Fifteen top voices in speculative fiction explore the intersection of fear and love in a haunting, at times hilarious, darkly imaginative volume. Predatory kraken that sing with — and for — their kin; band members and betrayed friends who happen to be demonic; harpies as likely to attract as repel. Welcome to a world where humans live side by side with monsters, from vampires both nostalgic and bumbling to an eight-legged alien who makes tea. Here you’ll find mercurial forms that burrow into warm fat, spectral boy toys, a Maori force of nature, a landform that claims lives, and an architect of hell on earth. Through these and a few monsters that defy categorization, some of today’s top young-adult authors explore ambition and sacrifice, loneliness and rage, love requited and avenged, and the boundless potential for connection, even across extreme borders. With monstrous stories by M. T. Anderson Paolo Bacigalupi Nathan Ballingrud Holly Black Sarah Rees Brennan Cassandra Clare Nalo Hopkinson Dylan Horrocks Nik Houser Alice Sola Kim Kathleen Jennings Joshua Lewis Kelly Link Patrick Ness G. Carl Purcell

“Rich characters and a love of unique twists top off a captivating and sometimes gruesome collection of nightmares” from the award-winning author of Volk (Corey Redekop, author of Husk). Winner of the Black Quill Reader’s Choice Award, Monstrous Affections heralded the appearance of a thrilling new writer on the horror scene, praised by the National Post as “a worthy heir to the mantle of Stephen King.” David Nickle’s debut collection features “13 terrifying tales of rural settings, complex and reticent characters and unexpected twists that question the fundamentals of reality. All are delivered with a certain grace, creating a sparse yet poetic tour of the horrors that exist just out of sight. Standout stories include ‘Janie and the Wind,’ where a battered, abandoned woman does what she needs to survive; ‘Other People’s Kids,’ a disturbing examination of the razor-thin moment dividing childhood from maturity and the hand holding that razor; and ‘The Pit Heads,’ a phenomenal story about the cold remnants of a Canadian mining town and the true cost of beauty. This ambitious collection firmly establishes Nickle as a writer to watch” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). “Brilliant . . . You’d think that you were reading a book full of what you had always expected a horror story to be, but Nickle takes a left turn and blindsides you with tales that are not of the norm, but are all the more horrific because of the surprise twists, darkness and raw emotion.” —January Magazine, “Best Books of 2009” “David Nickle writes ’em damned weird and damned good and damned dark. He is bourbon-rough, poetic and vivid. Don’t miss this one.” —Cory Doctorow, New York Times–bestselling author

The award-winning and haunting novel from Rodrigo Hasbún, the literary star Jonathan Safran Foer calls, “a great writer,” about an unusual family’s breakdown—set in South America during the time of Che Guevara and inspired by the life of Third Reich cinematographer Hans Ertl. Inspired by real events, Affections is the story of the eccentric, fascinating Ertl clan, headed by the egocentric and extraordinary Hans, once the cameraman for the Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl. Shortly after the end of World War II, Hans and his family flee to Bolivia to start over. There, the ever-restless Hans decides to embark on an expedition in search of the fabled lost Inca city of Paitití, enlisting two of his daughters to join him on his outlandish quest into the depths of the Amazon, with disastrous consequences. “A one-sitting tale of fragmented relationships with a broad scope, delivered with grace and power” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Affections traces the Ertls’s slow and inevitable breakdown through the various erratic trajectories of each family member: Hans’s undertakings of colossal, foolhardy projects and his subsequent spectacular failures; his daughter Monika, heir to his adventurous spirit, who joins the Bolivian Marxist guerrillas and becomes known as “Che Guevara’s avenger”; and his wife and two younger sisters left to pick up the pieces in their wake. “Hasbún writes with patience and precision, revealing the family’s most intimate thoughts and interactions: first smokes, blind love, and familial devotion. This is a novel to savor for its richness and grace and its historical and political scope” (Booklist, starred review)—a masterfully layered tale of how a family’s voyage of discovery ends up eroding the affections that once held it together.

A radical combination of emerging and established Mexican authors of original tales of the fantastic.

Pick your poison: Vampires, devils, werewolves, faeries, or . . . ? Find them all here in Holly Black’s amazing first collection. In her debut collection, New York Times best-selling author Holly Black returns to the world of Tithe in two darkly exquisite new tales. Then Black takes readers on a tour of a faerie market and introduces a girl poisonous to the touch and another who challenges the devil to a competitive eating match. Some of these stories have been published in anthologies such as 21 Proms, The Faery Reel, and The Restless Dead, and many have been reprinted in many “Best of ” anthologies. The Poison Eaters is Holly Black’s much-anticipated first collection, and her ability to stare into the void—and to find humanity and humor there—will speak to young adult and adult readers alike. A Junior Library Guild Pick. Illustrated by Theo Black. Holly Black is the author of Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale (an ALA Best Book for Young Adults) and two related novels, Valiant (Norton Award winner) and New York Times bestseller Ironside. Her latest novel, Black Heart is the third of a new series, The Curseworkers. She and Tony DiTerlizzi created the best-selling Spiderwick Chronicles. Holly lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Theo, in a house with a secret library.

