TITLE: Monstrous Creatures: Explorations of Fantasy through Essays, Articles and Reviews
AUTHOR: Jeff VanderMeer
PUBLISHER: Guide Dog Books
RELEASE DATE: March 11, 2011
WEBSITE: Guide Dog Books: Monstrous Creatures

PAGES: 254
ISBN: ISBN (HC) 978-1-935738-02-2 / ISBN (PB) 978-1-935738-03-9
PRICE: $29.95 (HC), $14.95 (PB)

In short, Monstrous Creatures by Jeff VanderMeer can be best summarized by the book’s own subtitle. It’s deceiving in its simplicity and forwardness. The reader will read essays, articles and reviews in order to participate in this tour. At 254 pages, Monstrous Creatures doesn’t frighten anyone with its length. On the contrary, it only contributes to the fake sense of immediacy, of reading this book in one sitting.

Monstrous Creatures is a beautiful chimera of ideas and opinions. VanderMeer goes for a 360-degree expedition of fantasy in all of its manifestations as well as through significant periods of its evolution. Wherever the fantastical seeps in, be it in books, the act of writing, architecture, art or even nature, VanderMeer follows, documents and then reports with some of the most spectacular and sophisticated turns of phrase I’ve seen in non-fiction. Enjoy one of the many below:

“Valente is certainly as fearless as any of the great non-linear, ur-logical Surrealists or Decadents – for her, language is not a balancing act, but the equivalent of flinging oneself off of a cliff, determined to sprout wings before hitting the rocks below. Most of the time, Valente does grow wings well before annihilation. Or, rather, I should say, writes herself wings.”
– from Catherynne M. Valente’s The Labyrinth, Introduction to the first edition, 2007

Monstrous Creatures follows a very strict structure. There are four sections: Monstrous Thoughts for essays, Appreciations of the Monstrous for articles, Interrogating Other People’s Monsters for reviews and Personal Monsters for biographic accounts. Every section is then separated with an interview VanderMeer conducted: with author China Miéville, author Margo Lanagan and (most surprisingly) a capybara owner from Texas.

As with On Writing by Stephen King, VanderMeer balances the personal with the factual in an ultimate guide book on genre. The reader faces this organic symbiosis right from the start. In Monstrous Thoughts VanderMeer is a scholar who charts the evolution of The New Weird with devotion and loving obsession to detail [The New Weird – "It's Alive?"], and a sleuth on the hot trail of an enigmatic and under-the-underground movement [The Romantic Movement].

From this archivist, VanderMeer transforms into a critic while talking about the divide – or functionally the lack thereof – between literary and genre fiction [The Language of Defeat], an advocate for daring experimentation in fiction [The Triumph of The Good], and an artist as he looks back to discover the one thing he wanted to distance himself from is actually vital for his fiction [Politics in Fantasy].

The autobiographical aspects, which I found quite fascinating and refreshing amongst the rich information and analysis Monstrous Creatures, are mostly grouped in the last section of the book, Personal Monsters. Apart from VanderMeer the novelist, the fantast and the critic, the reader discovers VanderMeer as a father, whom his stepdaughter pranked during Hanukkah [The Hanukkah Bear]. Then the reader learns more about VanderMeer’s family history and how that affected his writing [My Father's Pipe] as well as his development as a writer through a truly inspiring and liberating account [The Novella: A Personal Exploration].

I enjoyed Monstrous Creatures, because VanderMeer is thorough. His collection of articles and reviews left me with a deeper understanding of fantasy in its multitude of subgenres and movements. I thought I’d skip through meadows encountering friendly folkloric creatures as well as the icons of fantasy – epic fantasy, the first actual association many people have with the genre’s name. Instead I bungee jumped down the rabbit hole. I embarked on a descent through murky, broken and bizarre planes of existence, all homes to hypnotic and nightmarish stories. Some frighten with their honesty. Others consume and process the reader. Still more blind with charged images, while others break your heart.

Monstrous Creatures is a schizophrenic book as it channels the voices and distilled essence of numerous authors and at the same time it offers a voyeuristic peek into other worlds. When I finished reading my copy, I did so craving the writing of authors such as Caitlin R. Kiernan, Alfred Kubin, Derek Raymond, Alasdair Gray, Emma Bull, Mark Z. Danieleweski, Rikki Ducornet, Rhys Hughes, Lynda Barry, Tove Jansson and many more.

VanderMeer doesn’t leave a stone unturned. Monstrous Creatures is equally balanced in the mention of male and female authors. VanderMeer doesn’t only restrict himself to fantasy, but discusses science fiction writers [Unsung Heroes in Science Fiction and Fantasy], reviews horror [Stairs to Nowhere: House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski] and crime fiction [The "Black Books" of Derek Raymond].

I don’t see any weaknesses in Monstrous Creatures. It’s a strong collection of non-fiction material, which I can easily recommend to anyone who wants to learn about fantasy and its voices, be they young, old or sadly forgotten. However, as a general warning, VanderMeer is not the easiest to read, when he engages in analyzing. He commands the English language in a way only an erudite man can.

VanderMeer can be poetic and still make your head spin with his syntax and vocabulary. I’m not saying it’s impossible to understand him. Quite on the contrary, but his work is not meant to be breezed through. The reader should savor each sentence and upon completion meditate on each piece as a whole. Otherwise, the mind becomes bewildered and cluttered with names and facts, until they become a wild blur. But when read and digested, Monstrous Creatures is a literary Wonderland.