True Monsters

They’ve stalked Europe’s haunted woods and prowled America’s forgotten roads. Now their blood-soaked legacy is exposed. Werewolves have howled through our darkest stories for centuries—but what if the legends were true? In this unnerving collection, author Ethan Blackwood hunts down the origins, folklore, and chilling real-world encounters behind the world’s most terrifying shapeshifters. From ancient European villages to the eerie backroads of rural America, you'll discover: The horrifying roots of werewolf myths across cultures Real-life accounts from survivors who claim they ...

In the summer of 1969, Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel carried out horrific acts of butchery on the orders of the charismatic cult leader Charles Manson. At their murder trial the following year, lead prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi described the two so-called Manson Women as "human monsters". But to anyone who knew them growing up, they were bright, promising girls, seemingly incapable of such an unfathomable crime. Award-winning journalist Nikki Meredith began visiting Van Houten and Krenwinkel in prison to discover how they had changed during their incarceration.

Love is a dangerous game when your fated mate is a dark fae prince—so dangerous, in fact, that trust could be your deadliest enemy. Falling for him was the easy part. Staying alive? That’s where the real trouble begins. Met’s real mother—the Queen of the Underworld—wants him to walk the path of darkness, leaving me with a choice: embrace evil or perish. But evil isn't me. Meanwhile, Moros—Jax’s blood father, a demon and succubus—wants me as a lure to bring Nightmare back into his grasp. Now, I must dance between two worlds of darkness and deception, staying on my toes if I ...

Ambitious, attractive, and full of potential, five young college students prepared for the new semester. They dreamed of beginning careers and starting families. They had a lifetime of experiences in front of them. But death came without warning in the dark of the night. Brutally ending five promising lives, leaving behind three gruesome crime scenes, the Gainesville Ripper terrorized the University of Florida, casting an ominous shadow across a frightened college town.

Incredible? Impossible? Too awful to imagine? But someone, somewhere at some time has sworn that each of these strange stories is true... A newspaper reports of a monster man, whose fiery breath scorched the faces of his victims; an American swears to his dying day he was kidnapped by a family of Bigfoot or ape men; and centuries old records tell of a beached sea monster so huge, a man could have drowned inside it.

In 2000, Douglas Preston and his family moved to Florence, Italy, fulfilling a long-held dream. They put their children in Italian schools and settled into a 14th century farmhouse in the green hills of Florence, where they devoted themselves to living la dolce vita while Preston wrote his best-selling suspense novels. All that changed when he discovered that the lovely olive grove in front of their house had been the scene of a double-murder.

Princess Anna's quest for a flower leads to an intriguing deal with an ice dragon and a journey into magical realms, where fate weaves its frosty tale of true love. Princess Anna, driven by curiosity, ventures too close to Frostfell's icy domain in pursuit of a rare frostbloom lily. There, she encounters the formidable ice dragon, who strikes a deal: in exchange for a single flower, she must retrieve a tome from her kingdom's library detailing the whereabouts of The Snowflake Pendant. Oblivious to the consequences, Anna agrees. Little did Princess Anna know that her innocent curiosity had ...

Prostitutes and animals could no longer satisfy Peter Kürten’s sexual deviancy. During a burglary of a local tavern, he stumbled upon a nine-year-old girl asleep in her bed. He strangled her, slashed her throat with a pocket knife, and orgasmed upon hearing her blood drip to the floor. His crimes were halted by World War I and an eight-year prison sentence but he unleashed his urges with a spate of brutal murders in 1929 earning him the nickname "The Düsseldorf Monster."

North America is a land rich with history and folklore, where the echoes of heroes and patriots blend with tales of the unknown. But beyond the familiar narratives lies a shadowy realm of mystery. This book unveils spine-tingling stories of legendary creatures, ghostly apparitions, UFO sightings, and unexplainable phenomena that stretch across the continent. In Legends, Myths, Monsters, & Ghosts: North American Edition, author George Lunsford takes readers on a thrilling expedition into the heart of North American folklore. With exhaustive research and vivid storytelling, Lunsford has ...

Jillian Lauren had no idea what she was getting into when she wrote her first letter to prolific serial killer Samuel Little. All she knew was her research had led her to believe he was good for far more murders than the three for which he had been convicted. While the two exchanged dozens of letters and embarked on hundreds of hours of interviews, Lauren gained the trust of a monster. After maintaining his innocence for decades, Little confessed to the murders of ninety-three women, often drawing his victims in haunting detail as he spoke.

