Monstronomicon: 100 Horror Stories from 70 Authors by Tobias Wade

Monstronomicon: 100 Horror Stories from 70 Authors Reviews

• 
  Cheryl

  This was a slog for me and a DNF at 79%. I feel that there were just too many stories and I started losing interest at about 60 stories but plugged on for a little longer. The problem with such a large anthology is that the really good tales end up being unmemorable simply by being swamped from the sheer volume of ideas.
• 
  E.Z. Morgan

  Monstronomicon is an anthology of 100 monster stories written by 70 different authors. If that sounds like a difficult undertaking, you’d be right. Balancing the voices of 70 different people is an art in and of itself. Add in blood-curdling monsters and this becomes a mountain of a project. Overall, I feel this work was very successful in what it was trying to accomplish.
  
  As a result of this publication, a new series is being piloted to promote indie authors on the small screen. “Into Midnight” is a production similar to Black Mirror in that every episode will have a different story, but will all be based in the horror genre. I really hope to see this series get off the ground and shine some light on unknown talent.
  
  Going back to the book, it is a production published by Haunted House Publishing. They have published a number of horror novels from indie authors, mostly from the subreddit Nosleep. I commend them for giving these authors a platform and helping readers to discover new and important voices.
  
  So now for the review. I am going to start with the negatives. Controversial, I know. But the reason for this is because the negatives are far outweighed by the positives. As much as I loved this anthology (hell, I have two stories in it!) there were some issues that I couldn’t ignore.
  
  First was the format and editing. It was clear that this book was not professionally edited. A few misspelled words do not bother me, but when there are unnecessary formatting issues (such as the authors’ names being written twice on some stories, once on the others) it becomes distracting. Many stories had odd line breaks in the middle of sentences or were just poorly structured. I would highly recommend investing in a professional editor to eliminate these problems.
  
  My second hang-up was around the order of the stories. They seemed to be in no discernible pattern. I would have preferred it if the book was split up into chapters. Perhaps one chapter could include psychological monsters, another for spiritual ones, etc. This would give the reader a sense of organization and forward motion as they progressed through the book. As it stands now it feels like the stories were amassed as one might pile up dirty laundry on the floor.
  
  Despite these two major qualms, the works included in this anthology are phenomenal. It has everything one might want from monster-centered horror. I read about huge, Lovecraftian terrors to skittering, insectile beasts. I come from a psychological horror background and was pleasantly surprised to see that some of the worst monsters were humans. I want to highlight a few stories that I particularly enjoyed.
  
  The first I would like to showcase is called “Giggle” and is by the author Derek Hawke. I won’t spoil the story, but the amount of lore-building Hawke was able to do in such a short span was impressive. As a reader I feared for the main character but also marveled the situation. The truth is that there are terrors far bigger than the giggle in the nighttime.
  
  I also enjoyed “ADINN” by Jesse Clark. Clark paints a beautiful picture of a world that may or may not be contained within a computer. I found myself rooting for the narrator while also questioning what was real. It didn’t rely on scares to make the reader afraid. Instead, Clark created both a claustrophobic and desolate landscape that built up the nervousness and sense of urgency in the narrative.
  
  Finally, I want to round my top three picks with a classic monster story. “The Witness” by Edyth Pax-Boyr, gives us a creature to fear while also creating a realistic world for it to exist in. In truth, it is a story of loss and what that looks like for different people. I loved the description of the monster. It left enough up to my imagination that I was satisfyingly disturbed. It also has an ending you will not want to miss.
  
  Just like any anthology, there were some stories I enjoyed more than others, but overall the scope of the production is inspiring. There was a vast array of storytellers to satisfy even the pickiest critic. I am monstrously impressed with the dedication each author gave to their craft. This is a book I will go back to again and again to find new meanings and discover old fears.
  
  Wretched Review Score: 7/10
• 
  Tam

  There's something to satisfy almost every horror fan. This one kept me up late into the night, a couple of nights in a row.
  
