Monster Mash: Books Featuring Cool Monsters

Happy early Halloween! Like everything this year, COVID is affecting everyone’s usual holiday traditions. But, while Halloween itself may not look the same as what we’re used to, there is still good ole reading holding down the fort as a prime socially distanced activity. So while you might be able to get out to the costume parties, you can still hunker down with a bowl of candy all to yourself and a few good books featuring the creepy crawlies! Here’s a list to give you some ideas!

Book: “The Beast is an Animal” by Peternelle van Arsdale

I mean, the cover speaks for itself, right? Even having read it and knowing the story and ending, looking at the cover still gives me the creeps. This is the story of Alys, a girl growing up in a village near the woods. In the woods lurks the soul eaters as well as the Beast, each as powerful and mysterious as the other. For her part, Alys knows too much, making her an object of fear by her neighbors as well. Try and hide as she might, Alys and her secrets are dragged into the light, and she soon finds herself deep in the woods itself. There she will discover not just the Beast, but the beast within herself.

Book: “Sorcery of Thorns” by Margaret Rogerson

This book definitely falls more firmly in the “fantasy” category than “horror.” But I wanted to included it for those of you (coughmecough) who are often a bit wary about wandering too deep into the scary stuff. Plus, it features some really neat monsters that are born from evil books, which is pretty unique as far as monsters go. Elisabeth has grown up in one of the Great Libraries, the massive fortresses built to not only house books, but to protect the populous from the books. Grimoires are powerful, and if not carefully warded, can burst forth into powerful monsters that can wreak havoc. But when disaster strikes and one makes its way free of the Great Library, Elisabeth is suspected and thrust out into the greater world to fend for herself. Soon she discovers that there may be more to the libraries, books, and magic altogether than she had thought.

Book: “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon” by Stephen King

Of course a Stephen King book was going to make this list! Unlike Kate, I haven’t read as many of his books, but I did read this one as a teenager. I think the fact that it is equal parts a woodsy survival story as it is a horror novel is what initially drew me. The story features a 9-year-old girl, Trisha, who gets lost in the woods. But as if surviving alone in the wilderness while trying to find home isn’t hard enough, Trisha soon begins to suspect that she’s not completely alone. Something is out there. Something more than just wildlife. Following the good old horror trick of keeping the monster off the page for most of the book, this story will definitely raise the hairs on your arms!

Short Story: “The Damned Thing” by Ambrose Bierce

Though this is a short story as opposed to a full on novel, “The Damned Thing” is too good to be left off such a list. I read it in high school for my English class, and I was completely taken with the build of dread and partial epistolary narrative (I remember me and my friend Blake being like ‘what the HECK’ after reading it). After a man named Morgan ends up dead on a hunting and fishing trip with a friend, an inquest is called in. His companion says that he and Morgan kept hearing things, but not seeing anything, and Morgan kept referring to ‘that damned thing’ before being attacked by some invisible force. Then diary entries are produced, which chronicle Morgan’s final days as he has started to hunt a creature that cannot be seen. It’s so strange and unique, especially for the time it was written (the 1800s), and not really knowing what is going on just adds to it.

Book: “Mongrels” by Stephen Graham Jones

I just recently discovered Stephen Graham Jones and am kicking myself for not looking into his works before. So a book added to my list is his novel “Mongrels”. One might think ‘ah, a typical werewolf story’, but I have the feeling that this is probably so much more than that. Sure, it DOES have to do with a boy who is potentially going to age into his lycanthropy, but it also has a coming of age story at its very center. A boy who lives with his Aunt and Uncle has been on and off the road for his entire life, the group moving on when they’ve needed to to stay ahead of the law and suspicion. But now things are starting to catch up to them, and the boy starts to sort out his identity. Jones is known to bring in some really good social commentary into his stories, and issues of identity, poverty, and family are sure to come together in powerful ways. All while dealing with werewolves!

Book: “The Devil In Silver” by Victor LaValle

If the setting in a run down and underfunded mental institution isn’t enough to give you the creeps, why not throw in being held there against your will AND a monster with a bison head terrorizing the patients? If that sounds up your alley, “The Devil in Silver” should definitely be a monster book on your list. When Pepper is thrown into the psychiatric ward at New Hyde Hospital, he knows he doesn’t belong there as he doesn’t have a mental illness. He doesn’t remember what he did to get committed, however. And it becomes clear that being involuntarily committed is the least of his problems, as a monster with a bison head is running around at night, scaring people nearly do death. Pepper recruits a few other patients to try and help him fight the monster, and to hold the hospital accountable for its misdeeds. Super weird, and definitely unsettling as well as scary.

What monster books do you like? Let us know in the comments!