One mystery, one romance, and an owl god. In Song, the undercity of Singsong City, The Queen Heir of fairies, otherwise known as Princess Sparkles is on a mission: save the werewolves from the rebel member of her court who wants to poison them, and save her own people from another werewolf invasion of fairyland. But when it comes out that she's already been tangled up in a plot with the werewolf alpha, a secret traitor, and a juvenile delinquent, she'll have to trust in the real magic of friendship and love before she can save her people or herself. Will she find the traitor and her fated ...

In 1902, at the age of 11, Carl Panzram broke into a neighbour’s home and stole some apples, a pie, and a revolver...During his two-year detention, Carl was repeatedly beaten, humiliated, and raped by the school staff...Kill 'Em All is a chilling and gripping account of one of the most brutal and gruesome true crime stories in American history. Ryan Green’s riveting narrative draws the listener into the real-live horror experienced by the victims and has all the elements of a classic thriller.

The Louisiana bayou hides more than gators. Something bigger watches from the trees. In Bigfoot: Welcome to the Bayou, best-selling author Ethan Blackwood dives deep into real sightings, terrifying encounters, and the enduring folklore of Bigfoot in the swamps of Louisiana. From the legendary Honey Island Swamp Monster to modern reports of glowing eyes and guttural growls in the Atchafalaya Basin, these 25 chilling stories explore the darker side of the American South. Hunters vanish without a trace. Footprints appear in the mud — too big for any man. And something massive moves beneath ...

Are you ready to take a deep dive into darkness? This is the terrifying true story of a bizarre and brutal series of murders committed between 1974 and 1985 near the city of Florence in Italy. Over a period of nine years a sadistic serial killer killed and mutilated fourteen helpless victims and then hacked body parts from their corpses to take as macabre souvenirs. Three men were convicted of these crimes, but there are serious doubts that any of them were really guilty. All that we are certain about is the chilling name given to this killer by an Italian journalist: Il Mostro, the Monster...

A Kiss. A Curse. An Obsession. Genevieve Castle spends her time compiling playlists, writing down the music in her head, and trying oh-so-hard not to think about the quarterback, her long-time obsession. When a gorgeous foreign exchange student moves into town, staying with the inhumanly-hot captain of the swim team, will she manage to move onto something better, or will a kiss of obsession drag her into a world more dark and dangerous than anything she imagined? Welcome to the world of Watergirl: hot guys with gills, psychotic ex-girlfriends, oh, and something in the lake. It will take ...

Schoolteacher Olivia Dare Christian was murdered in her Hampton, Virginia, apartment in 1981. Her killer left few clues and the murder went unsolved. Three decades later, in 2011, next-generation detective Randy Mayer re-opened Olivia's dusty cold case file and began unraveling the mystery. Mayer located a reluctant witness who was a teenager back in 1981. She recalled a suspicious man lurking outside Olivia's apartment the morning of the murder and provided a detailed description of the man.

Told in her own words, this is the story of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who was portrayed in an Oscar-winning performance by Charlize Theron in the film Monster. There have been few female serial killers, but Aileen Wuornos, who was executed in 2002, was a remarkable example of this rare breed of death row inmate. All too often, female prostitutes have been the victims of male serial killers - Wuornos’ killings were the inverse of this pattern.

Every year across the United States, there are individuals whose passions defy simple description. Some call them researchers, others investigators, but their relentless pursuit of the unknown ignites imaginations and leaves many bewildered. Could monsters truly exist? Are the creatures that lurk in our nightmares and darkest fears roaming the earth—perhaps even living closer than we dare to believe? In this thrilling journey, renowned cryptopunkologist Kenney W. Irish, author of American Cryptids: In Pursuit of the Elusive Creatures and International Cryptids and Legends, once again ...

Deep in the woods of Ohio, something walks among us. From the legendary Minerva Monster to chilling recent encounters in Salt Fork and Wayne National Forest, Bigfoot in Ohio uncovers fourteen immersive, true narrative accounts of unexplained sightings across the state. Drawing on local witness testimony, public records, and eerie firsthand details, author Ethan Blackwood brings each story to life with suspense, atmosphere, and emotional realism. Whether it’s a hiker hearing guttural growls at dusk or a family terrorized near their cabin, these tales aren’t fiction — they’re part of ...

Society is conditioned to think of murderers and predators as men, but in this fascinating book, Peter Vronsky exposes and investigates the phenomenon of women who kill - and the political, economic, social, and sexual implications.