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  Roxie Prince

  Read this review and more on my blog at
  Hey, Roxie Reads!
  
  ‘Monstronomicon: 100 Horror Stories from 70 Authors’ by Various
  ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5
  Finished on April 19, 2019
  Read with Kindle Unlimited Subscription
  FREE on Kindle Unlimited | $4.99 on Kindle | $26.21 on Audiobook | $24.99 in Paperback
  
  BOOK DESCRIPTION:
  THE MONSTRONOMICON is a collection of 100 stories from around the world. These aren't your everyday Werewolves and Wendigos either. Each story is told by the survivor of an encounter with a unique and mysterious creature more wild and varied than you can imagine. This book has something for everyone with a dark mind, so read now to find the perfect monster for you.
  
  Some monsters are quirky and friendly, while others are apocalyptic behemoths crawling up from the depths. Some stories are heartwarming, funny, or profound, while others are a blood bath.
  
  MY REVIEW:
  When I heard about the upcoming release of this collection, I was excited. I am a huge fan of stories about monsters, and what could be better than a bunch of them by some of my favorite NoSleep authors?
  
  Well, I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t as impressed with this book as I wanted to be. I wanted to love it, but I closed it and felt hollow.
  
  There are some excellent stories in here by talented authors, but I think the not-so-great ones overshadow them. That’s unfortunate. Whoever put this collection together should have been more selective, only selecting stories by authors who are on par with one another. Failure to do so made this collection feel imbalanced and took the shine off the good tales.
  
  There were way too many stories in this collection I couldn’t finish for me to give it anything above a 3-star review, and even that feels generous. Some of them were rambly and all over the place. Some of them did the thing I dislike the most and sacrifice solid plot and character development for gore and shock value. And others were just poorly edited — inconsistent tenses, grammatical errors, etc.
  
  I read this with my Kindle Unlimited subscription, and I’m glad I did. If I had purchased this collection outright, I think I might have felt even worse about it.
  
• 
  Joshua Hair

  I'll preface this review by saying that I've read just about every other book put out by Haunted House Publishing and loved most of them. I was so incredibly excited to hear about this massive project and even more excited to be one of the first to review it. Unfortunately, I found my progress jarred to a halt again and again by the abundant lack of editing. It's strange, really; Tobias Wade and his team usually put out top-rate horror. I've noticed that, for whatever reason, the editing has become slack in the last few publications, although none are nearly as bad as this one.
  
  Don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of really great stories in here. Out of such a massive collection (We're talking nearly seven hundred pages here, people!) you're bound to run into some duds as well as some errors. That said, I read story after story that had missing words, misspellings, or just plain crummy syntax. I don't know what's going on as of late but I really hope Mister Wade can tighten up his editing department. There are a lot of really talented authors pouring out their hearts here and, as desperately as I wanted to love what they've accomplished, I was forced to watch it all flounder and fall under some truly egregious editorial issues.
  
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  Amy Arndt

  Full disclosure: I wasn`t able to read all 100 stories, so I`m basing my review on the stories I did read.
  I liked this collection of short horror stories. Some of them were really creepy and eerie. Some of my favorites were: The Whistler`s Highway, My Father-In-Law, and The Deepest Part of the Ocean Isn`t Empty. The ones that were my least favorite didn`t give me the scare factor I like in my horror stories, and at least one left me more confused than creeped out. I`m definitely going to finish this collection, because there are more gems than bad apples here that make me want to keep reading it to the end. There were quite a few typos in some of the stories. Some typos were minor, while others threw me out of the stories for brief moments because I was correcting the punctuation, misued or missing words, and grammar in my head. All in all a solid collection. I could definitely see some of these being turned into creepypasta short films.
• 
  Loreal

  This is indeed a monster-sized collection, not only in number, but in terms of the way you can perceive and therefore illustrate monstrous things.
  In the first 20 bite-sized stories I've read so far, there have been hideous things alien and vicious; creepy and sly things that prey upon the mind, in much the same manner of Edgar Allan Poe; aberrant things you want to destroy or hide from; and even some that, on reflection, twisted or otherwise, are invited to stay.
  
