.

**** “Catching Flies” by Carole Johnstone
This is the second selection in this anthology that also appears in Datlow's 'Fearful Symmetries.' Both repeats are excellent stories... but the overlap is unnecessary, IMHO.
'Emergency workers grab a young girl and her baby brother from their home, rescuing them from a horrible scene. They’re unwilling to talk to the girl about what happened to her mother. But the girl knows more about the horror than any of them. Really effective; well-done.'

**** “Our Turn Too Will One Day Come” by Brian Hodge
A brother is called to his sister's side in a moment of crisis. Family has to stick together, even when it might go against the law. But he learns that there are things about his family that have been kept from him his whole life... things that go back generations.
Great idea, but it gets a tiny bit 'tell-y' with the explication in the latter half.

*** “Grindstone” by Stephen Graham Jones
Out West, Derle, a thoroughly unpleasant character, gets up to some nasty stuff with sheep and little girls. Yeah, even MORE unpleasant than what you're thinking.

*** “Doll Hands” by Adam L. G. Nevill
If you thought Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go' was too gentle and understated, you'll probably love this one. I didn't think that, however. I've still got an appreciation for the straight-up gross, dystopian horror to be found here, though.

*** “How I Met the Ghoul” by Sofia Samatar
In Middle Eastern mythology, a ghoul is not merely a monster that consumes the flesh of the dead. Rather, a ghoul is an "evil female spirit of the desert," who preys on travelers, shape-shifting, "luring lustful men to their doom by taking the guise of beautiful women." While once these beings may have solely been found in the remote desert, today, it makes a kind of sense that a reporter granted an interview with one of these baleful creatures would have the meeting set up in an airport...

*** “Jenny Come to Play” by Terry Dowling
Very much like an episode of 'American Horror Story: Freak Show.' Here, we meet a young woman who's checked herself into a mental asylum. She claims it's mostly because she needs to hide from her sister, who'll be coming to get her. Her doctor believes this to be a delusion, but soon enough, the sister does indeed turn up - and her behavior is somewhat suspicious.
However, the doctor's sudden willingness to break all professional protocols and go haring off on a wild goose chased based on a slender thread of evidence strains belief.
It does culminate in an eerie - and nasty - finale, though!

**** “Miss Ill-Kept Runt” by Glen Hirshberg
The sense of dread here is masterfully done. A family is moving. It's a stressful time. The mother of the family is acting in a mentally disturbed manner. Is it just stress, as Dad claims, or is it something more? Shoved into the back of the car with her brother, for a long overnight drive, a young girl becomes convinced that something is not quite right. And she may be correct.

** “Chasing Sunset” by A.C. Wise
A Lovecraft-inspired monologue from a real son-of-a-devil. I'm not sure why, but this one just didn't really speak to me.

*** “The Monster Makers” by Steve Rasnic Tem
On the face of it, this is a story about a family with a strange curse... people around them seem to turn into monsters. But really, it's a musing on loneliness and the inevitability of death.

*** “Piano Man” by Christopher Fowler
Playing into pretty much every preconception that fiction has created about magical, decrepit, voodoo-soaked, jazzy New Orleans... but doing it with a bit of self-awareness, this story gives us a bit of unexpected horror in a tale of revenge and a haunted piano.

***** “Corpsemouth” by John Langan
After the death of his father, a young man goes to Scotland to reconnect with his extended family, and to face, inside himself, some of his guilts and resentments. However, that isn't all he'll end up facing. This story meshes contemporary concerns with ancient legends and mysteries of Britain in a tale slightly reminiscent of Alan Garner. Loved it.
_____
March 2016: Nominated for Hugo.

Many thanks to Tachyon and to NetGalley for the chance to read this excellent anthology. As always, my opinions are solely my own.

[Jon Recluse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not your typical monster menagerie. Ellen Datlow has gathered tales of the unexpected, unique takes of the unusual creatures that loiter within the imaginations of some of the finest purveyors of dark fiction working today.
From the terrors that lurk in the shadows of the Far East, to the long awaited return of the "last monster" to one of the most legendary towns in the canon of quiet horror, there is something here for every horror aficionado......from creatures unimaginable to the unimaginable that dwells behind the eyes of "ordinary" people.

A must-have for every fan of horror.

Highly recommended.

This was an eARC from Netgalley.

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad collection of horror stories (and most of these are fairly hardcore horror, this isn't dark fantasy like many of Datlow's anthologies) but I was extremely disappointed to find that 19 out of 20 stories were reprints. Several from other anthologies edited by Datlow! Isn't that some kind of publishing faux pas?

I'd already read half of these, and I'm not an assiduous horror reader by any means.
(I have Dowling's "Jenny" in two other volumes already, grr.)

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5, will round up on Amazon.

Another spectacular collection edited by Ellen Datlow! This one featured quite a few varieties of monstrosities, from the ever-popular Lovecraftian creations, to varied themes on popular monsters, voodoo, and of course, the HUMAN kind.

As in any collection of this size, there are always some stories that just don't appeal to readers as well as others do. That is to say, what I viewed as my personal favorites, others might not. I do believe that anyone with an interest in this book will find at least several stories that resonate with them particularly.

Without going into details of all the stories in this collection, I will point out some of my personal favorites.
--"Jenny Come to Play", by Terry Dowling: This is a story that I had read previously, and it struck me just as forcefully the second time around. A psychologically horrible tale of a mysterious woman, with enough gruesome images to capture the attention of most horror lovers. This was my personal favorite!
--"Miss Ill-Kept Runt", by Glen Hirshberg: A tale that keeps you in suspense the entire way through. Hirshberg gives just enough details at any one time to keep you dangling along at the edge of your seat, before coming to the grand finale!
--"Doll Hands", by Adam L. G. Nevill: A story set in the future where humankind does not fare so well....It's hard to describe this one without giving away too many details, so I'll just leave it to the individual reader to decide what they think.
--"The Last, Clean, Bright Summer", by Livia Llewellyn: A Lovecraftian-inspired story that was as gruesome in its actions as it was in the mental outlook of the characters, themselves.
--Down Among the Dead Men", by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois: A unique look at life inside one particular concentration camp, where not everything is as clearly defined as you think...
--"Piano Man", by Christopher Fowler: A journalist trying to get a story in the post-Katrina time, finds himself with a tale that he never expected to encounter...

There were quite a few other stories that stood out for various reasons, but again, these were my personal favorites. A great collection that showcases monsters of all shapes and forms.

Recommended!

*I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review."

[Seregil of Rhiminee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published at Risingshadow.

I'm glad I had an opportunity to read and review The Monstrous, because it's an excellent horror anthology. It will be of interest to readers who enjoy reading dark fantasy and horror stories. The stories range fascinatingly from dark fantasy flavoured horror fiction to explicit horror fiction, and from psychologically challenging horror fiction to disquieting and deeply disturbing horror fiction.

One of the best things about The Monstrous is that it contains versatile stories. It gives a good overview of what contemporary horror fiction has to offer for readers, because it has something for everybody. No matter what your taste in horror fiction is, you'll find much to enjoy in this anthology. (In my opinion, Ellen Datlow has done her best to select interesting and as versatile stories about monsters as possible to this anthology. It was fascinating to read about the different kind of monsters.)

This anthology reveals that monstrous beings and happenings can be found anywhere. They're much closer to you than you think. This is the beauty of this anthology, because it reveals that terrifying monsters can reside near you and you don't necessarily know anything about them and their existence. Some of these stories are stunningly unsettling, because they feature people who act in unpleasant ways and do hideous deeds.

