Man Made Monsters

Achilling story collection following a sprawling Cherokee family through many generations.

Starting with Ama Wilson in 1839 and ending in 2039, this spooky speculative assortment features stories from times historical, present, and yet to come. Although each of Cherokee author Rogers’ stories could stand alone (and versions of some were previously published individually), placing them in chronological order and thus in dialogue with each other results in a thematically richer read and allows readers the delight of tracing the family trees in the frontmatter to situate the characters in relation to other protagonists. Ama’s opening story, set during a forcible relocation to Indian Territory, sets the tone: Ama thinks her family’s show more main worries are Texas Rangers and disease; she also faces a supernatural nightmare. The tight focus on families and the specificity of their experiences, along with the matter-of-fact text, directly address the way persecution of the Cherokee Nation morphs over the decades. Rogers’ grounded, smooth writing style—juggling first-, third-, and even second-person points of view—makes magical elements (from milder hauntings to monsters like vampires, werewolves, and zombies) as threatening as human villains. The stakes remain high: The short story format means any character one meets could later die. Exquisite white-on-black line art from Cherokee artist Edwards sets the eerie mood. The use of the Noto Sans Cherokee typeface and Edwards’ hand-drawn Cherokee syllabary beautifully integrates written language into the book’s design.

A creepy and artful exploration of a haunting heritage. (glossary) (Horror. 12-adult)

-Kirkus Review show less

I listened to the audiobook, so I did not see the illustrations. This is tagged as a YA book of short stories. Most of the protagonists are young people.

The stories don't reflect just their fears. Many of them transcend age. The feelings of being othered, the depths of grief, and other fears haunt people during all the stages of life.

I enjoyed this light book of horror stories.

Probably should have looked into this a bit more before picking it up. I saw the title, cover Horror, short story collection, and I was like YES PLEASE!! But no this was just not for me
The first story was okay. Whenever the character's were talking to each other it was all in another language or sometimes multiple other languages and I just didn't understand it, and it wasn't explained really or anything. At times what the characters were doing also just didn't make sense. Like the main character saw something and instead of running away or trying to stop it she just crawled over and kinda kneeled there. Let me just say it was NOT the kind of situation where you would have done that. What happened after that was disturbing and gross and show more interesting but also kinda boring?? I think it was the writing style, I just found it boring.
I DNF'd it at about 30% maybe? I don't know but I read a bunch of the stories and none of them were for me. I tried skim reading so I would maybe be able to finish it but I just couldn't
I don't necessarily think it's a bad book, just not for me.

I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley show less

This is a good book! I enjoyed reading the short stories and how different each one are.

I enjoyed Man Made Monsters, Deer Women and so much more.

I think it's a good idea to put all the stories the author heard over the years into one book.

I really do recommend this to anybody who enjoys a good horror story or two.

Every tale is creepy from the beginning to end. They draw you in. Beautifully illustrated.

Very different.