"Paul Tremblay has won widespread acclaim for illuminating the dark horrors of the mind in novels and stories that push the boundaries of storytelling itself. The fifteen pieces in this brilliant collection are all monsters of a kind, ready to loudly (and lovingly) smash through your head and into your heart. In "The Dead Thing," a middle-schooler struggles to deal with the aftermath of her parents' substance addictions and split. One day, her little...

It was 1964 in the brand-new state of Alaska, a vast land of staggering beauty and heart-stopping dangers. Eleven-year-old Jack had grown up living happily with his parents in an off-the-grid cabin, miles from their closest neighbors. Grizzlies and wolves outnumbered people, and dark winter days were 30 degrees below zero. Jack had always thought of himself as strong--"Alaska tough". But then the most powerful earthquake in American history--the Good...

Orphan Girl Heidi spends the happiest days of her childhood together with her eccentric grandfather, cut off from the outside world in a simple cabin in the Swiss mountains. But these carefree times come to an abrupt end when Heidi is taken to Frankfurt by her Aunt Dete to stay with the family of the wealthy Mr. Sesemann and be a playmate for his wheelchair-bound daughter Klara.