Monstrum Poetica
- $12.95 PaperbackISBN: 9781947879355
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When was the last time you walked through the woods? Checked under your bed? Walked down into your basement alone? Monstrum Poetica by Jezzy Wolfe is an invocation of boogeymen, a graveyard seance, a summons to horrors both large and small. This is a collection of poems that bite, scratch, snarl, and bleed. Filled with magnificent beasts and the sounds of cracked bones and broken teeth, Wolfe takes her readers through the folklore and mythology behind some of the world’s most terrifying creatures.
Here you’ll meet jinn, vampires, werewolves, and wendigos, tangle with mermaids, wraiths, aswang and hellhounds. It’s a dance of specters and spiders, a logbook of limbs and lost persons. If you’re lucky, you’ll learn what to do when the lights flicker, when the lightbulb goes out, when darkness becomes your only friend, and the next time you hear a whisper, or feel the hot breath of fear on your neck, you’ll remember what do, where to go…
Because this is a book that teaches you how to hunt monsters, how to track fiends, how to bathe in the blood and digestive juices all of things that go bump in the night. Carry this manual with you. Hold it close, memorize its contents for these poems are warnings, a resounding alarm.
I suggest you head them.
They might just save your life.
What They’re Saying
“Just as much a dark, lyrical vision as a field guide to things that go bump in the night. There are monsters in this collection that will not leave you alone. There are turns of phrase that will do the same. You didn’t think you could get truly scared from a poem? Think again.” –Josh Malerman, New York Time best-selling author of Bird Box and Unbury Carol
“…a wondrous journey through some of the world’s most famous and infamous creatures and folklore. This is a book to keep on the bookshelf—to explore its mysteries and enjoy its poetic forms again and again. Loved it!” —John Palisano, Bram Stoker Award-Winning author of Ghost Heart, President of The Horror Writers Association
“It’s rare to find a new poet who can capture my attention as completely as Jezzy Wolfe does with her Monstrum Poetica. Wondrous, dark, and full of the dread that makes us remember why we look over our shoulders when walking in unknown territories, this collection is one that lingers in the best possible way. I was told to expect great things from Jezzy Wolfe and I was not disappointed!” –James A. Moore, author of Boomtown and the Seven Forges series.
“Drenched with thrilling darkness, Jezzy Wolfe’s Monstrum Poetica is full of the wonderful worst. Monsters of all shapes, sizes, shades and orientations populate her pages to haunt and delight. Wolfe explores a variety of poetic forms from fantastic shape/concrete poems to well constructed free verse. For those that love monsters, Monstrum Poetica is a beautiful monster manual of verse—a well orchestrated symphony of the horrific to scream to.” —Angela Yuriko Smith, author of Bram Stoker nominated Bitter Suites, Editor-in-Chief of Space and Time Magazine
“Wolfe’s Monstrum Poetica gives fascinating information on little-known fiends then offers accompanying poems that bring these monsters to life, terrifying verses that make us want to hide in a corner and plea for mercy.” —Elizabeth Massie, author of Sineater, Hell Gate, the Ameri-Scares series
“For those who appreciate dark poetry, herein is a tasty dish of disturbing poems, thanks to the language skills of an accomplished word-monger. Each and all, terrifyingly original. Rest assured, there’s not a tired or trite poem in this outstanding collection!” —Marge Simon, multiple Bram Stoker Winner, Grand Master poet, SFPA
“Wolfe creates fables in this collection, using shapes and spaces to make a roadmap to order, chaos, and the un-making of the familiar; inserting nightmares into wakening moments through an uncanny, beautiful mixture of images.” – Linda D. Addison, award-winning author, HWA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and SFPA Grand Master
“Monstrum Poetica is an unholy pact with the reader, making us succulent preys of the blackest creatures from literature, mythology, urban legends and folklore. Wandering the charcoal’s dunes of the pages, with their starving long shadows, we’ll find the ancestral wells of our memories.” —Bram Stoker Award & SFPA Elgin Award- winning author Alessandro Manzetti
