{"id":162657518,"date":"2025-08-27T07:32:01","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T12:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=162657518"},"modified":"2025-08-27T08:29:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T13:29:39","slug":"11-monster-books-you-should-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=162657518","title":{"rendered":"11 Monster Books You Should Read"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re not a beautiful monster, then you\u2019re a villager.\u201d – Stephen Graham Jones, ‘Mongrels’ <\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Not sure what\u2019s come over me, but the urge has struck me to write some book lists. This blog has a weekly book recommendation, but sometimes it\u2019s nice to have things grouped together in categories. I used to write book lists for Mental Floss (here’s one on contemporary monsters<\/a>, here’s one about winter books<\/a>), and would love to do these for money again. You know, if any of you readers happen to be freelance-commissioning editors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, I’m sure you don’t have enough to read, so here are some book recs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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this image is apparently called ‘More than forty miles of shelves, two millions of books, and “of the making … is no end”‘ (credit: Wikimedia Commons, Donald MacBeth<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Vampire Lestat<\/em> by Anne Rice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anne Rice\u2019s vampires are having a bit of a resurgence. The new Interview With A Vampire<\/em> series on AMC has re-animated the series, with some images of rock star Lestat<\/a> surfacing ahead of season three. I haven\u2019t read this book since high school, but I remember 1) rock star vampire being super cool, even if is genre does seem to be Spinal Tap metal and 2) shifting to Lestat\u2019s perspective blowing open new possibilities for the series, sorta like how season two of The Wire<\/em> re-orients your expectations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vampires Of El Norte<\/em> by Isabel Ca\u00f1as<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

how about a more recent vampire story? I don\u2019t want to give any exactly how vampires are used here, because it\u2019s scarier if you don\u2019t know. Suffice to say, the story is set as the U.S. is invading Mexico (remember how we don\u2019t have any right to the southwest?), and the vampires aren\u2019t from the south. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who Will Cradle Your Head<\/strong><\/em> by Jared Beloff<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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not sure who to credit with book covers\u2014press? artist? I bet ELJ Editions won’t come after me, IYKYK. Cover design is by Scott Meskill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Are these horror poems? Are these nature poems? There\u2019s a lot of swamp creature in here, and it rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Wives Under The Sea<\/strong><\/em> by Julia Armfield<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is such a lyrical, aching novel about a lesbian marriage slowly dissolving doing on a monster list? There aren\u2019t really monsters in this novel, and you\u2019d hardly classify it as horror. Still, the conceit is this: after spending six months sunken in the bottom of the ocean, a woman comes back changed. Is that change irrevocable? We don\u2019t know. What’s more terrifying than that? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

R E D <\/strong><\/em>by Chase Berggrun<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recommend this book all the time, I know, but it really is that good. I will probably read it this October. There\u2019s something comforting about it, to me. Something about the transformation and learning not to view yourself as monstrous\u2014that really hits me. Yes, the speaker of these poems is trans and I am not, but it still hits me deep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extended Stay <\/em>by Juan Martinez<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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credit: University of Arizona Press, Leigh McDonald<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The monster is a hotel. As in, I saw Juan at a reading and he called it \u201cthe hotel that eats people.\u201d The hotel, of course, with its Las Vegas setting, is Actually Capitalism. I’m being flippant for the sake of blog comedy\u2014this novel is really incredible, and an important mediation on how this country treats its underclass, particularly its non-white underclass. A meditation, that is, with gooey monsters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mongrels <\/em>by Stephen Graham Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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credit: Harper Collins Publishers, AldanNi\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Working class Indigenous werewolves. That’s all I need to say and that’s all I’m gonna say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Only Good Indians<\/em> by Stephen Graham Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to read a novel from the perspective<\/em> of a shapeshifting monster, but not, like, one of those Wicked<\/em> things, where the real monster is how we treat each other or whatever, like, you want a real scary monster<\/em> to basically be your narrator, but it’s not, like, hard<\/em> first person? You want this book. A friend (who reads as much or probably more than I do) told me that it was so scary she kept having to put it down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Daughter Of Doctor Moreau <\/strong><\/em>by Silvia Moreno-Garcia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who’s the real monsters, maaaaan? In this book, it’s pretty unsubtly science. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Devourers <\/em>by Indra Das<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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credit: Del Ray, Virginia Norey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gorgeous, haunting, cross-continental, epic, aching, loving, shredding the gender binary\u2014this book is true art from sentence to sentence. Werewolves, again, the opposite of Mongrels<\/em> on the stylistic coin, but no less about people on the margins and how they survive horror. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will You Sign My Tentacle? <\/em>by Brandon O’Brien<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gooey, cosmic horror poems. With rappers, too. These poems are full of self-doubt and sadness, and whatever is wrong with me, I had a blast with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s it\u2014get reading. Reading will make you feel better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorry you got an email, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you\u2019re not a beautiful monster, then you\u2019re a villager.\u201d – Stephen Graham Jones, ‘Mongrels’ Not sure what\u2019s come over me, but the urge has struck me to write some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162657526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,10],"tags":[111,31,29],"class_list":["post-162657518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-wednesday-column","tag-book-lists","tag-horror","tag-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162657518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=162657518"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162657518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162657529,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162657518\/revisions\/162657529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/162657526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=162657518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=162657518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=162657518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}