This was a pretty great anthology. The editor did a great job of breaking up the collected text into four categories: It Came and We Knew it; It Came, We Could Not Stop It; It Came for Us and It Came from Us. Editors John Langan and Paul Tremblay give great little one page or so introductions to each section which help connect all the text really well. I enjoyed nearly ever single tale that was in the book. However, it should be noted this is a book geared towards a more mature audience. These “...

Monsters and creatures of a wide variety are gathered together in this collection from modern classics such as Godzilla and the Creature from the Black Lagoon to older international folk classics such as Mexico's el chupacabra and Japan's Gashadokuro. Other stories turned to monsters in an absurdist way and yet others for allegory. The variety was nice, especially with the attempt by the editors to steer the reader toward appreciating the variety in their four micro-essays leading the anthologie...

I really liked this one..The McCammon story was good..I enjoyed 95% of the stories.

OH…WOW! This was such a tremendous Anthology from the start until the end. Honestly I didn`t expected to encounter so many amazing texts. Usually I`m not so happy with the choices made by the ones who edit the Anthology but this time I was really blown away.I wanted vile Creatures and that`s what I got…In another previous review I saw that somebody was complaining that this wasn`t a good Anthology because the Monsters, The Creatures, The F. Animals, in, at least five stories, (Yes, I`ve counted

Really enjoyedCreature from the Black Lagoon-- Very interesting protagonist, sad ending but somehow fittingUnder Cover of the Night-- Wonderfully suspenseful, element of unknowable horror, left wanting for more.Rawhead Rex -primally terrifying! Excellent.Hollow Man - Dread and hopelessness, unknowable terror. Sad for the first hollow man, but the second probably deserved it, that dampened the horror.Not From Around Here - genuinely terrifying, overtly erotic but that is cleverly used as a horror...

Short story collections, especially ones by multiple authors are, of course, only as good as the strongest entry and as bad as the weakest. This collection, spanning roughly thirty years worth of short stories all of which have some kind of monster in them, is no exception. Clive Barker's the big name author here, and his story is one of the longest and one of the strongest, but other stories were just kinda weird. The better ones are in the beginning of the volume (I dug the story about the sur...

Some of the best stories in here were the classic monsters. And by classic, I mean the I know I'm bad and I love being bad monsters, with only a couple exceptions. I can't get enough of the unapologetic bloodthirsty nasties! And this book has them!This gathering of short stories are all very good horror, however, I will say that not all fit my own personal taste. The wonderful thing about reading a book like this is the variety and the introductions to unknown (for me) authors and horror legends...

Thirty Years of Monsters is a collection of short stories from various authors that are monster stories but told from the perspective of the monster. The stories include monsters that we've all heard of (like godzilla) and monsters that were just made up on the spot. The theme in Thirty Years of Monsters varies from story to story. However they all base around the common idea of giant destructive beasts that may or may not breath fire. There are a few stories that go beyond that though, imaginin...

Full review here.

Full review: http://crookedtalks.tumblr.com/post/1...I started Creatures last year as my halloween read of the year though I only managed to finish in this year ^^; This is the first short story collection that I’ve read through completely as far as I can remember (I’ve probably read short story collections before, but none remembered in any degree of clarity). I’ve also consciously picked up this book precisely because it was a short story collection by different authors, to try and get a taste...

Awesome anthology! I thoroughly enjoyed almost every story in this book and I would recommend it to anybody who is a fan of the horror genre.

Technically, I'm giving this book 2.5 Stars. When I first saw it in the bookstore, I was thoroughly impressed. The cover art was wonderful and eerie, it had stories by Clive Barker as well as Christopher Golden, and the "Contents" page featured some wonderful topics. However, as I began to read the short stories, unfortunately, nothing seemed to blend together. There were tales about Godzilla (though by itself somewhat entertaining) mashed together with a camp monster who speaks with the eleganc...

I enjoyed most of the stories in this anthology, especially those by Kelly Link, Robert McCammon, and Jeffrey Ford. A few of the stories left me cold, or actively turned me off. Still, an interesting collection with a few really high spots.

What I love most about anthologies is you can always expect to find at least one story that really speaks to you, and sticks in your mind long after you've put the book down. I’ve lost track of the number of authors I now consider my all-time favourites, that I first read in an anthology book. The downside, of course, is you can typically find an equal number of stories which feel like a slog, that you just need to get through in order to sample the next story. Anthology books are a fantastic so...

I've often compared reading anthologies to mining. Sometimes you find a rich vein, other times you find an inferior vein. Perhaps this particular book is like archeology. In archeology, you may find some historically significant artifact, but most often you find broken potter, trash or coprolites (that's fossilized poop, fyi).There are a few good stories, in here, but by and large there are very few examples of good writing here. Many are juvenile and seemingly obsessed with bodily functions and...

Nicely done anthology, at over 380 pages if you are a horror fan you are sure to find quite a few stories that you like. As usual with anthologies, some I liked better than others, but I now have a list of about 9 new (to me) writers that I want to find more stories by. There were also only 3 stories that I have read before (The Ropey Thing, Raw-head Rex, Replacements), which is pretty good for a book spanning 30 years. If you like shorts you should check this out.

Nope! I wouldn't reread this and basically skimmed over the final few stories. Some were ok and interesting but nothing really stood out and grabbed me other than for those penned by the "big name" horror writers - many of which I'd read in other collections anyway. Some of the stories just took many pages to go absolutely nowhere. A horror short story must capture me and have a bite to it for me to enjoy it - besides that I do have a penchant for horror that is horror and not the slow burn kind...

Wow, this was quite a refreshing collection of horror short stories. I was disappointed with my last foray into modern Gothic fiction, however, these stories do not disappoint! I was thoroughly impressed (and creeped out)! I really like the format of the book: there are four sections with very poignant introductions titled "It Came and We Knew It," "It Came, We Could Not Stop It," "It Came For Us," and "It Came From Us." I had favorites from each section, however, my absolute favorite story in t...

So-so overall quality, like many anthologies tend to have. Four out of twenty-six interested me enough to want to seek out more of the author’s work. A depressing atmosphere is common while I find exciting and creative stories more fun, and some left me scratching my head as to what the author was trying to express.

There were a few good stories in here. There were several I would give 4 stars to, individually. A few of those were terrifying, or intriguing, with interesting and new ideas.However, there were others that were downright boring. Or that tried to compensate for lack of good frightening story telling by over compensating with gratuitous violence. Nearly all of them had unnecessary language. Many of those I would have given 1 star individually.Therefore, I give the whole collection a 2. If 2.5 wer...