Monstrous Affections: An Anthology of Beastly Tales

Fifteen top voices in speculative fiction explore the intersection of fear and love in a haunting, at times hilarious, darkly imaginative volume.

Predatory kraken that sing with - and for - their kin; band members and betrayed friends who happen to be demonic; harpies as likely to attract as to repel. Welcome to a world where humans live side-by-side with monsters, from vampires both nostalgic and bumbling, to an eight-legged alien who makes tea. Here you'll find mercurial forms that burrow into warm fat, spectral boy toys, a Maori force of nature, a landform that claims lives, and an architect of hell on earth. Through these, and a few monsters that defy categorization, some of today's top young-adult authors explore ambition and sacrifice, loneliness and rage, love requited and avenged, and the boundless potential for connection, even across extreme borders.

Moriabe's Children / Paolo Bacigalupi --
Old souls / Cassandra Clare --
Ten rules for being an intergalactic smuggler (the successful kind) / Holly Black --
Quick hill / M.T. Anderson --
The diabolist / Nathan Ballingrud --
This whole demoning thing / Patrick Ness --
Wings in the morning / Sarah Rees Brennan --
Left foot, right / Nalo Hopkinson --
The Mercurials / G. Carl Purcell --
Kitty Capulet and the invention of underwater photography / Dylan Horrocks --
Son of abyss / Nik Houser --
A small wild magic / Kathleen Jennings --
The new boyfriend / Kelly Link --
The woods hide in plain sight / Joshua Lewis --
Mothers, lock up your daughters because they are terrifying / Alice Sola Kim