Ben was just a young boy living in a small town; but, already had a life that was less then perfect. Just a normal boy that wanted to play and be happy; however, he could never find that sanctuary. Between the constant teasing, the lack of compassion, or the lack of protection from teachers -Ben was all alone in school. Home was just as isolated with his abusive and drug addicted parents that offered nothing but neglect. He was always alone. Until one specific night, when what remained of that little boy's innocence was ripped from him. Like the devil stealing a soul. Laying in bed one evening, he could hear his parents fighting upstairs. He hated it when this happened because he always feared that one of these times his father would kill his mother, and than come for him. He would just lay there, sinking into the mattress as deep as possible. Eventually the screaming and fighting stopped, and it went silent long enough for him to fall asleep. But this night was different. It was the night that changed everything. The night where a little innocent boy was lost for good, and, a monster was accidentally created.

A behind-the-scenes look at the great film make-up artists, their careers and creations from Frankenstein to Star Wars.

In the last decade, reports of incest have exploded into the national consciousness. Magazines, talk shows, and mass market paperbacks have taken on the subject as many Americans, primarily women, have come forward with graphic memories of childhood abuse. Making Monsters examines the methods of therapists who treat patients for depression by working to draw out memories or, with the use of hypnosis, to encourage fantasies of childhood abuse the patients are told they have repressed. Since this therapy may leave the patient more depressed and alienated than before, questions are appropriately raised here about the ethics and efficacy of such treatment. In the last decade, reports of incest have exploded into the national consciousness. Magazines, talk shows, and mass market paperbacks have taken on the subject as many Americans, primarily women, have come forward with graphic memories of childhood abuse. Making Monsters examines the methods of therapists who treat patients for depression by working to draw out memories or, with the use of hypnosis, to encourage fantasies of childhood abuse the patients are told they have repressed. Since this therapy may leave the patient more depressed and alienated than before, questions are appropriately raised here about the ethics and efficacy of such treatment.

A leading scholar explores what it means to dehumanize othersÑand how and why we do it. ÒI wouldnÕt have accepted that they were human beings. You would see an infant whoÕs just learning to smile, and it smiles at you, but you still kill it.Ó So a Hutu man explained to an incredulous researcher, when asked to recall how he felt slaughtering Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. Such statements are shocking, yet we recognize them; we hear their echoes in accounts of genocides, massacres, and pogroms throughout history. How do some people come to believe that their enemies are monsters, and therefore easy to kill? In Making Monsters David Livingstone Smith offers a poignant meditation on the philosophical and psychological roots of dehumanization. Drawing on harrowing accounts of lynchings, Smith establishes what dehumanization is and what it isnÕt. When we dehumanize our enemy, we hold two incongruous beliefs at the same time: we believe our enemy is at once subhuman and fully human. To call someone a monster, then, is not merely a resort to metaphorÑdehumanization really does happen in our minds. Turning to an abundance of historical examples, Smith explores the relationship between dehumanization and racism, the psychology of hierarchy, what it means to regard others as human beings, and why dehumanizing others transforms them into something so terrifying that they must be destroyed. Meticulous but highly readable, Making Monsters suggests that the process of dehumanization is deeply seated in our psychology. It is precisely because we are all human that we are vulnerable to the manipulations of those trading in the politics of demonization and violence.

A free verse biography of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, featuring over 300 pages of black-and-white watercolor illustrations.

Her move to Los Angeles was supposed to restart her life. But with one quick bite, it is her death that has been begun. A chance meeting with a mysterious stranger has transformed this conventional wife into a creature that prowls the dark streets desperate to quench her need for blood. Impervious to the night, she joins a rock and roll band and searches among those lost souls for companionship, always feeling like she does not belong. Caught between loathing her new self and losing touch with whom she once was, Kate is a soul torn between loathing and longing. Facing a bloody struggle, Kate at last embraces her vampire nature . . . and only then does the mystery of immortality explode.

Hard to believe it looking at her now, but Rose West was an exceptionally beautiful little girl, with a Maltese mother and English father. Strangers would stop and stare at her in the street and she could entrance people from a very early age. But looking back at photos of Rose as a child, you struggle to accept that she grew up to one of the country's most notorious female criminals. In ROSE, Jane Carter Woodrow goes right back to the start in her life to try and piece together what happened to turn Rose West into the violent monster she became. Jane has gained unprecedented access to the family and has revealed a fascinating story of how there was always something 'not quite right' about Rose... And perhaps that's not too surprising... Rose's childhood reads like one of the most grim misery memoirs. Her father was a violent schizophrenic and her mother received electric shock therapy for severe clinical depression, the whole way through her pregnancy with Rose. Jane has uncovered a horrific hidden story of a twisted family and how her upbringing made her a perfect partner for Fred West when they met when Rose had just turned 16. She was to kill for the first time a few months later. This is a gripping, unputdownable read that sheds light for the first time on the story behind what turned Rose West into one of the country's most vicious and deadly serial killers.