These Our Monsters by Katherine Davey

These Our Monsters Reviews

• 
  Delphine

  Such a beautiful concept: inspired by sites in the care of English Heritage, eight contemporary authors have turned afresh to the legends of the past.
  
  A captivating read for anyone interested in English folklore.
  
  The authors try to recover the history and folklore that surrounds the location and simultaneously strive to absorb some of its atmosphere:
  
  'These our monsters' by Edward Carey
  about the 'goblins' of Woolpit, two green children emerging from an underground world (a very common theme across the UK). The green boy pretty soon died, but the green girl learned English and eventually married a human being.
  
  'Great pucklands' by Alison MacLeod
  about Darwins special relationship to his little girl Annie, who died. The story features observations of fairies ('pucks') that weren't always benevolent.
  
  'Goibert of the Moon' by Paul Kingsnorth
  about Stonehenge and the folkore of the 'hare goddess': a hare dancing clockwise at full moon around a person grieving. The Hare is evoked as a witch-like creature, a sacred animal, and linked to the Easter bunny. Kingsnorth mentions the (forcefully) abandoned village of Imber, that was taken over by the army and never given back to the original inhabitants.
  
  'The Hand under the Stone' by Sarah Hall
  about the stone circles and the theory that the stones are actually bewitched people that offended on a sabbath. Beautiful story about a girl with her brother gone crazy, having prehistoric looks and living in a shed, who can't be changed into a human again.
  
  'The Dark Thread' by Graeme Macrae Burnet
  centred around Whitby (the capital of the goth), focusing on Dracula, the fictional vampire steeped deep in English and Irish folklore. Presented as pieces of Bram Stokers diary (bearing a resemblance to the Dracula novel itself), it shows how Stoker was haunted by the 'dearg due' himself.
  
  'Breakynecky' by Sarah Moss
  about the dangerous medieval staircase of Berwick Castle. 'Redcaps' would have operated there, wicked creatures (in Anglo-Scottish literature) that kill human beings with stones and use their blood to redden their caps.
  
  'The loathly lady' by Fiona Mozley
  a recounting of an Arthurian story about Sir Gawain, who is forced to marry an ugly woman (turning out to be a beautiful lady, of course). 'What do women want?' is a crucial question, the answer 'Choice' as important.
  
  'Capture' by Adam Thorpe
  about the legend of Tristan and Iseult.
  
  I will definitely look into the English Heritage book 'Eight ghosts', which uses the same concept.
• 
  Phoenix Mendoza

  My favorite read of the year so far. A very, very boldly written anthology of short horror stories based on English heritage sites and their folklore. I enjoyed every story for different reasons, and hardly any of them blended into the rest because they were all told with such distinct voices. I felt totally transported to each world and each site. There was also a lot of creative and experimental use of language and Old English, some of which reminded me of Ridley Walker, one of my favorite novels of all time. Beautiful, haunting, memorable.
• 
  Jo

  Published by English Heritage, this collection of short stories was inspired by several sites run by the organisation and by British folklore. Like all short story collections, some were better than others and a couple I couldn't really see any connection with the historic site.
• 
  Chris Housden

  Sadly, the eight new stories in this aren't nearly as good as the lore they were inspired by from English Heritage sites, which is included in the back in its own section. Only two of them really worked, personally, with the rest feeling slightly 'writing exercise-y', while the introduction and the section of sites' histories and tales at the back were much more interesting.
• 
  Emily

  You should really get your hands on this anthology, if only to read the title story, These Our Monsters by Edward Carey. This short story is so good I am considering sending a copy to my long-time-ago college English professor.
  
  It is written in the first person plural “we” of a small-minded catholic village recounting its run-in with goblins. The village is real and so is the story: Woolpit, Suffolk, and the legend of the Green Children. All the stories in the anthology are british place-based folktale retellings. This one is written like an ethnography, in a poor man's regional English. The voice is the theme, and that, in my opinion, is what makes a good story.
  
