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The Monster Librarian Presents:

The Mission of MonsterLibrarian.com

 

MonsterLibrarian.com was created with the following goals

1) To support Public, Academic, and School Librarians in developing their library horror fiction collection and assist in readers advisory.

 

2) To help current readers of horror fiction find another good book to read

 

3) To encourage fans of horror to expand their interests beyond movies and television, and introduce excellent horror fiction.

 

4) To help teachers and librarians use horror to reach reluctant readers.

 

5) To help promote small and independent press horror genre publishers in libraries.

 

 

About the Site

    The Monster Librarian welcomes you! This site is dedicated to all the books that are creepy, scary, and give us the willies.  It is meant to be a resource for readers and librarians. For readers of horror, this is designed to be a site where you can find other books that fall into the horror category that you might be interested in reading.  For librarians, this site provides tools to help in collection development, readers advisory, and program planning. While the site will have  information on current mainstream horror it will also include in the various lists older books that may be of interest.   This site has no other agenda than encouraging people to read, and supporting readers of the horror genre. 

 

Disclaimer: Please presume that any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author, publisher, or associated publicist to MonsterLibrarian.com or its reviewers, as a review copy.   MonsterLibrarian.com does not accept compensation for reviews.

 

 

 

 

 

The Monster Librarian Staff

 

Dylan Kowalewski aka The Monster Librarian

Webmaster/ Editor /Reviewer

     I obtained a Master’s in Library Science after catching the library bug working as reference assistant at an academic library.  I am currently  working part-time at the reference desk of a small branch library.  I have been reading horror fiction and watching horror movies for as long as I can remember. My current interest in the field of library science is using horror fiction as a tool to attract reluctant readers to the joy of reading.   E-mail the Monster Librarian.

 

Kirsten Kowalewski

Editor/Reviewer

Kirsten Kowalewski has a Master's degree in library science and is certified to teach school library media. She has worked as a children's librarian in a large public library and as a school library media specialist at the elementary level.  She's had kids of all ages ask her "Where are the scary books?"

 

Bret Jordan
Reviewer
Bret Jordan is a 39 year old Texas resident. He is married and has four children, all girls. By day he programs computers for a local business, and by night he works as a freelance artist specializing in horror and fantasy artwork. When not working, drawing, or spending time with his family he reads and writes horror stories.
Bret currently has an online serial at Graveside Tales that can be found
here.

 

 

Michele Lee

Reviewer

Michele Lee has been a friend and supporter of libraries and librarians since middle school when she discovered the first in a wonderful line of book lovers who would pull her from classes and indulge her love of roaming the stacks. Now she's a writer and a reviewer trying to share her love of books and stories with anyone who will listen. She keeps a web site (www.michelelee.net) and a personal book review blog (micheleleebooklove.blogspot.com) where she reviews everything from romantic erotica to unflinching horror.
 

   David Agranoff

Reviewer

David Agranoff is a Science Fiction and Horror author who spent time in prison for the first amendment and eats massive amounts of vegan food at his home in the Pacific Northwest. He is the author of the collection Screams from a Dying World and co-author of The Gutter Limits both available from Punk Horror press. 2008 will see the release of his first novel Hunting the Moon Tribe and he is currently working on a dystopian cyberpunk novel and blogs book reviews and points of view on a regular basis at www.davidagranoff.blogspot.com  

 

Bob Freeman

Bob Freeman is the author of Shadows Over Somerset, as well as numerous comics and short stories. Bob majored in anthropology and ancient studies at Ball State University with a primary focus on witchcraft, magic, and religion. He is married with children and resides in rural Indiana. He can be found online at www.cairnwood.net
 
 

 

Rhonda Wilson

Reviewer

Rhonda Wilson is a bibliophile who has around 10,000 books in her own personal library.  She has been an avid reader all her life and though she reads pretty much all genres, she always ends up finding her way back to horror more often than not as she grew up reading R.L. Stine's Fear Street series.  Her favorite genres are erotic horror and comedic horror, with her favorite authors being John Everson and Jeff Strand.  She keeps a personal book blog (http://sandsreads.blogspot.com/) that contains reviews of various genres of books and is also very active in keeping in contact with numerous authors via social networks online to keep "in the loop" of what is going on in the "horror book industry".
 

Erik Smith

Reviewer

Erik Smith has been a college student, a security specialist in the Air Force, a mason tender, a telemarketer (sorry), a picture framer, and, currently, a factory worker. It seems like the one constant in his life is a love of horror. From the first time he read "The Monkey's Paw" as a child, to the splatterpunk days of the '80s, to what he feels is a new resurgence in the genre today, Erik has been a rabid fan. And sharing his love of horror is an honor. He hopes old fans find new authors and new fans find something that thrills and frightens them. Long Live Horror! 

