Monsters and Other Tales of Humanity

by Carla E. Dash

Revealing both how terrifying and how heroic individuals can be when untethered from relationships, Monsters and Other Tales of Humanity portrays the ways people cope with loneliness. A woman is haunted by Death, who progressively resembles her drowned fiancé . A child seeks beauty in a handsome stranger' s greenhouse and holds out hope for a savior. A woman' s husband is murdered by police, and her monstrous children enact a bloody revenge. A negligent mail carrier believes stars are disappearing from the sky, heralding the annihilation of the universe. A video game character' s dissonance with the actions he must perform precipitates a choice that could destroy his world. Speculative and lyrical, these stories explore the human need for connection and how the lack of ties warps lives.

Genres: Short Stories

124 pages, Paperback

Published July 8, 2025

About the author

Carla E. Dash lives in Braintree, MA with her husband, children, and cats. She teaches middle schoolers, procrastinates via video games and anime, and occasionally buckles down and writes.

Reviews

[Marie Sinadjan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carla is a new to me author and I love her writing style — crisp but evocative prose with just the right amount of detail and a lot of emotion. I originally planned to read one story a day but it was very hard to put the book down; I was only limited by having to take care of a newborn.

Most of the stories have a speculative element in them that gives the collection a unified feel, yet they're used in such a way that the stories don't feel too outrageous (like Black Mirror outrageous) while still tackling relatable, real-world themes and issues. Hack n' Slash #999 being an exception, but the premise itself is fully speculative anyway.

1. A Puzzle by the Name of L - Great opener to the collection. What a first line! Captured my attention on the get go. I didn't expect the story to go the way it did, which is always something I like.

2. Monsters - Short but profound and haunting.

3. Somewhere Far from Here - Painful and sad. I can't pretend to know what it's like to be a victim of abuse, but I can imagine it being like as it happens in the story.

4. What Was Meant to be Buried - Gave me the shivers. A look into dark minds and the darker thoughts beneath.

5. The Thing with the Stars - Ends in a cliffhanger, how dare? But I love "am I going mad or is this really happening" stories wrapped in emotional turmoil, so.

6. The Child Breathes - I'd love to read more about this world. The story felt too short and ended too abruptly, but not in a bad way! I just want more.

7. Are You Even Alive in There? - A very intriguing read. No speculative element here, but there's a lot of emotion and a taste of the forbidden.

8. The Thing in the Water - Short but creepy, with creepy children that aren't ordinary children.

9. A Pretty Flower for a Pretty Lady - Really short with no speculative element, but call one to reflect on life and death.

10. Hack n' Slash #999 - To use a Black Mirror comparison (sorry, watched the new season lately!), this is the USS Callister of the collection. I think this is the first ever 2nd person POV story I've read and it's very well done. It particularly works if you're familiar with roleplaying videogames; it actually reminded me of one of my favorites, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. I don't want to say anything more and accidentally spoil what this story is about, but just let me say I really enjoyed it! Perfect way of wrapping up the collection.

[Jacqueline Nyathi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an exceptional collection from Carla E. Dash. It’s also pretty grim (the author describes it as dark fantasy). The first story, *A Puzzle by the Name of L* is about bereavement, and has suicide themes. *Monsters* is from the POV of a woman whose husband was murdered “while neighbors carried on with their baseball games and their skiing and the mundanities of their undisturbed lives”; it considers who the real monsters are, and it’s not the children who ‘burst’ from her to eat first a man who calls her an ugly name, and then those same neighbours.

Lizzie in *Somewhere Far From Here* dreams of a fairytale release from a life of abuse. The protagonist of *What was Meant to be Buried* starts their story with “I dreamed of dismantling him.” The delightful and completely spooksome *The Thing in the Water* is also both shattering and terrifying. And although there undoubtedly short stories or novellas out there from the POV of a video game character, I’ll bet *Hack n’ Slash #999* will be among the best.

The characters in these stories and in the rest of the collection struggle with violence, bereavement, mental illness, agency. But this is also a collection that delights in genre, embracing tropes and deploying them in new ways. There’s an elegance to Dash’s writing, a kind of quiet lyricism that makes her work a pleasure to read even as she tackles horrific themes. Mostly I just sat and fangirled at Dash’s facility with language and conveying meaning.

Full marks to this wonderful collection; highly recommended. Many thanks to Edelweiss and Meerkat Press for early DRC access.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hauntingly beautiful collection of short stories, of varying lengths that will stick with you after you're done reading. I won’t go into each story, but the one that stuck with me the most, especially given the state of the world today, is easily Monsters. While other stories touched me for other reasons, that one, given some of the horrific news that lands in my inbox day after day and shows up on my newsfeed over and over, just really stuck. While each story is quite different from the rest, they’re all vivid, even the shortest. Although they might not all have the most vivid imagery, (some do), they all call up a great depth of emotion. I highly recommend this if you’re looking for a short story collection that will reach into your heart, and twist and turn your emotions into knots, grasping at the very core of what makes us human.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the video game story the best

[Ayannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorites:
Monsters
Somewhere Far from Here
What Was Meant to be Buried
Hack n’ Slash #999