The Monstrous contains the following stories:

- “A Natural History of Autumn” by Jeffrey Ford
- “Ashputtle” by Peter Straub
- “Giants in the Earth” by Dale Bailey
- “The Beginning of the Year Without Summer” by Caitlín R. Kiernan
- “A Wish From a Bone” by Gemma Files
- “The Last, Clean, Bright Summer” by Livia Llewellyn
- “The Totals” by Adam-Troy Castro
- “The Chill Clutch of the Unseen” by Kim Newman
- “Down Among the Dead Men” by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
- “Catching Flies” by Carole Johnstone
- “Our Turn Too Will One Day Come” by Brian Hodge
- “Grindstone” by Stephen Graham Jones
- “Doll Hands” by Adam L. G. Nevill
- “How I Met the Ghoul” by Sofia Samatar
- “Jenny Come to Play” by Terry Dowling
- “Miss Ill-Kept Runt” by Glen Hirshberg
- “Chasing Sunset” by A.C. Wise
- “The Monster Makers” by Steve Rasnic Tem
- “Piano Man” by Christopher Fowler
- “Corpsemouth” by John Langan

Here's a bit more information about the stories and my thoughts about them:

“A Natural History of Autumn” by Jeffrey Ford:
- This story is excellent tale of a Japanese couple, Riku and Michi, who are on their way to a remote onsen. Because Michi is writing a book and studies a season, autumn, Riku suggests that they make a field trip to the onsen to research autumn.
- A strong and interesting story with a good ending.

“Ashputtle” by Peter Straub:
- This is a brilliant and unsettling glimpse into the mind of a kindergarten teacher.
- The author explores the mind of the teacher in an intriguing way.

“Giants in the Earth” by Dale Bailey:
- This is a story about what can happen when people open up new veins of coal and explosions reveal something strange.
- An excellent and well written story.

“The Beginning of the Year Without Summer” by Caitlín R. Kiernan:
- This is interesting and unsettling story that begins with a discussion about swans, but then becomes something else.
- A fine piece of beautifully written horror fiction.

“A Wish From a Bone” by Gemma Files:
- A well written story about a TV crew that enters an ancient Middle Eastern temple and gets much more than they wanted.
- I've always enjoyed reading stories about people who enter tombs etc, so I find this story interesting.

“The Last, Clean, Bright Summer” by Livia Llewellyn:
- In this story, a girl named Hailie is going to attend a family reunion and witnesses strange happenings.
- An excellent and subtly dark story with an unsettling atmosphere.

“The Totals” by Adam-Troy Castro:
- A story about a killer who has an awkward shape and a monstrous bulk.
- An interesting story with a good ending.

“The Chill Clutch of the Unseen” by Kim Newman:
- In this story, an old man protects the town against monsters.
- An excellent story with a good atmosphere.

“Down Among the Dead Men” by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois:
- An intriguing story about survival and a vampire in the concentration camp during World War II.
- This story is one of my favourites in this anthology.

“Catching Flies” by Carole Johnstone:
- In this story, a girl is rescued from her home, but the girl's rescuers won't talk about her mother.
- An excellent and effective story.

“Our Turn Too Will One Day Come” by Brian Hodge:
- An intriguing story about a man who goes to help his sister and finds out things about his family.
- I liked this story very much.

“Grindstone” by Stephen Graham Jones:
- A brilliantly unpleasant story about Derle who does nasty things to animals and girls.
- This is one of the most memorable and unsettling stories in this anthology.
- In my opinion, this story is just as good and impressive as any of the stories in the author's magnificent short story collection, After the People Lights Have Gone Off.

“Doll Hands” by Adam L. G. Nevill:
- An unforgettable depiction of disturbing and monstrous behaviour.
- This story is an excellent example of the author's dark imagination and his writing skills.

“How I Met the Ghoul” by Sofia Samatar:
- An interesting short story about an interview with a ghoul.
- This story is something a bit different.

“Jenny Come to Play” by Terry Dowling:
- A story about Julie who is in the mental hospital, because she wants to hide from her sister.
- An interesting and well written story with a good and memorable ending.

“Miss Ill-Kept Runt” by Glen Hirshberg:
- A well written story about Chloe whose family is moving and who thinks that something is wrong.
- This story has a good atmosphere and a wonderful sense of dread.

“Chasing Sunset” by A.C. Wise:
- This is a Lovecraft-inspired story about a man who is not a very nice person.
- This story falls into the category of "something different".

“The Monster Makers” by Steve Rasnic Tem:
- An intriguing story about a family with a curse that seems to turn people around them into monsters.
- This is one of my favourite stories in this anthology.

“Piano Man” by Christopher Fowler:
- A New Orleans-set story about a haunted piano.
- A well written story.

“Corpsemouth” by John Langan:
- A story about a young man who, after his father's death, travels to Scotland to meet his family.
- An excellent and beautifully written story.

Dale Bailey's “Giants in the Earth” is a good and claustrophobic story about coal miners who set up explosions to reveal new veins of coal. The explosions reveal a space where the miners find something strange and unexpected. The author has created quite an intriguing story that differs from other stories.

Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois' “Down Among the Dead Men” is an excellent story about survival and a vampire in a World War II concentration camp. The authors deal with difficult material - evil, horrors of war and vampires - in a bold and unsettling way that impresses me.

Livia Llewellyn's “The Last, Clean, Bright Summer” is a brilliant story about Hailie who is on her way to a family reunion with her family. The author gives Hailie an intringuing voice, because it feels like you're reading a young adult story that has been written for adults (her young voice gives the story an especially effective atmosphere). Hailie's descriptions of the happenings and the family union are fascinating and at times grotesque and macabre. It's great that this story has a strong Lovecraftian undertone.

John Langan's “Corpsemouth” is a memorable story. The author writes well about a young man who travels to Scotland to meet his family. He effectively adds ancient mythological elements to the story to make it deeper and more intriguing. In my opinion, this story is a good example of how a horror story must be written, because it gradually builds into a mesmerising story and totally hooks the reader.

This may be a personal preference of mine due to the fact that I'm a big fan of the weirder side of speculative fiction and I love beautifully written fiction, so you're free to disagree with me on this, but I honestly think that Livia Llewellyn's “The Last, Clean, Bright Summer” and John Langan's “Corpsemouth” are the best and most memorable stories in this anthology. I consider both of them to be masterpieces of contemporary horror and weird fiction, because they rise above the other stories on so many levels that they must be mentioned separately to give them the recognition they deserve. They're well-constructed and intriguing horror stories. These two stories alone are reason enough for horror readers to buy this anthology.

By the way, if you're wondering whether The Monstrous is worth reading or not, I can say that it's definitely worth reading. If you're fascinated by monsters, this anthology is essential reading material for you, because you'll have an opportunity to read about many different kind of monsters, some of which are the kind of beings that you'd never want to meet in real life.

The cover image, "Her Will (The Other Side)", by Reiko Murakami looks beautifully unsettling. It's a perfect cover image to this anthology.

The Monstrous will chill and darken your day in a terrifyingly sweet way. When you begin to read it, you'll most likely have problems putting it down, because all of the stories are intriguing and they may cause a few moments of unease and distress to readers.

Highly recommended!

[♡ retrovvitches ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was a little underwhelming for me honestly. i wanted soooo bad to really enjoy this, but i’m left wanting more!! some of these stories were legitimately scary and left me feeling disturbed, but others fell so flat!! i’m gonna try a couple more story collections similar to this one, hoping i like those more. don’t get me wrong, certain stories were great and captivating, but overall just plain ok

[Richard Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really compelling stories, a wide range of monstrous. My favorites were "Grindstone," by Stephen Graham Jones, "The Last Clean Bright Summer" by Livia Llewellyn, and "The Totals" by Adam-Troy Castro.

[Nancy Oakes]

Thoughts on this collection coming soon, but in the meantime, just as an FYI, there are quite a few good stories in this collection.

[Charles Dee Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had this book been titled Ellen Datlow’s Big Book of Monsters, there is little chance I would have picked it up. Not that I don’t love monsters. I am, in fact, a monster kid.

