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Monsters: A Collection of Literary Sightings
Collected here are monster stories by some of America's best writers, including Bonnie Jo Campbell, Ben Percy, and Aimee Bender. Starring Mud Men and mummies and MothMan, this book brings our collective fears and fascinations to life.
207 pages, Paperback
First published February 20, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 19, 2012
Back when I heard that Butler University’s new press, Pressgang, was hunting for literary monsters, I immediately thought of a wonderful story I’d read a few years previously in the Virginia Quarterly Review called "Creature Feature," by John McNally. Unfortunately I was busy or timid and did not guide Pressgang to McNally’s tale; luckily, somebody else did. "Monsters: A Collection of Literary Sightings" contains eighteen stories, most of which are culled from both big-name journals and ones that are less established. A few of the stories were commissioned by the editor of the collection, B.J. Hollars, who also provides a delightful introduction about attending a Bigfoot conference.
With this collection, Pressgang engages in the noble task of eroding the wall between literary and genre fiction. Like McSweeney’s, Uncanny Valley, Hobart, and other “indie” presses, Pressgang amplifies the rallying cry of “We like fun stuff,” and gets readers to ask themselves – to acknowledge – that a story can both concern monsters and be highly literary. Formulaic, not genre, is the opposite of literary, it seems to be saying – and these stories are anything but formulaic. The stories represent a wide variety and a loose definition of what it means to be a monster, from humans in monster suits to humans whose actions are debatably monstrous to retellings of old fairy tales, to real genuine creepy crawly monsters. If you’re tired of workshop fiction and want to recall the bygone days when reading was fun in addition to edifying, pick up Monsters and stay tuned for what Pressgang releases in years to come.
The people at Butler have shown an interest in monsters since the publication of the first issue of their literary journal, Booth, which featured a delightful set of post-it note illustrations of monsters by Jon Hicks. In addition to a fetching cover, Monsters includes illustrations for each story… though doesn’t seem to credit any artist for cover or illustrations.
One criticism I have of the book is that, despite Hollars’s praise of “an honest scare” in the introduction, none of the monsters in this collection are actually scary except on some kind of deep, existential level. Kelly Link’s monster in her story "Monster" came the closest – but it was also kind of cute and funny, which dulled its scariness. As someone whose goal in life is to write highly literary, highly terrifying horror books, I think that presenting some actually scary monsters would have yielded a fuller portrait and examination of the monster as a literary fixture; failing to do so could even fortify that old wall between genre and literary. I also think that organizing the stories by authors’ last names was a mistake, as it didn’t allow Hollars to craft the book into something with a deliberate arc and pace and unity. It caused the collection to lead off with one of the weaker, more srug-off-able stories, Brian Baldi’s "She Saves Tokyo." If alphabetical, do it by monster name; this would give the collection the faux-scientific feel of a medieval bestiary.
Of all the stories, Aimee Bender’s zombie tale "Among Us" is my favorite. And I hate zombies. I don’t mean that like I find them frightening; I just feel like their current popularity is unwarranted and is a sign of disturbing cultural predilections. I have difficulty articulating to my students how conventional stories often need to rise above their conventions by saying something big (often without actually saying it of course), or having a metaphoric importance that the reader can expand to address other concerns. Now I’ll just give them "Among Us," a story that shows us how certain financial, domestic, and agricultural situations make all of us into a type of zombies. The stories by Matt Bell and Austin Bunn are also particularly wonderful.
With this collection, Pressgang engages in the noble task of eroding the wall between literary and genre fiction. Like McSweeney’s, Uncanny Valley, Hobart, and other “indie” presses, Pressgang amplifies the rallying cry of “We like fun stuff,” and gets readers to ask themselves – to acknowledge – that a story can both concern monsters and be highly literary. Formulaic, not genre, is the opposite of literary, it seems to be saying – and these stories are anything but formulaic. The stories represent a wide variety and a loose definition of what it means to be a monster, from humans in monster suits to humans whose actions are debatably monstrous to retellings of old fairy tales, to real genuine creepy crawly monsters. If you’re tired of workshop fiction and want to recall the bygone days when reading was fun in addition to edifying, pick up Monsters and stay tuned for what Pressgang releases in years to come.
