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Book: “Manmade Monsters” by Andrea L. Rogers
Publishing Info: Levine Querido, October 2022
Where Did I Get This Book: The library!
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: Tsalagi should never have to live on human blood, but sometimes things just happen to sixteen-year-old girls.
Following one extended Cherokee family across the centuries, from the tribe’s homelands in Georgia in the 1830s to World War I, the Vietnam War, our own present, and well into the future, each story delivers a slice of a particular time period.
Alongside each story, Cherokee artist and language technologist Jeff Edwards delivers illustrations that incorporate Cherokee syllabary.
Review: A couple years ago I saw the short story collection “Manmade Monsters” by Andrea L. Rogers on my social media feed. It definitely caught my eye, but for whatever reason I never made the move to request it or pick it up. And I don’t even remember why I decided to pick it up recently, I just saw it was available at the library and thought to myself “Oh, I’ve been meaning to read this!” So I grabbed it on a whim (and it actually ended up working out timing wise as I do like to showcase Indigenous authors and novels on Thanksgiving). And I’m happy to say that it was a whim that worked out!
As per usual for a short story collection, I will first review my three favorite stories, and then I will review the collection as a whole.
“Ama’s Boys”: Still love me a feminine rage story, and this story about an immortal predator really understood that particular assignment. A girl who has been a vampire like creature has been wandering in and out of Oklahoma for one hundred and fifty years, targeting young pliable men as her prey, though never wanting to kill, merely feed. But she meets a boy that may have a predatory nature of his own. This was a creepy vampire-y tale that had a bit of a feminist twist, and our narrator Ama is calculating and as ethical as she can be, while slowly realizing that her newest companion is a bit more of a threat than she is used to. I really liked the ending of this one, and also liked the implications of what Ama had been through when she was still human during the times of Manifest Destiny and the genocide that came with it.
“Deer Woman”: I have loved the various Deer Woman mythologies for awhile now, and I’m always excited to see a new interpretation of it, and this one was stellar. Sali, Quanah, and Lisa are best friends and working on an art project at their high school about Deer Woman. When Lisa goes missing, much like Quanah’s cousin Lilli a few years prior, Sali and Quanah try to figure out what happened to her. Bringing in themes such as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, misogyny, colonialist attitudes in a more modern era, and some more feminine rage (I clearly am still in a holding pattern with my feelings as of late), this one is eerie and dark, as well as unwavering in its message of pushing back against gender based violence, especially towards Indigenous girls and women.
“I Come From the Water”: This may have been my favorite story in the collection because I found it so hauntingly beautiful on so many levels. A teenage girl still feeling from her father’s death is trying to keep her family from falling apart, when a mysterious alien creature suddenly finds itself trapped in her pool, desperate to find a way home. When these two connect, a journey of salvation, identity, and hope commences. As someone who is a huge sucker for stories that involve humans connecting on a deep level with otherworldly beings (I will once again sing the praises of “Starman”! SEE “STARMAN”!), and the bittersweet dichotomy between teenager Walela and mysterious Sakonige, one a mourning child trying to keep her mother and sister afloat (whilst also grappling with questions about her own sexuality) and the other a lost alien trying to find its way home, really moved me. I am amused that once again my favorite story in a horror collection is probably the one that feels the least like a horror tale. But man. I just loved this one.
As a whole, I think that there were some hits and misses. Definitely more hits than misses, but I do kind of wish that the familial line connection had been a little more apparent outside of some references here and there. But what I did find really impressive was how the stories, though all written by one author, had such different unique voices and approaches that it could have easily been multiple authors in my mind had I now known the contents. I also want to shout out the really lovely artwork by Jeff Edwards, with images accompanying each short story.
I’m glad that I finally picked up “Manmade Monsters”! Sometimes it is worth going back and picking up a book that fell by the wayside for whatever reason.
Rating 8: A well crafted collection of stories passing through a family of Cherokee, “Manmade Monsters” is a subtle Indigenous horror collection that delves into multiple sub-genres and has a very specific perspective that I enjoyed.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Manmade Monsters” is included on the Goodreads lists “Indigenous Voices”, and “Native American Female Authors”.
The Library Ladies 