McKayla Coyle (they/them) is a lesbian writer from Alaska currently living in Washington. They're the author of the cozy lifestyle guide Goblin Mode and the cryptid romance collection Mothman Is My Boyfriend. McKayla is the publishing coordinator for Lit Hub and they hold an MFA in fiction from The New School. In their free time, they read a lot of fantasy novels and make a lot of jam.
At Lit Hub Coyle tagged seven of her "favorite contemporary works of monster literature." One title on the list:
Samanta Schweblin, tr. Megan McDowell, Little EyesRead about the other books on the list at LitHub.
Personally, I feel that the panopticon Furbies in Little Eyes count as monsters. What else would you call an iDog that lives inyour home and watches your every move and is being controlled by a stranger? In Schweblin’s sci-fi horror novel, stuffed animals called “kentukis” are an international hit. Kentuki owners are watched at all times by a random stranger on the internet, and the internet strangers get to control a kentuki and observe the life of a random individual. Sometimes this leads to moments of beautiful connection, sometimes it leads to something darker. But such is the life of a monster—they aren’t inherently good or bad, they’re just unexpected.
Little Eyes is among Laura Venita Green's ten books featuring devils, doppelgängers, ghosts, and creepy dolls, Sara Sligar's four tech thrillers rooted in the tensions between technology & human nature and Rabeea Saleem's six technothrillers featuring digital surveillance and voyeurism.
--Marshal Zeringue
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