When I was five years old, previews for I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, The Blob, Attack of the Killer Shrews and their ilk flowed through the boxy, black-and-white television sets in dens and family rooms across the United States. Each of these creations looked potentially more marvelous that the one promoted the week before; and, once my parents made it clear that under no circumstances would I be allowed to attend these films, my fate was sealed. To this day, I will program the DVR to record almost any unfamiliar offering from the SyFy Channel or Chiller Network and watch it just long enough to see whatever ridiculous creature will be wreaking unconvincing CGI’d mayhem for the remainder of the two-hour time slot. Because really what I care about is that moment when the monster is revealed. I want to see the experiment gone wrong that’s kept chained in the cellar; the alien that emerges from the wrecked spacecraft; or, Godzilla’s latest sparring partner. After that first reveal, I have slowly learned over the decades to expect things to go downhill. But my enthusiasm for that first look has never waned.

My monster addiction is a visual thing. I have never cared much for monster stories. Verbal descriptions of the hideous tend to be anti-climactic and take too long. By the time I was twelve I quit expecting any of this stuff to be scary, but I want either an impressive crudeness or elegance to the creature, and I want to take it in at a glance. (And I will forestall some criticism here by saying that Clive Barker writes excellent monsters, China Mielville creates admirably alien aliens, and The Babadook recently scared the bejezzus out of me.)

By titling her new anthology The Monstrous, Ellen Datlow drew me in. She seemed to be promising “essence of the monster” rather than just the doings of the things themselves. And after editing what, something like 800 anthologies, I know that she knows her stuff. These are twenty-one stories that, while they will not duplicate the thrill of witnessing Ray Harryhausen’s Kraken lift its third arm out of the sea, can still satisfy the monster kid in all of us – and I know you are out there.

In her introduction, Datlow says she was looking for unusual monster stories, but she has not avoided such familiar creatures as vampires, serial killers, and ancient evils haunting tombs best left unopened. For the most part, her authors don’t depict creatures that depend on detailed description of their hideousness for effect. Adam-Troy Castro’s “The Totals,” features the widest array of nightmarish creatures, each tailor-made to terrify and inflict painful death on innocent victims. But his story is played for laughs. We meet them in an all-night diner where they gather to collect their weekly bonus pay. The comedy here stands out in three hundred pages of grimmer, sadder, bleaker stuff.

Datlow frontloads the anthology with literary firepower. Jeffrey Ford’s “A Natural History of Autumn” incorporates Japanese folklore into the high-stakes, globalized corporate world. Peter Straub offers a brilliant retelling of “Ashputtle,” the Grimm’s brothers version of the Cinderella story with the prince, the ball, and the happy ending replaced with a contemporary tale of life-long revenge carried out by an obese, homicidal kindergarten teacher. Caitlín Kiernan’s “The Beginning of the Year Without Summer” is a beautifully written, evocative tale, but – and I have had this experience before with Caitlín Kiernan – I am not quite sure what it’s about.

In any group of monster stories, curses will abound. In Gemma Files’ “A Wish from a Bone,” a group of archeologists who are also interested in careers on reality TV, open an ancient tomb to spectacularly dire results. One of the first of the crew to be possessed sprouts wings and spends the rest of the story flapping about overhead with her lungs dangling from her shattered chest cavity. Now that’s a cinematic image worthy of Eli Roth. The philosophical but ruthless vampire in Jack Dann’s and Gordner Dozios’ “Down Among the Dead Men” can be killed but his infection cannot. Stephen Graham Jones turns in a typically visceral tale set on a western-bound wagon train with a creature so foul that even his bleached bones pass on his monstrosity.

I have a couple of favorites: Sofia Samatar’s “How I Met the Ghoul” and John Langan’s “Corpsemouth.” In Samatar five-age vignette an understandably nervous reporter interviews an ancient, dangerous creature in an airport coffee shop. Both the reporter and the monster are in their way engaging characters. Langan’s first person narrative takes a leisurely, novelistic approach and describes a family trip to visit the Scottish relatives of a young man’s recently deceased father. (Anyone who watches movies on the Chiller channel would know this is not a good idea.) The visit is a pleasant round of aunts, uncles, and cousins from several generations, all of whom offer dinners, single malt scotch, and sightseeing. One elderly great-uncle also tells the story of Corpsemouth, a creature from the days of King Arthur. It’s an ancient tale that will prove to have contemporary implications that tie the narrator to familial duties he has never imagined. This is a kind of curse, but on another level it a monster kid’s dream come true.

This review is based on a ebook provided by Net Galley. It also appears as a blog posting on Worlds Without End https://www.worldswithoutend.com/inde...

[Bogdan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh!…Wow!

I was so disappointed with this volume.

It`s named The Monstrous but a lot of the stories are trying a lot not to be your simple bad ass fucking hell of a monster next door that scare the hell out of the people …and because of that I wasn`t really entertained.

Where are the monsters of Clive Barker that literally are blowing your brains away, or those of Joe R. Lansdale, maybe even King`s or other great horror writers…No, no…

I think that Ellen Datlow work is overapreciated.

She has a range of good ideea for her Anthologies but the stories are a real let down.

Usually I enjoy only a few stories from a big lot of them and that`s not ok.

If the rate where 50% likable and 50% not likable I guess I would get over it. But it isn`t so.

Form a total of 20 stories, only 2 stories I would warmly recommend from this Anthology. Maybe 3.
Adam Neville`s, Doll Hands, but this is kind of a dark fantasy setting… and “The Monster Makers” by Steve Rasnic Tem, not a bad one also.
And along with ”A Natural History of Autumn” by Jeffrey Ford these where also the stories that I have read before, in another Anthology.

Who said that with this Anthology Datlow has made a spectacular job hasn`t read enough horror to understand what a cruel joke this Anthology really is.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone familiar with editor Datlow the short review for her recent horror anthology The Monstrous would be that it is everything you’ve come to expect from her superb taste and expert experience. If you’ve liked previous anthologies from her, you’ll love this. If you’re a decided non-fan, I wouldn’t expect this anthology to change your mind, tastes in horror just don’t match.

For anyone wanting to give modern horror a try who hasn’t read a Datlow anthology, this is a fine place to start, if not her previous curated volumes. Awhile back I reviewed another Datlow anthology, Fearful Symmetries. Several of the authors featured in that collection reappear here offering new works, and a small number of stories are actually duplicated. In the case of Gemma File’s “A Wish from a Bone” I particularly didn’t mind the rerun. Her story, featuring a TV documentary crew entering an ancient Middle Eastern tomb, is just as entertaining the second time though. A few of the authors I had hoped would also pop up in this anthology were absent, such as Helen Marshall, but this at least gave me the chance for some new discoveries.

The selections in The Monstrous run the gamut of the horror genre, from the subtle to the creepy, the graphic, and the weird. The anthology’s theme also fits a broad interpretation of ‘monstrous’. The monsters are human and beastly, earthly and supernatural, literal and figurative. In many cases the monstrous is unexpected, as are the directions and tones the stories may take. “The Last, Clean, Bright Summer” by Livia Llewellyn is perhaps the best example of the latter. The title of this story and its start suggest family-friendly positivity, pleasant days and warmth. But Llewellyn quickly turns behind the façade of tradition and happiness toward the darkness at the heart of a family gathering. This story is Lovecraftian in inspiration, but not so heavily as to ruin my appreciation of its well-played contrasts.

Peter Straub, a name that should be recognized by anyone familiar with horror, includes “Ashputtle” here, a creepy and subtle story about a kindergarten teacher who appears increasingly a bit ‘off’. Other authors in the collection should be known from short fiction markets, such as Dale Bailey (“Giants in the Earth”) whose work is often in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, or Sofia Samatar (“How I Met the Ghoul”) whose work has appeared throughout the major ezines, such as Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, and Uncanny magazines. Bailey’s story of coal miners encountering something abnormal does a great job handling settling and the inherent uneasiness of dangerous professions. Samatar, a Somali American, offers an uncommon (in the West) version of the ghoul, which in Middle Eastern myth is something more like a desert-based mermaid, a beautiful spirit luring men to their demise.

