Monsterland
a journey around the world’s dark imagination
by Nicholas Jubber
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Pub Date 10 Apr 2025 | Archive Date Not set
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Description
Monsters, in all their terrifying glory, have preoccupied humans since we began telling stories. But where did these stories come from?
In Monsterland, award-winning author Nicholas Jubber goes on a journey to discover more about the monsters we’ve invented, lurking in the dark and the wild places of the earth — giants, dragons, ogres, zombies, ghosts, demons — all with one thing in common: their ability to terrify.
His far-ranging adventure takes him across the world. He sits on the thrones of giants in Cornwall, visits the shrine of a beheaded ogre near Kyoto, travels to an eighteenth-century Balkan vampire’s forest dwelling, and paddles among the shapeshifters of the Louisiana bayous. On his travels, he discovers that the stories of the people and places that birthed them are just as fascinating as the creatures themselves.
Artfully written, Monsterland is a spellbinding interrogation into why we need these monsters and what they can tell us about ourselves — how they bind communities together as much as they cruelly cast away outsiders.
Advance Praise
‘In this enchanting and fascinating exploration of monster stories around the globe, Jubber discovers not just the beasts themselves but people and places, history and imagination, fears and obsessions. He blends child-like joy with the wisdom of generations as he tackles giants, ghosts, zombies and robots to reveal deep insights about past conflicts, collective trauma and our changing relationship with the natural world. A magical yet deeply human journey that will haunt you long after the final page.’
Jo Marchant, author of The Human Cosmos
Praise for The Fairy Tellers: ‘Prepare yourself for a wild ride.’
The Times
Praise for The Fairy Tellers: ‘His cornucopia of tellers and tales is a delight, a riveting celebration of a genre that revels in its own hybridity and the imaginative riches produced by the crossing of cultural and literary borders.’
Financial Times
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781915590299 |
| PRICE | £20.00 (GBP) |
| PAGES | 352 |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Yannaï S, Reviewer
Well written book encompassing a great deals of stories about monsters and how they reflect humans' fears and imagination. The author uses examples, coming from different parts of the world, making possible to compare how certain figures are viewed by various culture (the dragon for example).
The structure is helpful, allowing to pick up the book and read one part before letting it aside for a few days without being lost.
The book can be a little tiring to read at times, but I think it is mainly because it concey a lot of information while using a rather fiction's prose (whiwh is good). If you know a lot about folkore and mosnters already, I don't think this book will teach you anything new but it is still an interesting read.
Leane ., Reviewer
This book was an excellent find that delivered beyond my expectations.
It isn't a randomly selected collection of monster-related tales linked by a handful of words by the author.
Instead, you are taken on an immersive journey, trekking across multiple countries and through different societies and peoples, all in the name of learning about some of the world's monsters.
Rather than a generic white/western overview, this book offers more of a local view of the monsters. The well-researched and author-experienced context, in addition to relevant historical grounding, enriches our understanding of these monstrous entities.
The reader is led along organically but with enough space to consider the role of humanity's ugliness and depravity upon the existence of monsters. Or furthermore, to consider who the monsters really are in the world.
Additionally, this book discusses the shift in the types of monsters across history, from naturally occurring to the more modern automaton and robot-based.
I would heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in monsters, and I would love to see more of this content from the author. There are plenty of monsters in the world to be written about, after all.
*I received an advance reader copy for free, and I'm voluntarily leaving a review*
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