Monstrous

Monstrous contains some famous creatures. You will find poems about Mary Shelley’s monster, who writes a new ending to his story. There are also lesser known monstrosities, such as sharks that eat suns, kings who wear crowns decorated with eyes, evil fairies, and the dubious future of the game of cricket. Garden gnomes, in all their hideous whimsy, keep popping up. They are even found on the moon. Travel there with a nineteenth century adventurer on a steam-engine, along with some hidden aliens. Monsters take many forms, both disturbing and amusing. The horrible and the hilarious walk together in this book.

Monstrous is a collection to be enjoyed, delighted in, disturbed by and greatly admired.

– Kaaron Warren, award-winning author of Tide of Stone

As a child I was fascinated by the threat of violence I found implicit in gnomes, but you don’t need that history to be engaged with Monstrous; it is enough that Cottier knows the gnomes will come for you, whether capitalist or communist, cheeks ruddy as measles, their barrow beckons. They dream of fingers. They dream of wings. Tooth faeries, serial killers silenced in series, the danger growing on our own skin or how we have turned ourselves into werewolves; this book distrusts its own narrators and that is a welcome change as it explores misogyny, capitalism, colonization and the moon. What have these blunt fingers touched — Cottier does not pose any questions she does not have an answer for.

– Andrew Galan, author of the award-winning For All The Veronicas (The Dog Who Staid)