Monsters in Appalachia: Stories

Sheryl Monks
$14.44 $16.99
The characters within these fifteen stories are in one way or another staring into the abyss. While some are awaiting redemption, others are fully complicit in their own undoing.

We come upon them in the mountains of West Virginia, in the backyards of rural North Carolina, and at tourist traps along Route 66, where they smolder with hidden desires and struggle to resist the temptations that plague them.

A Melungeon woman has killed her abusive husband and drives by the home of her son's new foster family, hoping to lure the boy back. An elderly couple witnesses the end-times and is forced to hunt monsters if they hope to survive. A young girl "tanning and manning" with her mother and aunt resists being indoctrinated by their ideas about men. A preacher's daughter follows in the footsteps of her backsliding mother as she seduces a man who looks a lot like the devil.

A master of Appalachian dialect and colloquial speech, Monks writes prose that is dark, taut, and muscular, but also beguiling and playful. Monsters in Appalachia is a powerful work of fiction.


Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Vandalia Press
Published: 11/01/2016
ISBN: 9781943665396
Pages: 180
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.40d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 01/01/0001
Publishers Weekly 09/12/2016
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2016
Shelf Awareness 11/15/2016