  

  These we have: Adam, Aymer, Oddo, Gilbert, Hemmet, Gerolt, Roger, Hugh, John, Ralf, Nicolas, Wilkin and Watty. These we don't: Bonnacon Basilik, Chimera, Siths, Fauns, Devils, Leucrota, Ghosts and witches folk. Or either fould things in the forest. Or neihter objects they don't obey. Screaming in the houses — that we do. But not little people that are no bigger than a conker. Trees that have voices, never. Hunchedbacked longears — that we do. Childers born with two heafs, a pig with six legs, that sort of thing — no, no we do not.

  
  
  
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• 
  Ruth

  Always hard to rate, but I’m rating this anthology for the best of its stories, rather than an aggregate of them all. Unlike its companion book
  Eight Ghosts this also has a highly entertaining afterword on the folklore of English Heritage sites, the first 8 being the basis for the stories included. The eponymous first story by Edward Carey is a fabulous piece of writing, and some following also come close. Only one I found dull. Also has great illustrations by
  Clive Hicks-Jenkins.
• 
  Δημήτριος Καραγιάννης

  This is a collection of high-quality stories. Horror is the element most commonly invoked, or to put it slightly better, awe. You might recognize some of these stories, such as the story of Gawain and his ugly intended, or the story of how Merlin helped build Stonehenge. They are reiterated here with clever, contemporary twists and do not disappoint, instilling a chilling sensation to the reader: You feel watched, you feel in tune with ancient grounds of worship and legend. Once, legendary creatures might indeed have roamed these sites and performed unspeakable rites, how can we ever really tell?
• 
  Carly Laughlin

  "These Our Monsters" had some decent short stories, though most of them fell a little flat for me. The 3 I particularly enjoyed were "These Our Monsters" (the title story), "Hand Under the Stone" and "The Loathly Lady". Some of the others just didn't really go anywhere; the last story "Capture" I found really boring. I also discovered in the later section that 2 of the stories I did like were actually retellings of old folk tales and not totally original stories. Overall I was expecting a book of horror/folk tales but it felt like more of a history book.
• 
  Isobel

  A really great collection of short stories from around the UK, with a variety of narrative voices, themes and tensions. Only let down slightly by the end tale, which felt wishy washy and pointless compared to the rest, but it didn't dent my enjoyment of the other stories. The highlight for me was the story about the goblin children.
• 
  Richard

  I am an avid English Heritage member and wanted to enjoy this book. I found it exceptionally poor. The stories were far from captivating and aside from the tale around Carlisle Castle all instantly forgettable. Sure others will find more to enjoy but the least enjoyable book of the year.
• 
  Erica-Lynn

  Not as brilliant as ‘Eight Ghosts,’ the companion anthology for English Heritage, this compilation of short stories based on folktales (or folk horrors) set at various Heritage sites and written by authors such as Sarah Moss, is nevertheless very enjoyable.
• 
  Katie

  Thought these were going to be lighthearted fairy tale - esque, but instead, it is a collectionnof creepy, dark folktales, which I love.
  
  Some of my favourites include
  Great Pucklands
  Goibert of the Moon
  The Dark Thread
  Breaknecky
• 
  Runalong

  Very disappointing - hardly any stories of lengths and myth sacrificed for literary style with little substance. Much preferred their horror collection
• 
  Liz Goodwin

  This is the time of year when we seek out stories to touch something primitive in us - we want to revisit the things that scared us years ago, and dig up those that have scared people through the ages. Most of all, we crave the sensation of fear, whether it’s a shiver or a gasp or - for me - a queasiness that signals dread. To satisfy this perennial hunger, English Heritage (the organization which oversees nationally important sites) commissioned two anthologies. In one, top-notch authors crafted ghost stories in historic settings; in the other, they fashioned tales around figures of legend. Time periods, styles and messages vary, but all triggered that peculiar feeling in the pit of my stomach. They also gave me an itchy Google-finger. But instead of typing, I merely flipped to the enlightening endnotes. Both books are the perfect package for any combination of: History Buff, Anglophile, Chill-seeker.