MONSTERS OF L.A. – Lisa Morton

Monsters of L.A.. published in trade paperback by Bad Moon Books, 2011. Reprinted in e-book form with new cover art by Lynne Hansen, 2018.

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Nineteen never-before-published short stories and one novelette (“The Urban Legend”) that re-introduce the classic movie monsters into contemporary Southern California settings. At the back of the book are small essays that discuss the setting of each story, providing some local history. Also included are eight photographs.

“Frankenstein“
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde“
“The Phantom“
“The Hunchback“
“Dracula“
“The Bride“
“The Mummy“
“The Invisible Woman“
“The Mad Scientist“
“The Werewolf“
“The Haunted House“
“Cat People“
“The Creature“
“The Alien“
“Kaiju (Giant Monster)“
“The Devil“
“The Slasher“
“The Killer Clown“
“The Urban Legend“
“The Zombie“

Monsters of L.A. was nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Fiction Collection.

“Lisa Morton is becoming the horror author’s version of Meryl Streep, I mean, she keeps writing books worthy of award nominations and wins. She has done it again!… This is an excellent and diverse collection of horror, dark humor and weird fiction. It is also an informative love letter to the city Morton calls home…” – Postcards from a Dying World

“Unlike other collections and anthologies, where I feel free to jump around and read stories at whim, I kind of felt like this collection needed to be read from front to back, kind of like how you listen to certain albums beginning to end. Pink Floyd, anyone? While comparing this book to one of those iconic records like The Wall or Dark Side of the Moon might be a stretch, it’s a good book that really shows a love and abiding dedication to a city that is long fabled as a glitzy train wreck. Monsters of L.A. might not be a love letter to the city, but it’s definitely a love letter to monsters.” – Wag the Fox

“…an unpredictable and entertaining collection.” – Robert Morrish, Twilight Ridge

” I was expecting it to be just a tidbit of each story but some lead into each other. I loved it… If you like horror you will love this collection. Some of the stories are bizarre and even scary. Best of all they are well written! I highly recommend this book!…I give Monsters of L.A. by Lisa Morton 5 of 5 stars.” – Sweeping Me

“This book was nothing like I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a sort of silly story that happened to have characters that duplicated as classic monsters all sort of tangled together in one large story verging on the convoluted. Monsters of L.A. is nothing like that… it’s a great collection of stories ranging from funny to creepy to heartbreaking…” – Working for the Mandroid

“What Lisa Morton managed to do was way beyond what I thought this book would be about. She was able to breathe new life into twenty staples of horror Hollywood. ..The longest story, which is also my favorite, ‘The Urban Legend’, was simply brilliant. It took the legend of a race of lizard people living beneath the city and brought it to life through character and story. It was a brilliant example of this authors work, work that I would love to read more of at some point in time.” – Wordsmithonia

“This collection of short stories is one of the best I’ve read, some intertwine within each other and some are stand alone but the adaptations of popular myths and monsters is brilliant…The very essence of this book is to adapt popular fiction and find new and interesting ways of retelling them and it works amazingly well…Morton is very talented at adapting the stories to create her own interesting take on them!!” – Passion for Novels

“.. the best thing about this anthology? The writing. The humour alone was enough to leave me in giggling hysterical fits as I rode home on the subway…The Haunted House – 5/5 I absolutely loved this story. I think it might have been my favourite of the whole collection. It tells the story of an old house and how this ghost hunter show tries to make it into a haunted house to raise their ratings. The house is so upset because all it wants is to be happy and have a family live inside to take care of it, and it feels like these ghost hunters are ruining her chances at happiness. It was fabulously written and I highly enjoyed it!…The Zombie 5/5 I’m not a huge fan of zombies, but Lisa Morton wrote a fantastic zombie story in this collection. I can’t say too much without ruining it, but it nicely weaves together a few of the other stories from this collection and paints a vivid picture of a post-apocalyptic world and the characters trapped within it…Overall this was a great collection and I highly enjoyed reading it.” – Rants ‘N Scribbles

Click here to listen to Army of Darkness co-star Richard Grove (“Henry the Red”) reading “The Devil”.