Zach, Alice, and Poppy, friends from a Pennsylvania middle school who have long enjoyed acting out imaginary adventures with dolls and action figures, embark on a real-life quest to Ohio to bury a doll made from the ashes of a dead girl. Illustrations.

"Rich characters and a love of unique twists top off a captivating and sometimes gruesome collection of nightmares" from the award-winning author of Volk (Corey Redekop, author of Husk). Winner of the Black Quill Reader's Choice Award, Monstrous Affections heralded the appearance of a thrilling new writer on the horror scene, praised by the National Post as "a worthy heir to the mantle of Stephen King." David Nickle's debut collection features "13 terrifying tales of rural settings, complex and reticent characters and unexpected twists that question the fundamentals of reality. All are delivered with a certain grace, creating a sparse yet poetic tour of the horrors that exist just out of sight. Standout stories include 'Janie and the Wind,' where a battered, abandoned woman does what she needs to survive; 'Other People's Kids,' a disturbing examination of the razor-thin moment dividing childhood from maturity and the hand holding that razor; and 'The Pit Heads,' a phenomenal story about the cold remnants of a Canadian mining town and the true cost of beauty. This ambitious collection firmly establishes Nickle as a writer to watch" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). "Brilliant . . . You'd think that you were reading a book full of what you had always expected a horror story to be, but Nickle takes a left turn and blindsides you with tales that are not of the norm, but are all the more horrific because of the surprise twists, darkness and raw emotion." --January Magazine, "Best Books of 2009" "David Nickle writes 'em damned weird and damned good and damned dark. He is bourbon-rough, poetic and vivid. Don't miss this one." --Cory Doctorow, New York Times-bestselling author

This debut horror novel by the author of acclaimed short story collection Monstrous Affections “establishes him as a worthy heir to the mantle of Stephen King” (National Post). Set in 1911, Eutopia “mixes utopian vision, rustic Americana, and pure creepiness. . . . Nickle blends Little House on the Prairie with distillates of Rosemary’s Baby and The X-Files to create a chilling survival-of-the-fittest story” (Publishers Weekly). Situated on the edge of the woods and mountains of northern Idaho, the tiny settlement of Eliada is an industrialist’s attempt to create heaven on earth. But its secrets are soon to be unveiled, as Jason Thistledown, the sole survivor of a mysterious plague in Montana, and Andrew Waggoner, a black doctor nearly lynched by the KKK, delve beneath the façade of the utopian mill town. What they discover is science warped by ideology—and an unearthly monster that preys on the faith of its own true believers . . . “A story of piano-wire suspense, grotesque horrors, and, above all, visceral insight into the race politics of American horror, and how they are bound up with the American project itself.” —Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing Praise for David Nickle “His stories are dark, wildly imaginative, and deeply compassionate—even when they’re laced with righteous anger.” —Nathan Ballingrud, author of Wounds “David Nickle is Canada’s answer to Stephen King. His writing charms even as it slices like a blade between the ribs: sharp, subtle, and never less than devastating.” —Helen Marshall, author of Gifts for the One Who Comes After

From New York Times bestselling author Holly Black comes a captivating original novel set between Disney's Maleficent and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, in which newly-queened Aurora struggles to be the best leader to both the humans and Fair Folk under her reign; her beau, Prince Phillip, longs to get to know Aurora and her kingdom better; and Maleficent has trouble letting go of the past.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • A bewitching story collection from the author of White Cat, Black Dog and The Book of Love, hailed as “the most darkly playful voice in American fiction” (Michael Chabon) and “our greatest living fabulist” (Carmen Maria Machado) “Ridiculously brilliant . . . These stories make you laugh while staring into the void.”—The Boston Globe A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: BuzzFeed, Time, The Washington Post, NPR, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Slate, Toronto Star, Kirkus Reviews, BookPage Kelly Link has won an ardent following for her ability, with each new short story, to take readers deeply into an unforgettable, brilliantly constructed fictional universe. The nine exquisite examples in this collection show her in full command of her formidable powers. In “The Summer People,” a young girl in rural North Carolina serves as uneasy caretaker to the mysterious, never-quite-glimpsed visitors who inhabit the cottage behind her house. In “I Can See Right Through You,” a middle-aged movie star makes a disturbing trip to the Florida swamp where his former on- and off-screen love interest is shooting a ghost-hunting reality show. In “The New Boyfriend,” a suburban slumber party takes an unusual turn, and a teenage friendship is tested, when the spoiled birthday girl opens her big present: a life-size animated doll. Hurricanes, astronauts, evil twins, bootleggers, Ouija boards, iguanas, The Wizard of Oz, superheroes, the Pyramids . . . These are just some of the talismans of an imagination as capacious and as full of wonder as that of any writer today. But as fantastical as these stories can be, they are always grounded by sly humor and an innate generosity of feeling for the frailty—and the hidden strengths—of human beings. In Get in Trouble, this one-of-a-kind talent expands the boundaries of what short fiction can do.