Hollywood has thrilled—and titillated—audiences with tales of women who love monsters since King Kong and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Our love affair with the ultimate “others” continued as we made the acquaintances of Barnabas Collins, Swamp Thing, the Vampire Lestat, Hellboy, and Shrek. Most recently, the genre was celebrated and, ultimately, validated when The Shape of Water won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture—a rare nod to the power and popularity of paranormal romance story-telling. It should come as no surprise that when ViceTV decided to do an episode on “Monsters Fantasies,” they came to Riverdale Avenue Books to interview some of those authors in an episode that aired in March 2018. Women Who Love Monsters With Stories by Cecilia Tan * Jamie K. Schmidt * Laura Antoniou * Katherine Ramsland* Trinity Blacio* Nathan Pettigrew * j. Gambardella * Truth Venson * CB Archer * Jennifer Williams * Stanley B. Webb * Amy Stilgenbauer * Cynthia Ward

A fresh cultural analysis of female monsters from Greek mythology, and an invitation for all women to reclaim these stories as inspiration for a more wild, more “monstrous” version of feminism The folklore that has shaped our dominant culture teems with frightening female creatures. In our language, in our stories (many written by men), we underline the idea that women who step out of bounds—who are angry or greedy or ambitious, who are overtly sexual or not sexy enough—aren’t just outside the norm. They’re unnatural. Monstrous. But maybe, the traits we’ve been told make us dangerous and undesirable are actually our greatest strengths. Through fresh analysis of 11 female monsters, including Medusa, the Harpies, the Furies, and the Sphinx, Jess Zimmerman takes us on an illuminating feminist journey through mythology. She guides women (and others) to reexamine their relationships with traits like hunger, anger, ugliness, and ambition, teaching readers to embrace a new image of the female hero: one that looks a lot like a monster, with the agency and power to match. Often, women try to avoid the feeling of monstrousness, of being grotesquely alien, by tamping down those qualities that we’re told fall outside the bounds of natural femininity. But monsters also get to do what other female characters—damsels, love interests, and even most heroines—do not. Monsters get to be complete, unrestrained, and larger than life. Today, women are becoming increasingly aware of the ways rules and socially constructed expectations have diminished us. After seeing where compliance gets us—harassed, shut out, and ruled by predators—women have never been more ready to become repellent, fearsome, and ravenous.

‘Every sentence is a delight in this taut and thrilling debut by Willa Richards.’ Elizabeth Wetmore, author of Valentine ‘Richards has flipped the usual narrative, centring not on the crime itself but on the loss that ripples from it.’ New York Times Book Review A remarkable debut novel for fans of Mary Gaitskill and Gillian Flynn about two sisters – one who disappears and the other who is left to pick up the pieces. In the summer of 1991, teen Dee McBride vanished in the city of Milwaukee. It was the summer the Journal Sentinel dubbed ‘the deadliest . . . in the history of Milwaukee.’ Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s heinous crimes dominated the headlines and the disappearance of one girl was easily overlooked. 2019, nearly thirty years later, Dee's sister, Peg, is still haunted by her disappearance. Desperate to find out what happened to her, the family hire a psychic and Peg is plunged back into the past. But Peg’s hazy recollections are far from easy to interpret and digging deep into her memory raises terrifying questions. How much trust can we place in our own recollections? How often are our memories altered by the very act of speaking them aloud? And what does it mean to bear witness in a world where even our own stories about what happened are inherently suspect? A heartbreaking page-turner, Willa C. Richards’ debut novel is the story of a broken family looking for answers in the face of the unknown.

Meet an adorable monster looking for love in Rachel Bright’s bestselling picture book Love Monster—a must-have for the little ones in your life. Love Monster wants to belong with the cuddly residents of Cutesville. But as it turns out, it's hard to fit in with the cute and the fluffy when you're a googly-eyed monster. And so, Love Monster sets out to find someone who will love him just the way he is. His journey is not easy—he looks high, low, and even middle-ish. But as he soon finds out, love can find you when you least expect it. With sweet illustrations and a heartwarming message about how everyone deserves love, this is the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day, baby showers, and celebrating love year-round. Join Love Monster on more adventures in: ● Love Monster and the Last Chocolate ● Love Monster and the Perfect Present ● Love Monster and the Scary Something

"Impossible to put down. It haunts me still.” -Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir A riveting, deeply personal exploration of the opioid crisis-an empathic memoir infused with hints of true crime. In November 2013, Rose Andersen's younger sister Sarah died of an overdose in the bathroom of her boyfriend's home in a small town with one of the highest rates of opioid use in the state. Like too many of her generation, she had become addicted to heroin. Sarah was 24 years old. To imagine her way into Sarah's life, Rose revisits their volatile childhood, marked by their stepfather's omnipresent rage and their father's pathological lying. As the dysfunction comes into focus, so does a broader picture of the opioid crisis and the drug rehabilitation industry in small towns across America. And when Rose learns from the coroner that Sarah's cause of death was a methamphetamine overdose, the story takes a wildly unexpected turn. As Andersen sifts through her sister's last days, we come to recognize the contours of grief and its aftermath: the psychic shattering which can turn to anger, the pursuit of an ever-elusive verdict, and the intensely personal rites of imagination and art needed to actually move on. Reminiscent of Alex Marzano-Lesnevich's The Fact of a Body, Maggie Nelson's Jane: A Murder, and Lacy M. Johnson's The Other Side, Andersen's debut is a potent, profoundly original journey into and out of loss.

A hilarious debut novel about a perfectly imperfect love story that will delight fans of Evvie Drake Starts Over. Even the smartest people can be stupid at love. When Stacey Lane writes a feminist take on Frankenstein, she never imagines it will catch the eye of unbelievably sexy Hollywood star Tommy DeMarco. Tommy’s passion for her book—and for her, a recently widowed poet, mom, and certified mess—threatens to turn her life upside down, or maybe right-side up. From their first poolside meeting the two are set on a collision course as they go about making the book into a movie, making each other crazy, and making love, if only in secret. Fueled by desire, love, grief, expertly poured cocktails, and crackling dialogue, Monsters: A Love Story is a witty portrait of a relationship gone off the rails and two people who are made for each other—even if they’re not so sure they see it that way. **A Summer Beach Read Pick for Harper’s Bazaar, the Associated Press, Purewow, and Refinery29** “This fast-paced novel will have readers immersed in the heady feeling of an alcohol-fueled affair with one of the sexiest men alive.” — “An addictive page-turner, ripe with seduction and charm, that drops insights into this messy, crazy, wonderful thing called love.” —Washington Independent Review of Books “Entertainingly dyspeptic.” —Vogue “A perfectly imperfect love story.”—Bookpage

Sixteen-year-old Olwen, who lives alone on the planet Isis with her faithful robot, falls tragically in love with an arrival from earth who is unaware that her natural form has been hidden in a humanlike space suit.