  There are also multiple offerings from the same author, so you're bound to find more than a few stories to enjoy and come back. None have given me the shakes or nightmares, but there are definitely ones that make me feel unsettled and "creeped out". Thus far, I can recommend this collection as an enjoyable read.
  
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  Linda

  I was very excited about this book until I started reading the stories. Some of the stories were refreshingly different from other "scary" stories, yet others were not very interesting ones to read. I found several typo errors in some of the stories, making them harder to read. I guess when you put this many stories together in one book, they can't all be good. Too many seemed like lame stories told around a campfire by kids who thought a bump in the night was scary. Maybe it was because the stories were so short. I just know it didn't capture my interest, making it a very long read.
  
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  Michelle

  This is a huge book of 100 short stories by mixed authors with monster themes of all kinds. If you love monsters, you’re bound to find something in here you’ll love. Like any mixed story book, there are going to some you love and some not so much, but I found it generally enjoyable myself. Some are downright creepy, some sort of predictable, some cute, and then some really twisted. Worth the read if this is your sort of thing, and you might find some new authors to follow you weren’t familiar with before.
  
  I received a free copy of this book as an ARC and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  Alan Loewen

  An Uneven, But Still Entertaining Collection
  
  One hundred short horror stories cover a lot of ground and not every tale hits it out of the ball park. Some read like hastily written creepypastas while some are legitimate short stories. Many read like flash fiction worthy of the genre. Regardless, the anthology is all in all an entertaining read and worth the time. Not all will strike your fancy, but enough them will surely entertain.
  
  One caveat. There are a LOT of typos and grammatical mistakes.
• 
  Blanche Padgett

  This book is a lot of short stories about monsters, strange places and other creepy things. Some of the stories were great but for every 2 or 3 good ones there's a not so good one.
  
  I received an ARC from Booksprout and this is my honest review
  
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  Claudia

  What a fantastic anthology! Of course, as in any anthology, and particularly one with so many stories, you'll find a wide variety of themes and styles, and some will sit better with you than others.
  
  But seriously, the quality of the stories is astonishing, From truly scary to creepy to ominous, you'll find something here that it's just for you.
  
  A recommended read!
• 
  Wendy Eads

  Had high hopes when I started to read this anthology, and it did not disappoint. Hooked from page one. Stories flowed quickly and did not become boring. Before I knew it I was at the end. Loved it and will be reading it again.
  
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  Mama Creep

  Wow! Just wow This book is amazing. I love how each of the monsters are so unique. The descriptions are very great. Makes it easier for me to imagine what they really look like. At least not all of the monsters are creepy, some stories portray gentle monsters. Overall an amazing book and would totally recommend.
• 
  Carrie

  There are a lot of different short stories in here, something for everyone, I'm sure most will like some more then others like I did but all in all this is awesome, I love short stories cause your mind can wonder so many different ways.
  
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  April

  A comprehensive collection of chilling, spine tingling horror stories. Each one is horrifying in its own way, and all are gripping. I absolutely loved this collection!
  
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  Hannah

  The stories in this book are unique and full of variety. Some are a little spooky while others are comical or absolutely terrifying. A great anthology for people who love monster stories and horror in general.
  
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  melody rainbow

  A great book with amazing stories in it.
  Some real scary and creepy stories.
  I really enjoyed reading these stories and highly recommend this to read.
  
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  Faizah Mahfuz

  This was an interesting book, I enjoyed reading it a lot. The combination of stories with different author made it more refreshing.
  
  I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
• 
  Annemarie

  There is something within these pages for everyone. Some will out and out scare you. Others will make you wish that the Author could have made a short story long. All will leave you wanting more. Happy reading. Annemarie