According to the latest Horror Zine anthology, you can find monsters in swimming pools, shopping malls, hospital morgues, cornfields and blackberry brambles. But monsters, as we all know, aren’t just limited to the physical world, they can also live inside your head. Truly they exist within and without. 

For example, in a story called “What Lurks Within” by Tyler John Kasishke, a man named Lewis (!!) lives in a parallel world of fantastical woodland creatures. Featuring requisite nods to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Jefferson Airplane, Kasishke’s white rabbit is a monster that doesn’t respect the line separating dreams and reality. 

Similarly, Chris Allen’s psychological horror tale titled “Red Spider” is about a college student’s Poe-like obsession with a giant crimson spider. Is the spider real, or is it just a figment of his imagination? Here’s a clue: the author freely admits having a phobia of arachnids. ‘Nuff said. 

Like all psychological horror, monster fiction puts readers in an extreme space of untenable chaos. It’s cathartic and fun. After all, there’s not much you can do when you’re being attacked by a gang of mannequins, a family of trolls or an orchestra of crickets. You might as well sit back and enjoy the ride. 

No surprise, my favorite stories in the collection are less ambiguous and more overt. “Mouths” by Shawn Phelps is about a woman who becomes infamous for her ghastly art projects and “Nom Nom” by Elizabeth Massie is about a man who creates a stinky monster born from his “jism of loathing.” Elsewhere there are enough scarecrows, golems, demons, parasites and angry gods to satisfy any monster dilettante. The Jersey Devil even shows up to smash a small group of inept paranormal investigators. 

My two favorite stories come from co-editor Dean H. Wild and Bentley Little. There’s a sewer serpent living in the bowels of a three-story flophouse in “Where the Water Flows.” The “Pipe Slider” is suitably revolting (“wet and flabby,” says the author), but the antics of four dotty reprobates are a hoot. “We were a confluence, the four of us,” says the landlord, “a churning storm that hailed the thing in my basement with the acuity of a dog whistle.”

Easily the most queasy thing in this Horror Zine compilation is a story called “That Summer.” Like me, you’ll wince when a small boy gets a slimy fishy mouth kiss from a mysterious bog creature. It’s gross, but not untoward. “Yore mama loves you,” drawls a nearby acquaintance with a smile.  

[ The Horror Zine’s Book of Monster Stories / Edited by Jeani Rector and Dean H. Wild / First Printing: January 2024 / ISBN: 9781953905864 ]