North American Lake Monsters

Ever since I read this collection I’ve become unapologetically evangelical about it.

I’ve gushed about it to friends and put it on course lists for classes I’ve taught. There’s something strangely timeless about the writing of this book, like it’s from both the past and the future at the same time. Ballingrud has a supernatural ability for using the otherworldly as a lens to examine the struggles and horrors of our own reality. There are monsters here, sure, but the real horror comes from humans and the systems we create and perpetuate; poverty, abuse, control.

A stylistic blend of noir,… show more.

Each short story is an epic in disguise. They have unique settings, and twists on the predictable beats of a horror genre keep you guessing.

Real life is more frightening than the monsters we imagine, isn't it? Highly original and engaging, I read the book three times in the first year of ownership.

Few debut collections have so powerfully announced the presence of a fully formed literary presence. There’s a unique honesty at play, a raw handling of guilt, shame, and the worst aspects of our species, creating brutal narratives of a genuinely unsettling nature. These are human tales, and these are monster tales, and sometimes they are both, set amid backdrops of the Weird. Ballingrud’s horrors can just as easily arise from your garden variety parent, spouse, or child, showing us that anyone, anywhere is capable of doing very bad things, depending on the choices they are willing to make. North American… show more.