There were only a couple of stories that I didn’t particularly enjoy in this collection, and most fall into a range I would call ‘very good’. A couple really grabbed me though. “Down Among the Dead Men” is a collaboration between a name unknown to me (Jack Dann) and a well-known science fiction editor (Gardner Dozois). Featuring a vampire in a concentration camp this is the kind of story that obviously has huge symbolic and emotional weight. The combination would be very easy to botch up, but Dann and Dozois pull it off amazingly, creating riveting drama that combines the monstrous and the human. Some may think that the Holocaust has enough horror in it without needing a supernatural addition. Yet, this element of a fantastic monster alongside human atrocity allows development and clarity of profound themes.

The collection ends with “Corpsemouth” by John Langan, a stellar example of an ‘epic’ short story. Including emotional complexity with strong characters and plot this story merges the modern with the ancient. In part its style reminds me of classic gothic horror tales of Britain, but with modern language and present-day context. This marks one of multiple stories in this collection that feature horrors that reveal themselves in relation to family. Perhaps this frequency is because of their power, monstrous realities we are innocently born into and cannot easily escape. Ones we have a responsibility of blood to face and overcome. “Corpsemouth” is a top take on this theme, bringing The Monstrous to a satisfying conclusion that makes me greedily await Datlow’s next project.

Disclaimer: I received a free advanced electronic reading copy of this from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review that originally appeared at Reading1000Lives.com.

[Vince Darcangelo · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://ensuingchapters.com/2015/10/26...

Funny how some words have lost their meaning over time. Take “awesome” or “sublime.” Historically, these were words of great consequence, usually associated with nature, not a text-message autocomplete. Living in the Rocky Mountains, I experience the truly awesome and sublime often. The top of a 14’er is the perfect intersection of unspeakable beauty and profound terror.

The point being that you should bring a more elemental perspective to Ellen Datlow’s latest anthology, The Monstrous. The “monsters” here do not conform to the creature-feature definition. Rather, these are encounters with the beautiful and the displaced. Characters confront things that shouldn’t be and must reconcile these irregulars with natural law.

Yes, there are literal monsters in this collection, but more often than not the stories in The Monstrous live in our periphery. The terror doesn’t always come from the creatures, but from the intersection of different worlds.

The essential story of this collection, in my opinion, is “Giants in the Earth” by Dale Bailey. It begins with a classic horror trope of innocent laborers unearthing something beyond their comprehension. But rather than something horrible, they encounter something emotionally overwhelming, so much so that witnesses come away with vacant expressions.

This is not terror, but fascination. This is the thrill of the unexplained. I had a strong emotional reaction to this story because it really delved into the subconscious (fittingly set, of course, in the depths of a mine). If you’ve ever cried for no reason, or been overwhelmed by the beauty of something, you’ll get it. From start to finish, “Giants in the Earth” is a deeply impacting tale.

As always, Caitlín Kiernan delivers a satisfying haunt with “The Beginning of the Year Without Summer,” a psychedelic twist of science and speculation that unnerves with its unresolved tension. Like much of her writing, it put me in the mind of Bradbury — and that’s a headspace I enjoy.

Once again, Datlow has compiled an all-star lineup of the biggest names and rising stars in horror. Familiar bylines (Kim Newman, Peter Straub, Brian Hodge, Stephen Graham Jones) make contributions, with Jones’ “Grindstone” being one of the strongest in the collection.

Among the finest tales is A.C. Wise’s “Chasing Sunset,” which puts a Lovecraftian twist on father-son conflict. It’s short and brutal and, like the rest of the collection, disturbingly fun.

But perhaps the darkest offering in the lot is Livia Llewellyn’s “The Last, Clean, Bright Summer,” a thoroughly troubling epistolary that reads like a modern re-telling of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” but set in the Pacific Northwest. Llewellyn is willing to delve into the nightmare spaces even Lovecraft feared to tread.

For my money, this is the official book for Halloween 2015, a collection of shadows, scales, flesh and bone that is beautiful and unsettling all at once. You will recognize some of the monsters in here as ones you’ve faced in your darkest anxiety dreams — and others that you’ve never imagined before, but won’t be able to forget.

[Christy McDaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went ahead with four stars for this review despite teetering a bit with that last half of a star (for whatever that's worth). While scanning the table of contents before I began this collection, I had one of those "I've read too many of these anthologies" moments. It's only natural that certain stories get repeated in various locations—especially when the editor's the same for those collections. There are times when it gets a little boring seeing the same names/titles repeated, but I truly believe that the way a story is showcased affects its (perceived or real? I'm not quite sure, actually) quality. I like to think that's why I keep at this task of Horror anthology-exploration even when several stories have shown-up repeatedly in recent collections. I love short stories, and I wish collections garnered as much respect as novel-length efforts.
Instead of dwelling too much more on that, I'd like to point to a prime example of how much of a difference the organization of an anthology can make (for me, anyway). I think one of the anthologies I enjoyed least out of all those I've read over the past few years was the "Year's Best Horror" collection from 2014 (#6, I believe). It fell flat for me; I could barely remember most of the stories after I'd finished the thing, and that bothered me.
I was a page or so into Steve Rasnic Tem's "The Monster Makers" and was utterly enthralled; I loved it...but I had this weird feeling that I'd actually read it before. Of course, I couldn't imagine that I'd forget something like it, but obviously I had. A few clicks here and there, and I found it in the same anthology that I found so dreadful. Again, how these stories are organized and how editors like Datlow decide what-goes-where really is an art form. It's not perfect, obviously, but when it works, it works miracles, and Datlow rarely disappoints me.
All of that said, the highlights for me in this collection were "The Monster Makers";"Giants in the Earth" by Dale Bailey; "Corpsemouth" by John Langan; and "A Wish from a Bone" by Gemma Files (it really worked in Fearful Symmetries, too). I'd already read/heard "The Totals" by Adam-Troy Castro and "Catching Flies" by Carole Johnstone in at least a few different spots, but their placement here didn't have the same amplifying effect as the earlier story I mentioned. They're both strong tales, but I suspect I'd just read them both too recently to enjoy them as much here, although I suspect they did add a bit to the overall experience of the anthology. I'd definitely recommend it, but if you're not inclined to agree with my views regarding placement/tone making some stories "new," you might check to see if you've already read several of these stories elsewhere before you spend your money again.

[Toni Boughton · Rating 3 out of 5]

As usual, Ellen Datlow pulls together a solid collection by a wide range of authors. However, I found that most of the stories in this collection left me wanting more. This is, admittedly, due more to my preferences and determination of what is 'monstrous' then any failing on the authors or editors.

Still, I'm not sure that I would recommend this collection to that many people, as I was not left scared, disturbed, or contemplative by most of the stories.

*Free copy from NetGalley*

[Kenneth McKinley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Datlow is constantly the HWA’s darling for her anthologies year in and year out. But if this one is any indication of the quality, I may think twice about reading another. Now, that’s not to say there aren’t gems in here. Langan, Neman, Hodge, and Fowler had some great tales. But for a collection of 20 stories, this one was more of a slog to get through. My advice, if it’s cheap (or free) grab it and skip to the 4-5 decent stories and skip the rest.

Anyways, here we go:


A Natural History of Autumn - Jeffrey Ford

Set in rural Japan, Michi and Riki are traveling to an old country house in Izu, where Riki will do research on a book she’s writing. Once there, she discovers the elderly owner and her snarling dog aren’t what they seem. Somewhat unique setting, but the tale still leaves me somewhat “meh”.

3.0 stars out of 5


Ashputtle - Peter Straub

After a child goes missing, a kindergarten teacher shows a glimpse inside her decayed mind. Unsettling, but not an enjoyable read.

2.0 stars out of 5


Giant in the Earth - Dale Bailey

Coal miners discover a creature that looks like a gigantic angel slumbering in the earth. A unique setting with a story that initially grabbed my attention with its promise, then fizzled out and went nowhere.

3.0 stars out of 5


The Beginning of the Year without a Summer - Caitlin R Kiernan

Swans, some ritualistic party, and dizzying flashback storytelling. The point? No clue. But the journey was better than the destination.

