Monsterland: A Journey Around the World’s Dark Imagination

Travel writer Jubber (The Fairy Tellers) takes readers on an entertaining and informative tour of monsters through the ages in this captivating look at “what unsettles us.” Interested in what historical purpose monster stories have served, Jubber covers 12 monsters and ranges widely across time and place. One essay is focused on a Cornish giant named Bolster, whose story of defeat by St. Agnes is retold in a yearly festival that includes a giant puppet of the creature. According to Jubber, the tale of Bolster is about the rise of Christianity. Elsewhere, Jubber reports on the rougarou, a Louisiana bayou version of a werewolf, which one local tells him is a parable for compulsion and addiction; takes a look at tales of Scottish selkies, or “seal folk,” who transform into humans and “can be an analogy” for bodily changes during puberty; and shines a light on Austrian and German myths about dragons, writing that they “intensify the beasts of the wild” and are the center of Germany’s longest-running theatrical performance, the Drachenstich. Jubber masterfully uses these legends as jumping-off points for meditations on the longevity of such stories and on what they mean for society: “monsters echo their landscapes and join communities together,” he posits. Fans of folk horror will love this. (May)