MAN MADE MONSTERS by Andrea L Rogers (2022)

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Nov 19, 2024

∙ Paid

“In Oceania we stopped building things we didn’t need in order not to call attention to ourselves. We had water, food, and shelter. Our lives were good and full of story and family and loved ones. Our elders maintained a fleet of evacuation crafts complete with biological escape pods. The knowledge to access them and maintain them and pilot them had been passed down. . . My people won’t forget about us. I just have to help them find us. I just have to sing to them. They will be listening for our song.”
— from “I Come from the Water”

title: Man Made Monsters

author: Andrea L Rogers

illustrator: Jeff Edwards

published: 2022

publisher: Levine Querido

genre: YA literary horror short stories

setting: 1839 - 2039 across Turtle Island (especially so-called Texas & the midwest)

representation: Cherokee characters, heritage & language (Tsalagi), some queer characters

tropes: vampires, fae-folk, werewolves, Frankenstein, aliens, zombies, medical horror, ghosts

main themes/subjects: Indigenous displacement in the mid-1900s u.s.-occupied territories, monsters & cycles of violence / how violence & trauma transforms, epistolary narrative story, gothic literature, Frankenstein references & themes, western science (alchemy, necromancy) vs Indigenous medicine, ancestral knowledge vs western academic tradition & book-learning (“la manera tradicional”), assimilation & conversion, Indigenous folklore, family dynamics, ghosts & cemeteries, Indigenous experience in u.s. wars in europe & asia, boarding schools, fetishization of Indigenous bodies & culture, genocide, isolation from community, justice & redemption

“I thought of Ms. M. crying during yet another lockdown, over a girl being killed in another high school, over a world where learning in safety was neither a right nor a possibility. . . It wasn’t enough that she teach, she also had to protect the students in her care from a world that didn’t make the safety of children a priority. Being a teacher nowadays is hard.
Almost as hard as being a teenage girl.”
— from “Deer Women”

summary/blurbs/premise: “Man Made Monsters is a powerful exploration of identity and the enduring legacy of colonization. Rogers masterfully blends Cherokee legends with chilling horror, creating unforgettable characters and monsters.”

my thoughts:

This collection of short stories is ✨perfect.✨ While anyone could read this collection as a purely five-star, perfectly entertaining horror read, the way Rogers ties together Indigenous history & culture with gothic & horror tropes all while exploring themes of monstrousness & violence, childhood & family dynamics, feminism & queer identity, family & isolation from community, death & grief, & genocide & epigenetic trauma, elevates this book to a whole other level.

The title of the book & the second story (a tribute to Frankenstein & Mary Shelley & my favorite of the collection), “Man made monsters”, is a recurring theme that looks at the way white violence, genocide, & colonization destroys & transforms Indigenous people & their communities by embodying the trauma response as consequences of infection: so for instance, things like vampire blood, a werewolf bite, & zombie breath are intimately tied up with the dictates of forced poverty in a commerce-based economy, religious conversion by fear, worldview corruption (institution of patriarchal & christian “values” & ideas), & abduction of Indigenous children into boarding schools).

In fact, this theme & its treatment has its genesis in Rogers’s literary world in her short story contribution to Never Whistle At Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology: “Night Moves”, which is Walt Rock’s origin-story (he’s a side-character in “Shame on the Moon”).

“The technician was rolling the cart out of the room and called back to Maria. ‘Isn’t science a wonderful thing?’”
— from “Maria Most Likely”

There is also a great deal of exploration in a variety of different contexts & situations unpacking the violent dichotomy of anti-spiritual, non-holistic western science & western academic tradition & book-learning (“la manera tradicional”) vs Indigenous medicine & ancestral knowledge. The stories “An Old-Fashioned Girl”, “Man Made Monsters”, “Maria Most Likely”, & “Lens” (my second-favorite of all the stories) all featured this theme to excellent effect.

I already know I have to reread this entire collection too because in our bookclub discussion folks were bringing up more threads & connections between all the stories that I missed reading it on audiobook so I’m already excited to revisit these stories.

Also jsyk, the first story is the hardest to read & the second story is the next hardest. While all of the stories tackle a lot of difficult themes, I do think the categorization of this collection as YA is appropriate because I feel that Rogers tells these stories in ways that can really help teen+ readers grapple with the difficult things they are dealing with in their lives, feel seen, & find hope that things will only continue to get better as long as they keep faith & live right.

“I try not to think too hard about what I have had to do to survive. When genocide is what you’re up against, you regret nothing.”
— from “Ama’s Boys”

i would recommend this book to readers who love good horror stories, especially those from an Indigenous perspective. this book is best read on a dark & stormy night, obviously.

final note: This book was actually Andrea’s debut YA book (she’s also written a ton of children’s & a couple middle-grade books) & her next YA one, The Art Thieves (out Sept. 2024), is a sort of apocalyptic dystopian novel that takes place in 2052. Definitely adding it to my TBR. <3

“Before we covered it with dirt, Janie spit into the dark earth.
   I laughed. ‘Any last words?’
   ‘I hate those stupid preppy kids,’ Janie said.
   ‘Yeah, me too.’”
— from “Shame on the Moon”

CW // the horrific violence & inhumane injustice of u.s. imperialism with graphic anti-Indigenous violence, murder of family members, & animal death, suicide, abortion, MMIW, boarding schools, a brief school lockdown scene, car accident

spice level: 🌶️🌶️

season: Dunihidi (ᏚᏂᏂᏗ) or Nvdadegwa (ᏅᏓᏕᏆ)

music pairing: your etsi’s powwow mix cd! or this mix, if you don’t have a cd player:

I’ve also started putting together a playlist of some of my favorite music by Indigenous artists (worldwide) if you’d like to check that out:

If you haven’t already, consider upgrading to a paid subscription to see more of my expanded annotations & favorite quotes from this book below. . .

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My annotations for this book are very very spoilery as they’re basically me processing & mapping the connected themes, characters, & plot lines across the stories so… Best read after one has already read the book. 😆

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MAN MADE MONSTERS by Andrea L Rogers (2022)

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

title: Man Made Monsters

genre: YA literary horror short stories

my thoughts:

further reading:

More by Andrea L. Rogers:

Young adult:

Childrens:

Picture books:

Adjacent reads:

Books being read/mentioned in some of the stories:

Click on the star ratings beside the titles I’ve read to read my reviews/thoughts about the book.

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If you haven’t already, consider upgrading to a paid subscription to see more of my expanded annotations & favorite quotes from this book below. . .

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial