Fifteen original short stories from YA superstars, featuring Latine mythology's most memorable monsters
From zombies to cannibals to death incarnate, this cross-genre anthology offers something for every monster lover. In Our Shadows Have Claws, bloodthirsty vampires are hunted by a quick-witted slayer; children are stolen from their beds by el viejo de la bolsa while a military dictatorship steals their parents; and anyone you love, absolutely anyone, might be a shapeshifter waiting to hunt.
The worlds of these stories are dark but also magical ones, where a ghost-witch can make your cheating boyfriend pay, bullies are brought to their knees by vicious wolf-gods, a jar of fireflies can protect you from the reality-warping magic of a bruja--and maybe you'll even live long enough to tell the tale. Set across Latin America and its diaspora, this collection offers bold, imaginative stories of oppression, grief, sisterhood, first love, and empowerment.
Full contributor list: Chantel Acevedo, Courtney Alameda, Julia Alvarez, Ann Dávila Cardinal, M. García Peña, Racquel Marie, Gabriela Martins, Yamile Saied Méndez, Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite, Claribel A. Ortega, Amparo Ortiz, Lilliam Rivera, Jenny Torres Sanchez, Ari Tison, and Alexandra Villasante.
Author Biography:
Yamile (pronounced sha-MEE-lay) Saied Méndez was born and raised in Rosario, Argentina, in a family with roots from all over the world. She now lives in a small mountain town in the United States with her Puerto Rican husband, five multicultural kids, two bilingual dogs, and a herd of deer that love to eat her flowers. She's a graduate of the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Visit her at www.yamilesmendez.com.
Amparo Ortiz was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and currently lives on the island's northeastern coast. BLAZEWRATH GAMES is her debut novel (Page Street Kids, 2020). Her short story comic, "What Remains in The Dark," appears in the Eisner Award-winning anthology PUERTO RICO STRONG (Lion Forge, 2018), and SAVING CHUPIE, her middle grade graphic novel, comes out with HarperCollins in 2022. She holds an M.A. in English and a B.A. in Psychology from the UPR's Río Piedras campus. When she's not teaching ESL to her college students, she's streaming Kpop music videos, vlogging for her eponymous YouTube channel, and writing about Latinx characters in worlds both contemporary and fantastical. Marisa Blake is a multi-award winning audiobook narrator. She is bilingual in both English and Spanish and is passionate about children's literature. She has narrated dozens of audiobooks, created the YouTube channel Miss Bee's Audio Reads, and regularly volunteers with Learning Ally, an organization that records audiobooks for children with learning disabilities. She also specializes in voiceover for commercials, e-learning, telephony, and video games. When not narrating, she enjoys spending time with her husband and three boys in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina. Frankie Corzo is a film and voice-over actress and audiobook narrator. She obtained a BA degree in theater studies from Montclair State University.
