Dogs and Monsters: Stories

Dogs and Monsters: Stories by Mark Haddon is an entrancing collection of eight classic Greek myths reimagined in Haddon’s trademark imaginative and carefully crafted style. While there have been numerous mythological retellings on the new release tables as of late, Greek and otherwise, I was beyond impressed with Haddon’s unique approach to this growing subgenre. Inside, you’ll find Pasiphae, the mother of the monstrous Minotaur, as she struggles to protect her outcast offspring. Question your own sense of mortality as Tithonus lives out his eternal life, one year at a time. Picture the previously solid line between man and animal blur as Actaeon goes from hunter to prey. Instead of simply retelling any one of these stories, as I’ve seen done skillfully with so many other books with a similar theme, Haddon deftly highlights vividly passionate depictions of the primal hopes and fears that make us human while seamlessly interweaving modern anxieties and contemporary fears throughout, leaving you with such a personal empathetic connection with each character that it’s genuinely hard to shake them loose after closing the cover.