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Pacific Monsters

(Fox Spirit Books of Monsters #4)

4.18 · Rating details · 11 ratings · 7 reviews

Speculative fiction, art and graphic stories by authors from Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific islands like Hawaii and Guam. All the stories are based on folklore, myths and legends about monsters from the region. Pacific Monsters is the fourth in a coffee table book series with dark fiction and art about monsters from around the world.

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Paperback, 180 pages

Published November 30th 2017 by Fox Spirit Books

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Dec 18, 2017 Joanne Hall rated it really liked it

Shelves: dark-fantasy, short-story-collections

Pacific Monsters is the fourth in Fox Spirit's ongoing series of monster stories collected from all around the world, and with this edition put together from across the expanse of the Pacific Ocean, it's no surprise that the sea features heavily in a lot of the stories here. It should be noted that Pacific Monsters also takes in monsters from Australia and New Zealand in this case, drawing on both Maori ( "Children of the Mist" by Tihema Baker, A J Fitzwater's excellently-titled "From the Womb o ...more

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Oct 02, 2020 Alex rated it really liked it

Pacific Monsters was a really interesting and enjoyable collection of stories that the editor has expertly put together to really capture the personality, history and cultures of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands (there is a story set in Antarctica too!) and all written by ‘authors who are from, have lived in or have a strong connection to the region.’

One reason I chose Pacific Monsters as my first in the series is that I know very little about the region – perhaps the least out of Pacific Monsters was a really interesting and enjoyable collection of stories that the editor has expertly put together to really capture the personality, history and cultures of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands (there is a story set in Antarctica too!) and all written by ‘authors who are from, have lived in or have a strong connection to the region.’

One reason I chose Pacific Monsters as my first in the series is that I know very little about the region – perhaps the least out of any continent or region on Earth and hadn’t really heard much about the folklore or history. Margrét herself actually writes in her introduction of the difficulties she faced in accumulating many stories for this volume and I suspect the folklore is not as widely known in Western culture as European or Asian folklore. Margrét also writes about getting the feeling she was “at the end of the world…surrounded by the vast ocean” and that’s also something I felt and was my other predominant reason for being intrigued by this book, having a fascination with the undiscovered oceans and what resides within.

Perhaps for these reasons noted above, many of the stories had a surreal sort of vibe that diverged from what you might call a traditional monster story; some even where you might be unsure if the physical monster exists; if it is a metaphor or something psychological.

A couple of the stories I had to re-read and admittedly I did get the feeling a couple of times of not quite understanding what was going on – this isn’t a criticism, it is due to my own approach to the book and ignorance of the folklore and culture. Western readers will need to adapt somewhat and accept that you are entering a world that belongs to other people, experiencing their stories that may be based on things you are unfamiliar with.

Because of this, the book was actually much more of an educational and thoughtful read than the light entertainment you might expect from a collection of monster stories; it’s a lot more in depth and enlightening than that. On doing a bit of research past my own reading for example, I discovered that The Hand Walker actually touches on themes of how white Australians treated the Aboriginal population. When first reading because of the light entertainment approach I took, I didn’t pick up on all the nuances and metaphors but you definitely get a lot more out of it if you start the book with the impression that this isn’t just a monster book, it’s an exploration of culture and folklore in which you will learn and be taken into a world in which you might be unfamiliar.

Of course, important themes or clever metaphors don’t necessarily always make a good story – some are better than others, which you will get with any collection – several stories I enjoyed a lot and others weren’t for me.

However I would say as a collection, the quality is of an objectively high standard that everyone will be able to appreciate to some extent.

One highlight was All My Relations by Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada. It has a lot of folklore references and follows a Shark spirit who has taken the form of a man in order to subdue his man-eating tendencies during a 200 year long agreement amongst his kind not to harm humans in the seas around O’ahu, Hawaii – where the story takes place. When a young boy tries to befriend him and they enter the ocean together, he has to make a decision on his stance when the boy is shown to be lacking a bit of respect for the ocean life.

Another highlight was The Weight of Silence by Jeremy Szal, author of the recently released and highly acclaimed Stormblood. Arachnophobes may want to skip this one which features giant spiders that have taken over Sydney!

A final point I wanted to mention is how well illustrated it is – there are illustrations for each story and some of them are beautiful, or horrifying – or both!

I’m really glad I got the opportunity to read my first book in this series and am looking forward to starting American Monsters (the South American one) soon! The whole collection would look amazing on the shelf as well as to read of course, with the covers going together so nicely. ...more

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Jun 26, 2018 Maree Kimberley rated it it was amazing

Pacific Monsters is a fantastic collection of short stories from Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and more. It's great to read an anthology with diverse voices and stories from parts of the world that are often overlooked. But I do have a favourite in the collection: All My Relations by Brian Kamaoli Kuwada. It's not just the shape-shifting shark that I love (although that is something that has fascinated me for years) but the core relationship between the young diver and the shape-shifter, and ho ...more

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Apr 30, 2019 Rachel Noel rated it it was amazing

This was a solid collection of thrilling stories of monsters that really do need to be more represented. Each story was engaging and very representative of the different ways you can tell a monster story.

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Mar 04, 2018 Octavia Cade rated it really liked it · (Review from the author)

Shelves: fantasy, horror, comics, new-zealand, short-stories

I've a story in this, and I've got a couple of mates with stories in here as well so I am Biased with a capital B. That being said, I've just finished reading this and I'm so happy I didn't just leave it looking pretty on my bookshelf, because so many of the stories in here are awesome. Each time I thought I'd found my favourite I kept reading, and found another one that I liked even more. The editor has done a fantastic job with her selections, and while I agree with her introductory regrets ab ...more

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Oct 21, 2018 Ash Hartwell rated it it was ok

This was poor. I found the stories overlong and not very engaging. If you like folklore then you might enjoy this but I didn't. Sorry. ...more

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May 07, 2018 Runalong rated it it was amazing

Excellent anthology exploring myths and social issues around the Pacific

Full review
‪Pacific Monsters edited by Margret Helgadottir https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...‬
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About Margrét Helgadóttir

Margrét Helgadóttir

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Margrét Helgadóttir is a Norwegian-Icelandic girl living in Oslo, Norway. On her spare time she writes fiction in English and she also edits fiction anthologies (also in English).