3.5 stars out of 5


A Wish From A Bone - Gemma Files

A TV crew explores an ancient tomb for a documentary and lets just say it doesn’t go well. You could also say that about the writing. At first, I was enjoying it and then the writing style became a muddled mess. The sentence structure flowed like molasses in January - colons, semi-colons, parenthesis, fragments, all for no apparent reason.

2.0 stars our of 5


The Last, Clean, Bright Summer - Livia Llewellyn

A young teenage girl’s bizarre summer vacation with her mom and dad takes the craziest turn. Just when you think your family reunion is dreadful, remember it’s nothing like this Lovecraftian nightmare.

4.0 stars out of 5



The Totals - Adam-Troy Castro

Monster get together to go over quarterly figures and hand out awards. This could’ve been so much better. The dialogue was sound, but the rest of it a muddled mess.

2.0 stars out of 5



The Chill Clutch of the Unseen - Kim Newman

All of us have a lifespan, including monsters. Ever wonder where they go to die? A fun and unique tale. Just when I was about to give up on this collection.

4.5 stars out of 5


Down Among the Dead Men - Jack Dann & Gardner Dozios

A vampire among the prisoners of a concentration camp has to walk a fine line. Another solid tale to sink your teeth into. That’s two in a row!

4.5 stars out of 5


Catching Flies - Carole Johnstone

A vague story told from a little girl’s point of view, something about her mom being dead and flies. All this shadow and mystery with zero payoff. Blah.

1.5 stars out of 5


Our Turn Too Will One Day Come - Brian Hodge

The family secret brought over from Scotland has been revealed after all these long years. Ask not for whom the bell tolls. A gothic feeling tale from Hodge that I really enjoyed.

5.0 stars out of 5


Grindstone - Stephen Graham Jones

An abomination finds its healing source from the heavens, only to be taken away again. Only to be healed…again. Solid story.

4.0 stars out of 5


Doll Hands - Adam L G Nevill

Revenge against one of the elite in a dystopian future. The story is decent, but what is up with these weird ass characters?

3.0 stars out of 5


How I Met The Ghoul - Sofia Samatar

A reporter attempts to interview a ghoul at the airport. Absolutely pointless drivel.

1.0 stars out of 5



Jenny Come to Play - Terry Dowling

A unique tale that reminds me of the Cronenberg‘s Dead Ringers (based off Twins by Bari Wood) movie.

4.5 stars out of 5


Miss Ill-Kept Runt - Glen Hirshberg

A little girl and her brother moving with their parents in a jam-packed station wagon, but the parents might not be who they appear to be. Great atmosphere, but the ending killed it for me. I’m usually fine with ambiguous endings, but this story needed an ending that pulled everything together.

2.5 stars out of 5


Chasing Sunset - A.C. Wise

A father-son struggle in a modern Lovecraftian influenced world. A whole lot of descriptive word salad doesn’t make a bland story interesting.

1.5 stars out of 5


The Monster Makers - Steve Rasnic Tem

A strange family curse and a bunch of hallucinating images. Blah.

2.0 stars out of 5


Piano Man - Christopher Fowler

Now this is more like it. A travel reporter goes to New Orleans to do a piece about about the “secret side” of the city and gets caught up in a voodoo war between bar owners. Reminds me of twisted shades of Angel Heart. Great tale.

5.0 stars out of 5



Corpsemouth - John Langan

After a son’s father passes away, he takes a trip with the rest of his family to Scotland to spend time with his father’s relatives. What he discovers is an old god from long, long ago called Corpsemouth. John Langan at his usual best. Does the guy ever write anything that isn’t stellar?

4.5 stars out of 5


Overall: 3.15 stars out of 5.

[Pyropatty · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish..boring.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there can be said to be such a thing as a Master Anthologist, Ellen Datlow would win that title hands down. When Datlow curates a collection I know I am in for a treat. Of course not every tale in The Monstrous is for every reader. For me the standouts were written by Jeffrey Ford, Gemma Files, Adam Troy-Castro, Kim Newman, and Stephen Graham Jones. I hated the Peter Straub story, but again, not everything here is for everybody.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just like most collections Datlow's "The Monstrous" is a mixed bag but overall it is a pretty good read with just a few really weak spots (a one-by-one review of the stories found in the collection can be found below).

While authors such as Jeffrey Ford, Peter Straub, A.C. Wise or Adam Nevill delivered great stuff as expected from them, there were also a few (at least to me) new voices that left a lasting impression. First and foremost Livia Llewellyn and Caitlín R. Kiernan whose stories "The Last, Clean, Bright Summer" and "The Beginning of the Year Without a Summer" are probably the biggest surprises and also the highlights of this collection. I am very much looking forward to reading more from these two ladies and I am already on the hunt for further material by them.

But now, on to a quick one-by-one rating of the stories included in "The Monstrous":

**** "A Natural History of Autumn" by Jeffrey Ford
A very nice take on Japanes Jinmenken legends, with a wonderful opening sequence that just brilliantly shows Ford's magnificent and imaginative style.

**** Ashputtle by Peter Straub
Slightly confusing (but I guess that's what you get when diving into the mind of a lunatic) but nicely disturbing. The horror is between the lines here and Straub does a great job hinting at it but never fully showing us the whole picture.

** Giants in the Earth by Dale Bailey
Rather weak writing with generic characters whose reactions and actions sometimes seem completely bare of any logic at all. Add to that a weak ending and you get a pretty disappointing story despite the general idea being an interesting one. Lots of potential wasted on this.

***** The Beginning of the Year Without a Summer by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Unfamiliar with the author I was completely blown away by the wonderful prose and the almost dreamlike quality of the story which somehow reminded me of David Lynch's better movies. I will definitely seek out more of her writing.

*** A Wish from a Bone by Gemma Files
While offering a nice setup and an interesting topic, Gemma Files struggles throughout the story to keep her prose and tone consistent which makes "A Wish From A Bone" a bumpy ride and all too often ruins the atmosphere that indeed manages to creep in here and there (oh, and the pop-cultural references are not cool but plainly suck).

***** The Last, Clean, Bright Summer by Livia Llewellyn
So bizarre, unexpected and disturbing that even the journal style format (which I normally hate with a passion as most authors just can't pull it off) couldn't ruin it for me. So far the only story in this collection whose conclusion really caught me off-guard.

**** The Totals by Adam-Troy Castro
Interesting idea. Short, sweet and self-aware. Thumbs up!

** The Chill Clutch of the Unseen by Kim Newman
Really did nothing for me. The pacing seems off and the story itself is not particularly interesting. Better skip it.

**** Down Among the Dead Men by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois
A vampire in a Nazi death camp? Now that is a rather unique and interesting scenario which raises a lot of questions about the morality in the light of the sheer human survival instinct. Unfortunately these questions are kinda tossed to the wind in the last third of the story in order to proceed in a more straight horror fashion which is a shame and the reason why I must refrain from awarding full five stars here.

**** Catching Flies by Carole Johnstone
Another strong story written from a child's perspective with a great build-up and a very nice climax. Recommended!

*** Our Turn Too Will One Day Come by Brian Hodge
Well, that was...well, okay. Nothing more nothing less.

** Grindstone by Stephen Graham Jones
Slightly reminding me of Clive Barker's "Rawhead Rexx" and pretty much a disappointment as Stephen Graham Jones can do much better than this generic tale of horror.

***** Doll House by Adam L.G. Nevill
Extremely well written story with a great post-apocalyptic tone and undeniable weirdness to it. One of the collection's highlights.

** How I Met The Ghoul by Sofia Samatar
Once again someone tried to do something "different" and ended up doing something generic. An interesting idea is simply not enough if you can't fill it up with something worthwhile.

**** Jenny Come To Play by Terry Dowling
Terry Dowling fuses psychoanalysis, teratology and the dark sides of the carnival into a weird and creepy melange that is definitely worth the price of admission to this freak show.

*** Miss Ill-kept Runt by Glen Hirshberg
Child's perspective once again, good buildup and setting that becomes truly eerie at midpoint but the story finally disappoints with a banal and predictable ending.

