I’ve been waiting a long time for a UK edition of this one, and Dead Ink have finally obliged. It was worth the wait, an astonishing collection of stories. It doesn’t stint on the promise of monsters in the title, there are vampires, zombies werewolves and -yes!- a lake monster here, but it’s always the humans in the foreground. Not necessarily particularly likeable ones either, although you needn’t fear that this is some kind of trite ‘actually, MAN is the real monster’ exercise. Ballingrud manages to make us empathise with his cast of ex-cons, homeless people, harassed mothers, and lost children looking for fathers and belonging. It’s elegant, atmospheric and disturbing. What more do you want?

This is an excellent collection of subtle, dark, and cerebral stories that take you to some of the deepest recesses of the human condition, but without the need for excessive gore, shock, or violence.

The stories here loom over you, they feel heavy with sadness and bleak thoughts, and they get under your skin and stay there. They are literary, but accessible too. The writing here is delicate, haunting, and affecting.

Some quick notes on each tale:

You go where it takes you: dark and unexpected turns. You never know who you might meet at work and what they might inspire you to do

Wild acre: slow burning spiral of madness after a guy sees his colleagues ripped apart by some kind of wolf beast

S.S. : dark tale of racism, poverty, desire and anger, teenager trying to prove himself to a local white supremacy gang

The Crevasse (with Dale Bailey): what, exactly, was under the ice? Real or imagined? What took the dog? Bleak and dread-inducing

The Monsters of Heaven: mixture of a missing child and a swathe of ‘angels’ being discovered. Odd and endearing.

Sunbleached: a terrific vampire story! Sad and looming

North American lake monsters: a man has to deal with a dead monster and reconnect with his wife and daughter after being in prison for six years. Gloomy, dread-inducing - I am the Doorway vibes

The Way Station: didn’t really get this one. Homeless guy trying to find his long-estranged daughter

The Good Husband: pick of the bunch. A truly dark and disturbing tale about a husband forced to live every day with the consequences of not helping his wife when she needed him. Scary, bleak and disgusting at times…powerful writing.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

North American Lake Monsters is a short story collection exploring different kinds of monsters, human and otherwise, and the messy realities of these. There's a real range of stories in the collection and you're always guessing what kind of horror, whether creature or psychological or something else, is going to appear in each one. There's a lot about class in America and the impacts of desperation in relation to class, wealth, and worth, and I particularly like how this plays out in the titular story, which explores how we see different kinds of monsters and the importance of viewpoint. I also like how often any supernatural or otherworldly elements feel almost secondary in relevance to the working class lives in the book, with other people having a more important role in their stories and the horror within. If you like literary-tinged horror that shines a light on working class America, then this collection will be ideal.