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| And so it goes... by Mateo Dineen |
Like most Fantasy writers, I have a long-held fascination with monsters. Ghosts, demons, vampires or zombies, anything that makes the heart beat faster captures my eye and may eventually wind up in my books. I mean, among other things, monsters create the perfect context to explore human emotions.
This has always been so!
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| Evil Minotaur by Li Wenda |
Monsters have been around for as long as civilization, weaving their way into our stories with terrifying, and exciting results. Think of ancient Minoan's Minotaur, the Greek Scylla, the Norse Kracken...
Monsters then appear in the earliest novels with Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764) and on to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, first published in 1818.
Still going strong in our contemporary reads, monsters are taking on a new appearance. No longer just a force of nature that must be slain, monsters are becoming helpful, sensitive, compassionate. We are beginning to form relationships with them. Think Twilight, I Zombie, Warm Bodies, Vampire Diaries, The Hulk...
I've talked about this inner growth in Vampire Evolution, but today I thought it would be fun to look at what's up and coming in YA monster fiction. Let's look at a few on my TBR List for 2022.
Only a Monster by Vanessa Len
From Goodreads:
Joan Chang-Hunt has no idea she's part monster until she's thrust into a battle between the boy she has a crush on and one of the most ruthless monster families of London.
It should have been the perfect summer. Sent to stay with her late mother’s eccentric family in London, sixteen-year-old Joan is determined to enjoy herself. She loves her nerdy job at the historic Holland House, and when her super cute co-worker Nick asks her on a date, it feels like everything is falling into place.
But she soon learns the truth. Her family aren’t just eccentric: they’re monsters, with terrifying, hidden powers. And Nick isn’t just a cute boy: he’s a legendary monster slayer, who will do anything to bring them down.
As she battles Nick, Joan is forced to work with the beautiful and ruthless Aaron Oliver, heir to a monster family that hates her own. She’ll have to embrace her own monstrousness if she is to save herself, and her family. Because in this story . . .
. . . she is not the hero.
A brilliantly compelling YA fantasy from a dazzling new Australian talent. Don't forget the rule. No one can know what you are. What we are. ...
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Pet by Awkaeke Emezi
There are no more monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. With doting parents and a best friend named Redemption, Jam has grown up with this lesson all her life. But when she meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colours and claws, who emerges from one of her mother's paintings and a drop of Jam's blood, she must reconsider what she's been told.The Valkyrie's Daughter by Tiana Warner
For as long as Sigrid could remember, she’s wanted to become a mighty, fearless valkyrie. But without a winged mare, she’s a mere stable hand, left wondering who her parents were and why she’s so different. So when the Eye shows her a vision where she's leading a valkyrie charge on the legendary eight-legged horse Sleipnir, she grabs the possibility of this greater destiny with both hands, refusing to let go.