**** Chasing Sunset by A.C. Wise
Some real end of the world shit. Satan, Cthulhu and all that good stuff piled into one story. Love it.

** The Monster Makers by Steve Rasnic Tem
Feels slightly torn and without real build-up or climax and therefore remains somewhat dissatisfying.

*** Piano Man by Christopher Fowler
Atmospheric voodoo-piece that is well-written but offers nothing new under the sun in terms of storyline and build-up.

*** Corpsemouth by John Langan
Wow, this could have really gone places. But then it didn't as the finale sent it tumbling into mediocrity - what a bummer!

[Matteo Fulgheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tachyon does it again, another rarity: a 5-star short stories collection...

[Hope Sloper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another home run anthology on my “read it, loved it” list. This collection of Dark fantasy/Thriller/Horror short stories was as enticing to read as the title of collection. Some of these stories lingered in the back of my mind, even days after I was done with the book. Most of them made me question my own perception of monstrous. All of them were good, well-written pieces of dark literature published within the last twenty years.

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Note: This book is to be released in late October of 2015, and may not be on your bookseller’s shelves yet.]


This is a story anthology offering tales of monsters—just not your everyday monsters. In her Introduction, Editor Ellen Datlow said her solicitation for stories asked for “unusual monster stories.” She wanted neither “human monsters” (i.e. no pedophiles or serial killers) nor was she interested in your classic Transylvanian Count Dracula. With this book’s 20 stories, the authors succeed in meeting Datlow’s request—in several cases spectacularly. Some of the stories are chilling, others are creepy, and two are even humorous, but all feature monsters that are out of the ordinary, or—at least—the monsters are in extraordinary situations.



Without further ado, I’ll offer a brief synopsis of, and comments on, the stories in this anthology:



1.) A Natural History of Autumn by Jeffery Ford: Set in Japan, a salaryman takes a girl-next-door escort to a remote onsen (thermal springs bathhouse and inn.) Neither of the main characters is what they seem, and, therein, lies the story’s appeal.



2.) Ashputtle by Peter Straub: A beloved kindergarten teacher describes her life and experience of the disappearance of a bright student. This story comes closest to violating the “no human monsters” proviso, but it creates a character so intriguing that you don’t necessarily care.



3.) Giants of the Earth by Dale Bailey: Miners stumble onto something unexpected deep within the Earth. This wasn’t one of the more engaging or memorable works, though it does have an intriguing premise.



4.) The Beginning of the Year without Summer by Caitlín R. Kiernan: A professor and a young, female townie chat by lakeside, and also a discovered book is returned. This is one of two southern gothic pieces, and is more engaging for the conversation between the intelligent professor and a more “common” young woman than for monstrous or supernatural elements.


5.) A Wish from a Bone by Gemma Files: An archeological team in a war zone stumble into more than they signed up for. Like a terrestrial Aliens movie with Sumerian evil spirits in lieu of aliens.


6.) The Last Clean, Bright Summer by Livia Llewellyn: A teenaged girl in a dystopian future travels with her parents to the sea for a rite of passage of an unexpected and haunting variety. This is one of the most visceral entries, and the author captures the teenage voice to great effect. This is in my top five stories from the anthology.



7.) The Totals by Adam-Troy Castro: A get-together between monsters to discuss quarterly figures and give out performance awards. This is one of the humor-oriented pieces—though not to the extent of the Monsters animated movies. The two humor pieces (the other being How I Met the Ghoul) offer two different angles on monster humor. This piece is set in a monstrous world, but juxtaposed against that eeriness is the work-a-day feature of a staff meeting. (The other story is set in our world—or at least a very mundane world reminiscent of ours—and draws its humor from the introduction of the monster into the midst in a very banal environment.)



8.) The Chill Clutch of the Unseen by Kim Newman: The last monster killer waits for the last monster to steam into town. This is one of the entries with a wild west feel to it. A common approach in this collection is to create unusual monster stories by putting monsters that may or may not be usual (in this case they aren’t) into settings and across from characters that one wouldn’t expect to see them.


9.) Down Among the Dead Men by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois: A man discovers that his best friend in a Nazi concentration camp is a vampire. Referring to the previous entry (i.e. the Kim Newman story), this is an example of a typical monster (a vampire) given new life by placing it in a context that one would least expect to find it—a concentration camp. This was also one of my top five from this collection.



10.) Catching Flies by Carole Johnstone: A girl and her baby brother are removed from a household (by a DFACS-like entity) after their mother dies from mysterious causes. I mentioned a story done in the voice of a teenager. This is one of a few entries written in the voice of a child—which is very apropos for an anthology about monsters.


11.) Our Turn Too Will One Day Come by Brian Hodge: A man is called in the middle of the night, and asked to come and bring a shovel—which is, needless to say, never a good situation. The monsters, while fascinatingly described and unique, are almost superfluous to this story. The monsters appear only at the end, and it would be a highly readable story without them—though it would be in the wrong collection sans the monsters.


12.) Grindstone by Stephen Graham Jones: A man who’s been shot up is fleeing from something across desolate territory. This is the other entry with a very Western feel to it. This is also one of the shortest entries of the batch.



13.) Doll Hands by Adam L. G. Nevill: Set in a dystopian future, a laborer in a luxury building takes matters into his own (doll-like) hands when he can no longer accept the atrocities the super-wealthy patrons of the building are perpetrating. One of the great features of this story is that it creates visual imagery that one isn’t sure whether to take literally or just descriptively. For example, the lead baddie is an old, rich woman who’s described in avian terms. It’s clear that something has gone terribly wrong in this world, though there is strategic ambiguity as to what. This is in my top five.



14.) How I Met the Ghoul by Sofia Samatar: A reporter conducts an interview with a ghoul in an airport lounge. This is the other story that is more comedy than horror. The comedy is born of putting the monstrous creature in a mundane setting during a workaday interview. It’s not even the kind of hard-hitting story that a well-known journalist would take on, but more like a cub reporter doing a human interest featurette.



15.) Jenny Come to Play by Terry Dowling: A former Siamese twin, separated from her twin as a teenager, admits herself into a psychiatric hospital where her psychiatrist tries to separate fact from fiction and the twisted imaginings of insanity from reality. These Siamese twins shared no common organs, just muscle, and were ideal candidates for separation as infants. However, their father kept them conjoined (and much worse) so that they could be the main attraction in his cabinet of curiosities. Not only is this story in my top five, I’d have to call it my favorite of the bunch. It reminds me a little of the work of the novelist team Preston and Child at their best. It has the same combination of creepiness and dark foreboding, while keeping one in the dark as to what imaginable events have actually transpired.



16.) Miss Ill-kept Runt by Glen Hirshberg: A family drives through the night to go to stay with family as if fleeing an ill-defined threat. This is another of the stories done in a child’s voice and perspective, and it captures that voice well.



17.) Chasing Sunset by A.C. Wise: A young man flees across country in an attempt to escape a demonic father who is after his body. This story offers the most impressive use of language. It’s one of the most enjoyable pieces to read, and, while it didn’t quite make my top five, it definitely gets honorable mention.



18.) The Monster Makers by Steve Rasnic Tem: A grandfather teaches his grandkids the family magic of being able to make others turn into monsters. In a way this seems like a thinly-veiled allegory for how grandparents turn children into “monsters,” but it’s entertaining nonetheless.



19.) Piano Man by Christopher Fowler: A travel writer doing a story on New Orleans gets caught up in a local voodoo turf war. This is another Southern Gothic piece with post-Katrina New Orleans as the setting—with all its tragic, macabre undertones.


20.) Corpsemouth by John Langan: An American visits his ancestral home and old world family in Scotland and discovers that the “gibberish” last message of his dying father actually had a rather spectacular meaning. This story rounds out my top five. I found it to be engaging, highly readable, and with an intriguing premise.


This anthology is thrilling and readable, and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to read about unusual monsters.

