Monsters in Appalachia: Stories [Paperback]

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 Appalachiais a powerful work of fiction.
 

"Monsters in Appalachiais wildly outrageous at times, but there is empathy in these stories as well. Humor and sadness achieve a delicate balance."
Ron Rash, author ofThe CoveandAbove the Waterfall 

"A memorable debut: each of these stories is as original and multidimensional as the characters who inhabit them." 
Kirkus (starred review)

“Monks knows her monsters, both literal and figurative. And she knows the territory of hills and hollers, where reality is sometimes heightened so sharply that it bleeds into myth. . . . These stories sparkle with dark, extreme humor.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A fresh, new voice in contemporary fiction, in stories of teenage angst, bondslóå