 

Colleen Wanglund

Reviewer

Colleen Wanglund is a mother of two twenty-somethings, a metalhead, a gorehound, but most importantly, a reader. She has been a horror fan since her first horror movie (THE OMEN) when she was 10 and her first horror novel (THE SENTINEL) when she was 12. When not reading or writing reviews, she's either knitting or working in her garden....and ALWAYS listening to music.

 

Brandi Blankenship

Reviewer

Brandi’s love of everything scary started at a very young age when she would spend the night with her grandparents and watch horror movies with her grandma. When she has time, she still does this. She has her Master’s in Library Science and manages a small branch in Missouri where she does her best to keep the community informed of the coming zombie apocalypse.

 

Sheila Shedd

Reviewer

Sheila Shedd earned her MA in English from Virginia Commonwealth University. She’s a reviewer for Fangoria Magazine, an assistant editor at Capitol City Books, and her fiction is published at Sink/Swim Press. A California native, Sheila’s into surf-punk, comedic gore, and playing wildly competitive rounds of Munchkin with her family.


Rhonda Walton

Reviewer

Rhonda Walton loves horror.  She credits her mother for this as she was fed a steady diet of Poe as material for bedtime stories instead of the 'normal' children's fare. This ensured a lifelong fascination with dark fiction, classic literature and all things that 'go bump in the night'.  She has an unnatural love for Zombies, and all things apocalyptic since first viewing 'Night of the Living Dead', and 'Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things' in the early 70's.

Aside from horror, her favorite genres are Classics, Mystery/Thrillers, Historical Fiction, historic reference works, Philosophy and Esoteric studies.  Pretty much anything outside of Romance.  Unless someone is being disemboweled or eaten while they are being 'romanced' .  Rhonda is a blood and guts kind of girl.

She and her daughter manage a small, independent used bookstore where she is free to share her passion for reading on a daily basis.

She is also a Tarot devotee and reader, folk artist and enthusiast for all creative pursuits.

Rhonda shares her home with more cats than she cares to admit, two dogs, two twenty-something children and one VERY understanding husband. 

 

   Wendy Zazo-Phillips

Reviewer

W.E. Zazo-Phillips read Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King in fifth grade and has been a fan of horror and paranormal fiction ever since. She has been a professional exam writer for the several years, which means that while thousands of people have read her work, no one knows her name. Part of her responsibilities involve interviewing and working with librarians from all over to develop test material for library jobs. She is the author of Demons Among Us.

 

Benjamin Franz

Reviewer


Benjamin Franz is a filmmaker, librarian, scriptwriter, scriptreader, butcher, occasional baker, but has yet to do any candlestick making. He started reading at an early age, although his first love was definitely science fiction. He has since migrated to reading all genres in the library, especially horror. Benjamin currently serves as a librarian in the greater CUNY (City University of New York) network of colleges. He resides in East Orange, NJ with his partner Liz and their dog, Adom. He has resolved to determine what the platypus was up to the night of December 8th, 1974….

 

Patricia O. Mathews
Reviewer
Patricia Mathews is a professional librarian in a public library and the author of the reader’s advisory guide Fang-Tastic Fiction: Twenty-First Century Paranormal Reads, published by ALA Editions in 2011. In addition to reviewing for MonsterLibrarian.com, she reviews massive quantities of paranormal fiction at the Fang-tastic Fiction companion blog, fangfiction.blogspot.com.

Kelly Fann

Reviewer
Kelly Fann is a library director for a small, but mighty library in northeast Kansas. She also teaches part time for the School of Library and Information Management at Emporia State University. By acquiring her masters of library science degree, she has been able to feed her 25+ year horror addiction all under the guise of “work”. Kelly is a regular workshop presenter on readers’ advisory practices across Kansas and Missouri and is heavily involved in the Kansas City Horror Club. When not found with her nose in a book or involved in marathon horror movie watching, she can be seen riding her motorcycle across the state scouting out the best routes to escape the zombie apocalypse. That, or spending quality time with her husband, two dogs, and a very angry cat.

Mason Fann

Reviewer
Mason Fann is praying for the Apocalypse. Until then, get off his lawn!

David Simms

Reviewer
David has his Master’s in educational psychology & work as a special education teacher, therapist, psychologist, and professor while playing in the Slushpile charity band (with F. Paul Wilson, Heather Graham, Alex Sokoloff, etc) & co-founded the Killer Thriller Band (the OTHER big writers’ band).

He has stories in numerous anthologies & is hoping find homes for two novels this year.
Moving to the picturesque Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia freed the muse after being strangled in New Jersey for 40 years. He lives atop a mountain with a wife and two furballs and travels anywhere he can affordfor Walden-esque escapes – and to relive youth at hard rock & blues shows

 

 

 

 

 

 

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