[Steven Belanger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven compilation of stories about monsters of different types. The latter ones were the better ones, which is an odd way to put an anthology together. But Datlow is rightly famous for her anthologies, and she’s edited literally hundreds, so who am I to say? Plus, as I’ve said before, anthologies like this are mostly hit-or-miss, depending on reader preference. I prefer my monster stories to be a little less esoteric. There needs to be a monster and less of a cosmic worry. Lovecraft’s better stories are the ones that have at least a hint of an actual physical problem. I’m especially thinking of the the one with the elbow of a giant monster beneath the sand in the basement of an old Providence home. There’s a strong Lovecraft tone to some of these, btw. The last one borrows a bit from the one I just mentioned, which I’m unashamedly too lazy to look up.

The best ones in this book are Terry Dowling’s “Jenny Come to Play,” a longer piece that has some good tropes: the creepy institution; the mentally ill, some trustworthy, some not; the mystery; twins; the circus; a hard-boiled psyhiatrist-detective…so many, in fact, that it really shouldn’t work. And it kinda doesn’t if you think about it too long. I mean, the psychiatrist lets one of the patients sit in during therapy sessions. Lotsa things that just wouldn’t happen. But I found myself turning the pages when earlier I hadn’t. “Corpsemouth” was good, and not just for the great title. It’s the kinda Lovecraftian one I mentioned earlier. It’s got the god-giant beneath the ground rather than beneath the cellar sand, and it’s in Ireland, but it works just as well. “Giants in the Earth” tries to answer the question of what one might do if one found an angel or a demon in a hidden cave in a mine, one that’s sleeping or hibernating, but with giant wings, and is it an angel or a demon? “The Last, Clean, Bright Summer” is a really well-written piece about a teenage girl on a family vacation to Washington State, with a family of men who stare at the women, and of women who are openly antagonistic towards each other, and throw in a 15-year old’s correct WTF tone and a lot of vibes from the Iron Islands from Game of Thrones, and this one was really memorable. “Piano Man” by Christopher Fowler was also very good, with shades of “Angel Heart.”

Less awesome were the ones I really looked forward to. Caitlin Kiernan’s had a cool vibe and some good scenes, but if you figure what it’s really all about, you’re a better person than I am. Peter Straub’s also slipped into style-over-substance, as his later stuff often did, which makes you yearn for his Ghost Story days. He was always into stylism, but it often went concretely somewhere. He and Kiernan at their worst never quite go there, and that’s what we’ve got here. I was disappointed. Steven Rasnic Tem’s was a little better, as he somehow makes a little girl’s car ride with her family taut and strange. But the ending was what you’d probably figure it was going to be, and therefore a bit disappointing. A few others fit that bill, good in most parts but overall a little disappointing. Worse, most stories in the first half were just too esoteric and pseudo-existential and just didn’t work for me at all. And at 369 pages, half is a lot.

And yet the really good ones are worth you poring through this one. And the almost-good ones have their own little satisfactions, too. There’s lots of good writing here, even in the ones a little short on actual story. Give this one a go.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

By any definition, Ellen Datlow is one of the best anthologists working today. She’s earned a shelf full of awards for her work, including a fistful of Hugos and Bram Stokers, and a whopping nine World Fantasy Awards; she edited The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror until it died in 2008, and was brought on by Night Shade Books to fill the void when they launched their The Best Horror of the Year series in 2009; now, she buys the short fiction that appears on Tor.com. Her latest collection is The Monstrous, an anthology focusing on monsters. Not the schlocky, lumbering behemoths that kill everything, roll credits; nor any cliché tales of “human monsters,”such as serial killers or madmen. Despite the evil humans can unleash on each other, Datlow wanted stories about something truly monstrous, viewpoints both alien and extreme.

The stories she picked deal with a wide spectrum of monsters, covering a range of topics and settings, coming from a combination of genre juggernauts, rising stars, and young-up-and-comers: twenty stories by twenty authors, dealing with the most monstrous subjects these writers could come up with.

The sheer diversity of authors is impressive, and there’s bound to be something here for everyone. Gemma Files offers something for the fan of extreme horror with “A Wish From a Bone,” a gruesome thriller where the crew for a reality TV show stumbles across the tomb of ancient evils which then begin to possess the film crew. Dale Bailey’s excellent tale is more chillingly cerebral, about miners who quite literally find “Giants in the Earth;” as the winged behemoths sleep, the miners debate what to do, and their decision(s) have lingering after-effects. Caitlin Kiernan’s “The Beginning of the Year Without Summer” is a Southern Gothic, beautifully written and flush with atmosphere, that raises as many questions as it answers. Or take Stephen Graham Jones’ “Grindstone,” another unsettling gem; it’s a visceral tale, sort of a weird western, about a man so evil even his sun-bleached bones can pass on his inhuman vileness.

Genre giant Peter Straub is represented here by an older story, “Ashputtle” (from 1994), a glimpse into the mind of a kindergarten teacher. Not just any kindergarten teacher, since this one has a touch of madness lurking around the edges, and hinting at the darkness resting within. The genius of it is that Straub never mentions anything overt or direct, instead building great unease based on what goes unmentioned.

Meanwhile, Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois—an excellent editor in his own right—co-authored “Down Among the Dead Men,” about a vampire preying on its fellow inmates within a Nazi concentration camp. The protagonist slowly realizes it is just a parasite, keeping its fellow Jews alive and fed to be future food-stock for the vampire. It’s a fascinating tale, both for the uniqueness of its setting as well as the layers Dann and Dozois give the story. And the finale adds another layer of horror to it all.

Adam L. G. Nevill’s tale, “Doll Hands,” is set in the decaying future of 2125, the kind of gross, dystopic apocalypse I love. The protagonist sums himself up in the first line—“I am the one with the big white head and the doll hands”—and from there I was hooked, enraptured in the superb tale of depravity and the ambiguous nature of this world. The protagonist is a porter of sorts at a luxury home for the super-wealthy, where the malformed inhabitants can afford to eat more than just “yeast from the tanks in the basement”—they can afford meat. And this “meat” comes from a human animal.

Some of the stories share similar themes, such as the entries by Livia Llewellyn and Brian Hodge, where the protagonists find out some dark family secrets. The stories are nothing alike save for that basic theme. Hodge’s “Our Turn Too Will One Day Come” has the protagonist return to his family homestead to help his sister, after her estranged husband attempted to kidnap her daughter. There, some puzzling moments from the past fall into place, and he learns the truth about the family lineage—something taken with them from the old country, possibly the thing that got them thrown out of the old country. It’s a quiet but disturbing kind of horror, the sort of literate story Hodge excels at. Llewellyn’s “Last, Clean, Bright Summer” starts to look like a teenage drama, consisting of a teenage girl’s diary entries as she goes to a family reunion. The deceptive first entries—combined with the protagonist’s strong YA voice—hides a knockout punch, the most brutal and visceral story in the collection. It mixes Lovecraftian themes with some shocking sexual violence that would have made the puritanical Lovecraft blush. It’s probably the most memorable story in the collection, shocking yet intoxicating, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

On top of the familiar names, I was impressed by many of the new-to-me authors included in the collection. I’d never read anything by A.C. Wise before, but found her “Chasing Sunset” to be a fascinating addition, its half-crazed protagonist fleeing from his father and dark Lovecraftian horrors, a mad rush of insanity and paranoia. It’s short and brutal, twisted in on itself, as if Wise was trying to capture insanity via the written word. Similarly, Terry Dowling I knew by name alone. His “Jenny Come to Play” was less intense but no less unnerving, following a woman who’d committed herself to an institution; when her sister shows up to collect her, the head of the institution figures there’s more to their story than what he’s told. There is, and it involves a twisted path through freakshows and conjoined twins and mental breakdown blocking out the truth. Good stuff, with a rich and foreboding atmosphere.