The people at Butler have shown an interest in monsters since the publication of the first issue of their literary journal, Booth, which featured a delightful set of post-it note illustrations of monsters by Jon Hicks. In addition to a fetching cover, Monsters includes illustrations for each story… though doesn’t seem to credit any artist for cover or illustrations.
One criticism I have of the book is that, despite Hollars’s praise of “an honest scare” in the introduction, none of the monsters in this collection are actually scary except on some kind of deep, existential level. Kelly Link’s monster in her story "Monster" came the closest – but it was also kind of cute and funny, which dulled its scariness. As someone whose goal in life is to write highly literary, highly terrifying horror books, I think that presenting some actually scary monsters would have yielded a fuller portrait and examination of the monster as a literary fixture; failing to do so could even fortify that old wall between genre and literary. I also think that organizing the stories by authors’ last names was a mistake, as it didn’t allow Hollars to craft the book into something with a deliberate arc and pace and unity. It caused the collection to lead off with one of the weaker, more srug-off-able stories, Brian Baldi’s "She Saves Tokyo." If alphabetical, do it by monster name; this would give the collection the faux-scientific feel of a medieval bestiary.
Of all the stories, Aimee Bender’s zombie tale "Among Us" is my favorite. And I hate zombies. I don’t mean that like I find them frightening; I just feel like their current popularity is unwarranted and is a sign of disturbing cultural predilections. I have difficulty articulating to my students how conventional stories often need to rise above their conventions by saying something big (often without actually saying it of course), or having a metaphoric importance that the reader can expand to address other concerns. Now I’ll just give them "Among Us," a story that shows us how certain financial, domestic, and agricultural situations make all of us into a type of zombies. The stories by Matt Bell and Austin Bunn are also particularly wonderful.
January 1, 2025
Truly unfortunate trim size and it seems PRESSGANG (looks like from Butler University) is no more. A stellar lineup of writers here--Kevin Wilson, Kelly Link, Kate Bernheimer, Alissa Nutting--and a really great Mothman comic. Probably been on my TBR longest of anything I read this year and I'm glad I tracked down a copy, unwieldy as it is.
March 3, 2018
“ Gorilla Girl” by Bonnie Jo Campbell was the reason I got an inter library loan. Wish I had time to read the whole collection.
April 9, 2012
It’s hard to know exactly where to begin when reviewing a collection of stories from multiple authors. As a whole Monsters is a beast of a collection which demands the reader’s attention straight out of the gate from its hilarious opening which finds editor B.J. Hollars retelling his experience at a sasquatch convention, to the very last page of Kevin Wilson’s short closing tale which chronicles the horrors of teenage life as seen through the eyes of helpless parents along for the ride. There are a couple of misses, and let’s be honest that’s to be expected from any collection, but the number of hits provided is surprisingly overwhelming, so much so that I’m left with the rather difficult task of deciding which stories in a rather large pool of goodness are worthy of highlighting here. I can’t talk about all of them, can I?
First things first though, this is not a collection that is filled to the gills with gratuitous violence. If you’re picturing story after story being about axe wielding psychopaths and flesh eating ghouls then you’re in the wrong place. Instead the stories here all explore the human condition, questioning what makes us fear while at the same time reinforcing the point that as different as we all appear on the outside, we’re more alike on the inside then we ever stop to appreciate.
READ MORE:
http://www.opinionless.com/book-revie...
First things first though, this is not a collection that is filled to the gills with gratuitous violence. If you’re picturing story after story being about axe wielding psychopaths and flesh eating ghouls then you’re in the wrong place. Instead the stories here all explore the human condition, questioning what makes us fear while at the same time reinforcing the point that as different as we all appear on the outside, we’re more alike on the inside then we ever stop to appreciate.
READ MORE:
http://www.opinionless.com/book-revie...
July 17, 2012
A pretty solid anthology--really only one dud in the bunch. Hollars also edited You Must Be This Tall to Ride, and he has pretty good taste in authors and stories. Monsters has some of my favorite contemporary writers. The standouts for me were Jedediah Berry's "Inheritance" and Bonnie Jo Campbell's "Gorilla Girl."
June 12, 2012
Every story was excellent and unique. Mike Czyzniejewski's story however, had me laughing really hard.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews