The Monstrous

The Monstrous is one of the best collections of stories I’ve read in recent years. Every story in this collection shines. On each page I encountered a host of monsters, some human, some non-human and plenty somewhere in between. I’ve not enjoyed a collection of stories this much in years. The authors have taken the idea of monsters and created twenty-five original, striking and wide-ranging tales. Every anthology of stories usually has one or two clunkers. This isn’t the case for this collection. Every story in The Monstrous is excellent. I have a few favourites. I’ve read Asputtle by Peter Straub in his collection, Magic Terror. There is something unsettling and chilling in this story, in what’s not openly stated. The Beginning of the Year without summer by Livia Llewelyn is brilliant one of the most unsettling stories I’ve ever read. Catching Flies by Carole Johnstone gave me icy chills right down my spine. Jenny Come to Play by Terry Dowling blew my mind. The Last, Clean, Bright Summer by Livia Llewelyn is both brilliant and terrible. The Monstrous is highly recommended.

The Monstrous, edited by Ellen Datlow, is a diverse and fascinating collection of horror short fiction. The stories cover a wide range of themes --- from humorous to Lovecroftian to human monster and all the variations within and outside. An extensive and entertaining group of stories, all with some type of monster theme.

I really enjoyed reading this anthology. The diversity of the stories is a real plus. Vampires, werewolves and zombies can becoming boring after a while and this collection provides a much needed change from those particular horror tropes. The reader has the opportunity to see the different points of view about what is monstrous, which is a nice way of engaging the thinking process and learning something from fiction. To quote Ms. Datlow, "Never forget that monstrosity is in the eye of the beholder."

A very enjoyable and entertaining anthology.

I reviewed this excellent anthology on Adventures in Scifi Publishing.

It’s always difficult for me to review short story collections, which is why there are so very few such reviews on this blog. I don’t like to write bad reviews so short stories are a hard sell for me. With most anthologies, it seems inevitable that you’ll find 20 – 30% of the stories are good or even great stories and the rest are mediocre at best and shallow filler at worst. Then there are those few, extremely rare editors who seem incapable of curating a bad story. Ellen Datlow is such an editor. THE MONSTROUS is a newly reprinted addition to a resume that could fill a novel length manuscript. It’s also another home run for Datlow.

Pardon me while I wax star-struck for a moment here. Over the course of the last three decades–plus a little, maybe–It’s quite likely that I’ve read every anthology Ellen Datlow has produced. I’ve watched her grow and I’ve seen her change directions as either opportunity or desire presented itself. But what I’ve never seen her do is curate a bad story. Ellen is a rock star editor with an eye for the best stories and the best talent in the business. That quality has been consistent across everything she’s published and it remains so with THE MONSTROUS.

When she put out the call for THE MONSTROUS, Ellen Datlow said she was “…looking for unusual monster stories. Not your usual monster kills/destroys everything.” The authors who responded to the call did so admirably. The result is a collection of monster stories completely unlike any you’ve read before, written by such authors as Peter Straub, Gemma Files, Stephen Graham Jones, and many others. And the anthology is as diverse and well written as it is star-studded. The stories gathered here range from the visceral to the psychological, making pit stops at all points in between and never falling into the “normal”, somewhat tired tropes of vampires, werewolves, zombies and such. That’s not saying there aren’t one or two traditional type monsters, and even some human ones in here. I’m just saying that where they exist, they’re written with an unusual, unique flare or twist.

There are no bad stories, no filler in THE MONSTROUS. Every story is written with mastery and the kind of originality and attention to detail that gets you into a Datlow anthology in the first place. If I had to name a favorite, I would be hard pressed to do so and I’m not going to attempt that here. Suffice it to say, THE MONSTROUS was one of the best two themed anthologies of 2015 in my opinion and another example of why it’s always safe to take a chance on Ellen Datlow.

I love Ellen Datlow anthologies because in them you can always find new voices mixed with well-known writers. The Monstrous has very different kind of stories but I think is an amazing collection. I rreally recommend it.