This is a collection about monstrous creatures and individuals, after all, so it should come as no surprise that many of these stories were quite dark, unsettling, or visceral even when they weren’t specifically graphic or gruesome. But these tales aren’t just chilling and disturbing, they’re also artfully executed, filled with some very literate horror and dark fantasy. If you’re a regular reader in those genres, especially one who enjoys good short fiction, The Monstrous is an excellent volume worth picking up. As usual, anything with Datlow’s byline rarely disappoints, and The Monstrous is no exception, an above-average collection of twenty strong stories within one unique theme.

(Full review, and other horror reviews, found on my blog.)

[StLOrca · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Monstrous is a collection of science fiction and fantasy stories about, well, monsters among us. Edited by longtime SFF editor Ellen Datlow (whose name on a book guarantees my purchase), this is one of those all-meat-no-filler anthologies. The book touches on the amusing (the workaday serial killers of "The Totals", Adam-Troy Castro), the misunderstood (Sofia Samatar's "How I Met the Ghoul", a sort of "Rolling Stone interviews a monster"), and the twisted ("Down Among the Dead Men", Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, in which a vampire really is less horrible than the Holocaust). There's very little gore or "splatterpunk" here, which is great because IMO it becomes numbing after a while. Some of the gems include Livia Llewellyn's "The Last Clean, Bright Summer", a sort of Lovecraftian tale told from a teenage girl's point of view. The best piece, Gemma Files's "A Wish From A Bone", is a truly chilling story about the Terrible Seven, ancient Sumerian entities who wait for a chance to rule the world in blood and chaos. And that time is just...about...here...

[Tim Potter · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Monstrous is the latest anthology of horror and dark fantasy from Ellen Datlow. While there are some stories that are terrifically entertaining, the collection is uneven in terms quality, but the good certainly outway the bad. There is only one piece of fiction original to this book, the closing story “Corpsemouth” by John Langan and it fails to do more than serve as an uneven anchor to an uneven anthology. Datlow kicks off the book with an introduction that has an etymological look at the word “monster” and continues with a description of the theme of the collection. It’s not so much the monsters, Datlow wants readers to know, but “...how the humans react to the monstrosities they encounter.”

The first fiction work in the book is “A Natural History of Autumn” by Jeffrey Ford. It’s an interesting and unique story that blurs the line between human and animal and features a unique monster with a mysterious origins. There are also a few twists as the story comes to it’s conclusion that work rather nicely and that the reader likely won’t see coming. The story unfolds at a slow but even pace that reads well, but is atypical of the big bang that most anthologies go for with the first story.

Dale Bailey delivers one of the best stories of the book with “Giants in the Earth”, which showcases his mastery of short fiction. This is a claustrophobic tale, set largely underground in coal mines with miners in situations that feel so real it’s like the reader can taste the coal dust in the air. It also a delicate story about beauty and man’s hesitation, but sometimes duty, to destroy it.

“A Wish From a Bone” is an adventurous horror story from Gemma Files about an archaeological reality show uncovering a tomb in the middle of an uninhabited desert. It does a good job of making the often used ancient-curse story feel contemporary. “The Last, Clean, Bright Summer” from Livia Llewellyn is a contrast to the previous Files story, as it subtle and very dark. At times it’s actually quite disturbing as the narrator relates a tale of dreadful family history and traditions.

It’s at this point that the collection reaches its apex, the two previous stories being very solid and the two following stories being fantastic. The first of the two highlights is Kim Newman’s “The Chill Clutch of the Unseen” which has great characters and a setting feels real. It’s a story of law enforcement and legacies, and doing things that we must do, even if we desperately wish otherwise.

“Down Among the Dead Men” by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozios is the best story included and a great example of how powerful horror fiction can be. The focus of the tale is that a vampire is imprisoned with the general population in a Nazi concentration camp. The moral dilemmas this poses are many. Should a vampire be allowed to live when humans are being killed around him? Should he keep his vampirism a secret? When can he feed, or should he feed at all, off of his fellow prisoners? There are so many great things going on in this story that make it a must read.

Terry Dowling contributes “Jenny Come to Play”, which starts off as a deceptively average psych hospital story and then proceeds to go very dark, very nasty places. The main character is a twin, born conjoined and separated later in life. Her interaction with her sister serves the to drive the story ahead, through the bizarre world of teratology and teratophilia, the uncovering of her horrific childhood secrets and to the climactic confrontation. The ending is a huge set-piece, full of entertaining action and melodrama that could have been devised by the Vincent Price character Dr. Phibes with the brutality of SAW’s Jigsaw. It’s a great conclusion to a very satisfying story.

“Chasing Sunset” is a short, fun, vulgar take on the cosmic mythology of H.P. Lovecraft from A.C. Wise. The story moves at a blistering pace, the voice of the narrator authentic and compelling. There is a very noir feel to the work, a down-and-dirty reality with dirt beneath its literary fingers. Call it Cthulhu-Noir. Wise does an admirable job making the story accessible to those unfamiliar with Lovecraft’s work and the result is a good story to the uninitiated and a great story to those more familiar with the source material.

The collection features a number of stories that are okay, not great but worth reading, from authors Carole Johnstone, Brian Hodge, Stephen Graham Jones, Glen Hirshberg and Steve Rasnic Tem. Some of the weakest stories come courtesy of some of it’s biggest names, like Peter Straub, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Adam-Troy Castro, Adam L.G. Nevill, Sofia Samatar and Christopher Fowler.

The final story is the collection’s only original, “Corpsemouth” by John Langan. It’s a slow read and can be best described as an interesting disappointment. It’s a family saga, focusing on a man who travels to Scotland to meet extended family in the wake of his father’s death. Stories and mythologies that have handed down through the generations are learned and investigated. Some parts are intriguing, like the Stonehenge-esque ruins with mysterious symbols that seem to relate to the main character’s father’s final days. Other parts drag under the weight of too many words, such as the retelling of a myth of Merlyn and his monster. It’s a read that just ends up being unmemorable.

There is a huge amount of content in The Monstrous and I can’t imagine any reader not feeling like they received their money’s worth and then some. It’s a collection that may not compel one to read every story or to read the book straight through, but it’s definitely worth having on hand for those times when you find yourself in the mood for a good monster story.

[Izzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This horror anthology is centered around the theme of (almost exclusively inhuman) monsters. The editor’s solicitation asked for “unusual” monster stories, and all the stories included here deliver. Weaving the monstrous creatures with deeper and more universal themes of horror like the fear of death, loss of innocence, and fear of the unknown adds a complexity and depth to the collection. My favorite stories were “A Natural History of Autumn” by Jeffery Ford, “Giants in the Earth” by Dale Bailey, “A Wish from a Bone” by Gemma Files, “The Totals” by Adam-Troy Castro, “Grindstone” by Stephen Graham Jones, and “Corpsemouth” by John Langan.

[Terry Wells]

As always, great characterization in virtually all stories. Spellbinding, in fact, but always marred by enigmatic endings. Okay, I've heard the best fiction should leave more questions than answers, but enough is enough. When I begin a Caitlin R. Kiernen story I know it's going to be a great ride that's going to leave me in the middle of nowhere. The story that ends leaving us thinking the whole thing was a delusion in a sick persons' mind is really old now. I miss stories that focused on ordinary people like myself. If I can relate to the person who's challenged by the horror that's unfolding, then the story is more frightening and that's what these publications should do.

[Corinna Bechko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed almost every story in this anthology, but there were a couple of real standouts. That's an accomplishment since I've read many a horror anthology that didn't even contain one. In fact, the entire book is worth buying just to read Livia Llewellyn's "The Last Clean Bright Summer." Of course I have a particular soft spot for monsters of the non-human sympathetic variety, so this collection was pointed squarely at my fiction zone. But of course you know you're in good hands when you see that Ellen Datlow is the editor, and this did not disappoint.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read a lot of horror anthologies, including a lot edited by Datlow, and this one packs a real bang for the buck, with a higher-than-average proportion of very good stories. I do think she was a bit generous with her definition of “monster,” and a couple of the stories were so vague as to be unsatisfying (Miss Ill-Kept Runt springs to mind), but I’ll be going through this one and taking notes of favorites so that I can check out more of the authors’ works.