Monster Carnival: An Anthology of Things, Beasts & Creatures

 This Halloween the monsters are real, and they are coming to your house! Shadow House Publishing opens the crypt and unleashes a MONSTER CARNIVAL!

Under the bed and behind the closet, in dank basements and gloomy attics…they are the whisper in the dark, the growl in the corner…they are everything we fear, and all that we secretly desire…they are us…they are MONSTERS!

MONSTER CARNIVAL: An Anthology of Things, Beasts, & Creatures, edited by supernatural horror author and critic WILLIAM P. SIMMONS, is an evocative anthology featuring the monsters that terrified us when we were children…and still do.

They’re all here, a paranormal parade of the dead, demonic, and devilish! Vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghouls, and blobs…unnamable entities and marvelous monstrosities, murderous severed hands and demonic frogs…every crawling, lurching, leaping, shambling THING that ever stalked a printed page.

They were the original bad boys of horror–the ugly outcast, the despised loner, the creature from the grave-basement-coffin-outer space-that everybody loved to be scared by (even as we secretly rooted for them). From ancient folklore bogies to inter-dimensional demons, this funerary feast of 22 classic and rare stories makes fear fun again.

Children of the night stalk in 22 tales from a diverse group of authors, some well-known, others anonymous or forgotten, from the gothic era to the 20th century. Contributors include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, E.F. Benson, H.P. Lovecraft, Ambrose Bierce, Rudyard Kipling, Lord Dunsany, and H.G. Wells alongside fear specialists Manly Wade Wellman, Frank Belknap Long, William Hope Hodgson, Henry S. Whitehead, and Robert E. Howard. Some chilling tales make their first appearance in decades, including monstrosities from Edward Lucas White, Victor Roman, Anthony M. Rud, Hume Nisbet, Ulric Daubeny, Augustus Hare, and several others.

Editor William P. Simmons leads this spectral spectacle, hand-picking supernatural, psychological, and weird tales for every torrid taste. From the bloody behemoths of pulp magazines to the terror titans of the Lovecraft circle, from classic supernatural monsters to mutants and slithery things with tentacles, this compendium of long legged beasties and ‘things that go bump in the night’ features an Introduction discussing the appeal of the monster in fiction.

Featuring a cast of creatures to delight and disgust, the Monster Carnival has something for everyone... Well everyone who is not afraid to plow full steam ahead into some very dark and disturbing worlds where creatures masquerade as human and family curses can ruin one's love life.

Most of these stories were new to me, since my knowledge of the classics is pretty limited to Poe and Lovecraft. This anthology includes monsters that were familiar to me, but aside from the usual werewolf and vampire fare it offers strange and unusual tales with creatures that as of yet had never made the acquaintance of my nightmares. I am sure that will change now that I have been introduced to several wondrous and horrifying beings. Read if you dare, and should you see something from the corner of your eye in the misty morning fog trust your vision and seek immediate shelter.

I received a complimentary copy for review.

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Monster Carnival Table of Contents:

• Here There Be Monsters, William P. Simmons
• Amina, Edward Lucas White
• Four Wooden Stakes, Victor Rowan
• The Hounds of Tindalos, Frank Belknap Long
• Mark of the Beast, Rudyard Kipling
• The Demon’s Spell, Hume Nisbet
• Jumbee, Henry S. Whitehead
• The Spectre Spiders, W.J. Wintle
• The Werewolf, Eugene O’Neil
• At the End of the Corridor, Evangeline Walton
• The Hoard of the Gibbelins, Lord Dunsany
• The Lurking Fear, H.P. Lovecraft
• The Sea Raiders, H.G. Wells
• Lot 249, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Voice in the Night, William Hope Hodgson
• The Vampire of Cronglin Grange, Augustus Hare
• Frogfather, Manly Wade Wellman
• Rukorokubi, Lafcadio Hearn
• The Death of Halpin Frayser, Ambrose Bierce
• The Beast with Five Fingers, W.F. Harvey
• The Sumach, Ulric Daubeny
• Ooze, Anthony M. Rud
• The Thing in the Hall, E.F. Benson
• About the Editor: William P. Simmons is a supernatural fiction author, critic, & journalist. Eight of his stories earned Honorable Mentions in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. By Reason of Darkness was praised by Publisher’s Weekly, All Hallows & Cemetery Dance. Graham Masterton, Hugh B. Cave & T.M. Wright endorsed his fiction. He has interviewed such authors as Richard Matheson, F. Paul Wilson & Caitlin Kiernan.
• SHADOW HOUSE PUBLISHING preserves our horror heritage!