Reviews

We Shall Be Monsters by Liam Hogan, Day Al-Mohamed, D. Simon Turner, Victoria K. Martin, Cait Gordon, Lisa Carreiro, Eric Choi, Arianna Verbree, Randall G. Arnold, Priya Sridhar, Corey Redekop, Andrew Wilmot, Joshua Bartolome, Kaitlin Tremblay, Lena Ng, Kev Harrison, Joseph McGinty, Alex Acks, J.F. Garrard, Max D. Stanton, Jennifer Lee Rossman, Ashley Caranto Morford, Evelyn Deshane, Derek Newman-Stille, Halli Lilburn, K.C. Grifant

pineapplefury's review

4.0

I’m not sure that I’ve ever read an anthology that was SO singular in its focus, and it makes for a fascinating read, though I’m a bit on the fence of if that helps or hinders. Perhaps both at times!

“We Shall Be Monsters” is an anthology of stories that are overwhelmingly, though not uniformly, about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, in some way, shape, or form. I would love to see the call for this one because some veer VERY SHARPLY off theme while others stick to it.

I don’t think it’s a secret that I love explorations of monstrousness, so I was really excited about this one, and it was interesting to see laid out many different authors’ interpretations of the theme.

As with any anthology, some stories worked better for me than others. My favourites of this collection were “Excerpts From The Personal Journal of Dr Frankenstein[…]” by Alex Acks, “Enough” by Jennifer Lee Rossman, “Famous Monsters” by Arianna Verbree, and “More” by Kaitlin Tremblay.

Also, obligatory shout out to “The Last Confession of Dottore Geppetto” for its truly wild Frankenstein/Pinocchio crossover.

apostrophen's review

I'm trying to rekindle my "Sunday Shorts" reviews habit, and likely many of the tales from this collection will be part of that. This link will gather them as the year goes by.

the_original_shelf_monkey's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

yubsie's review

4.0

The eternal problem of giving a star rating to an anthology. Overall, I really liked this collection. Frankenstein deals with a lot of fascinating themes and the writers just run with that, and introduce themes that the original wasn't ready to deal with but still speaks to. A couple of the stories got a smidge gory for my tastes, but this is a great book.