Moriabe's Children: *screams quietly* 5/5[but seriously release the kraken]Old Souls: I'm always on board for a "realistic vampire" story. 4/5Ten Rules for being an Intergalactic Smuggler: this story is my alien scifi aesthetic; I am here for this 100%. 5/5Quick Hill: Not my cup of tea, I was outrageously bored.The Diabolist: *screams desperately* 4/5The Whole Demoning Thing: teen demons start a band and it is glorious. 5/5 Wings in the Morning: I want to marry this world and everyone in it. "I

Second read:This time around I'd rate "Old Souls" 4/5, "Left Foot, Right Foot" 5/5, and "The Woods Hide in Plain Sight" 4/5.All but 2 stories are pretty strong, so this is a good anthology.First read:Overall: 3.83, rounded up to 4. (Yes, I literally added my individual ratings and then divided by 15.)Moriabe's Children by Paolo Bacigalupi: 5/5. Excellent world building. Excellent characterization. All over just wonderful.Old Souls by Cassandra Clare: 3/5. Maybe I'm just done with vampires as hot...

For grouchy ElliotETA: Seriously NetGalley! I actually thought I would be approved:(

Petition to get another short story from Luke POV i love my gay useless son

This book was supposed to be a horror anthology (at least I think so), but I would never characterize it as such. Most stories are just plain weird and not a least bit scary. As I already mentioned, my favorite remains M.T. Anderson’s “Quick Hill”, which is terrific and I’d give it five starts, but unfortunately, it has some “lukewarm” company. There is also Holy Black’s “The Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (the Successful Kind)”, which was very entertaining. Other stories are pretty f...

(Just a heads up, I still have to read the rest of the stories, this is exclusively for Wings in the Morning for now)Now that this is over I officially have nothing else from this universe I can read... I’m so sad! I love this world; and more importantly: these characters.If you don’t know what this is; is a short story that Sarah Rees Brennan wrote set in the universe of In Other Lands/ The Turn Of The Story. And if you don’t know what In Other Lands is, is simply one of my favorite fantasy and...

YA short story, full of allegories and horrorOnly reviewed the ones that I read. Moriabe’s ChildrenA dark tale of a young girl living in a seaside village where krakens rule the sea. Her father consumed with the dream of slaying krakens and riches dies suddenly and leaving the girl and her mother in poverty. The mother remarries and the young girl and stepbrother are sexually assaulted by the step-father which the mother ignores in favor of security. It's a parable of real monsters, the kraken,

It’s clear from the introduction that this anthology is directed at tween and teenage female readers, but I wanted to sample writing from a variety of popular fantasy authors, and this fit the bill. Here’s a one-sentence summary of each story, along with my likes and dislikes about each: “Moriabe’s Children” by Paolo Bacigalupi: 5/5A girl with an abusive step-father discovers she has a special connection with the kraken. Easily the best story in this collection. Bacigalupi’s prose is atmospheric...

I'm far more familiar with Kelly Link as an editor of fairytale anthologies that are gruesome and beautiful and terrifying, so the content in Monstrous Affections was exactly what I wanted, even if the profoundly embarrassing introduction gave me pause. Rather than try to rate the stories in terms of stars I simply ranked them from most loved to least.“Quick Hill” – Timely and always relevant, M.T. Anderson's story has a strange conceit but familiar mechanics. The fundamental argument “Quick Hil...

Kelly Link and Gavin Grant are just awesome! Sometimes I feel like short stories are just too short to be fulfilling, but they manage to prove me wrong every time they put together an anthology. This is the best one yet. And with a Yuko Shimizu cover and individual page number accent graphics for each story, it’s also the prettiest yet. Also, monsters: pretty awesome themselves.

This was a fine collection of creepy tales geared toward young adults. The stories feature teenage protagonists, many of whom have to deal with monsters; others are monsters themselves. I honestly enjoyed them all, and I've made a list of authors whose work I'm going to search out.

Kelly Link is a great author - and here she proves she can pick 'em as well as write 'em. There's a YA theme here, but these all-new tales can definitely be enjoyed by all ages (and I'd argue that some aren't particularly 'youth-oriented' at all.) Definitely an above-average collection.*****Paolo Bacigalupi—Moriabe’s ChildrenA dark and tragic fairytale of an evil stepfather, set on the shores and kraken-infested seas of a northern clime... This is a bit of a departure in style from Bacigalupi's

Anthology as a Whole 5/5A fantastic anthology. Fair warning, though, it slanted a bit further into horror than I normally read. Like, quite a bit further. *shudder*Moriabe's Children— Paolo Bacigalupi 4/5Alanie has never seen a kraken, but her father died hunting them.This one is a delicate, bloody tale about abuse, really. And how to be really, REALLY freaked out by the ocean.Old Souls— Cassandra Clare Leah has just had the worst kind of breakup, and her mum thinks that working at a retireme

Had to get this for "Wings in the Morning." Amazing, as the notorious SRB (Sarah Rees Brennan) tends to be. If you're interested, check out the entirely free and beautifully told prequel Turn of the Story that she has posted on her blog. It's not often that I get glued to something for an entire Saturday, but I was stuck on this like white on rice.

I was planning on writing a review for this and got halfway through, but school and life put writing this on hold. Unfortunately, I can’t remember enough to have a mini review for every story in this book, but I suppose half of a review is better than none. Sorry guys! Let me address my first disappointment: I was hoping for more scares, more creepy and confusing atmospheres in the stories.Since this is an anthology, I will be doing mini-reviews on my thoughts and the content of the stories:

A collection of short stories about love and monsters. In the pros column, there's a broad range of monsters and types of love--this isn't just a collection filled with the usual kinds of vampires and romantic love. In the cons column, these stories are far heavier on the horror and disturbing content than I prefer. Paolo Bacigalupi, "Moirabe's Children." Alanie and her step-brother escape a terrifying father and flee toward kraken. I am not into stories about fathers raping children, so I hated...

You find it on a pockmarked shelf between a jar of eyeballs and a talon-handled dagger.‘Monstrous Affections,’ you mutter under your breath. ‘An Anthology of Beastly Tales.’Anthology. Hmm. Short stories aren’t always your thing. But monsters definitely are. And judging by the beautiful hardback presentation of the book, you suspect it might be a companion to the excellent Steampunk! anthology edited by Kelly Link. You check the authors at the top: yup, Kelly Link and Gavin J Grant. This looks li...

Review courtesy of All Things Urban FantasyMONSTROUS AFFECTIONS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF BEASTLY TALES was a mixed bag for me with some stories being pretty entertaining and spooky while others fell flat or just outright confused me. Each story involved a twist on a classic monster or monsters who inhabit the world living alongside humans. My favorite was “Wings in the Morning” by Sarah Rees Brennan which was a story about harpies and fairies. I really enjoyed the world building and the humor involved i...

An excellent anthology with lots of interesting stories, classical, mythological and psychological monsters.There are some obvious standouts, and as with a lot of anthologies you should pay attention to the first and last stories. The first is excellent about a girl who listens to monsters, and the last has a brilliant title and excellent follow through. There are also some excellent cores of novels here.I included some comments on each of the stories in my progress updates, so I suggest you loo...

I bought a copy of 'Monstrous Affections' off eBay for one story, 'Wings in the Morning', which I understood was a sequel to In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan. As that was a YA fantasy romance, I anticipated that the rest of this anthology would be similar. The blurb states, 'Fifteen top voices in fantasy fiction explore the intersection of fear and love, of monsters and men, and our fatal attraction to what hides in the shadows'. From this I subsequently inferred that there would be banging....