title: The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories
author: Jeff VanderMeer
description: *Starred Review* In the 1990s, a new kind of genre story seemed to have sprung up. It was frightening but seldom gory; either not quite as realistic as or less fantastic than it initially promised; very short on monsters no matter how monstrous it got; eerie but just about never ghostly (at least, no ghosts horned into the act); creepy even when it decided to be funny; and un-, far more than super-, natural. The VanderMeers, wife and husband editors of this doorstopper, were in the front rank of those fostering what Jeff explains in the introduction was actually a revival of a fictional manner with roots in the early twentieth century and grand masters who spent their lives ignored and unpublished while setting standards for the manner in America and Europe, respectively. Those two were, of course, H. P. Lovecraft and Franz Kafka, a classic by each of whomThe Dunwich Horror and In the Penal Colonyappears herein alongside other stellar performances by writers who have faded from top best-sellerdom into obscurity (F. Marion Crawford, Hugh Walpole); are literary stars of the highest magnitude (Rabindranath Tagore, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Jorge Luis Borges); live through only one unforgettable story; and who busily augment the worldwide catalog of weird stories as this is written (most of the contributors). No popular-fiction library should not have this treasure trove. --Ray Olson
zlib_text: WILD THING
  
  J. KENNER
  
  CONTENTS
  Title
  Introduction
  About the book
  Chapter 1
  Chapter 2
  Chapter 3
  Chapter 4
  Chapter 5
  Chapter 6
  Chapter 7
  Chapter 8
  The Trouble with Demons (a five book anthology
  Sneak Peek)
  Excerpt from Tainted
  Excerpt from Bitch Slap
  Excerpt from Wicked Grind
  More from JK in Kindle Unlimited!
  Also by J. Kenner
  Also by Julie Kenner
  About the Author
  
  WILD THING
  by J. Kenner
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  INTRODUCTION
  I absolutely love writing in paranormal worlds, and
  when I got the rights back to this sexy, fun shifter
  romance novella, I knew that I wanted to put it out
  there again.
  The story was originally published in 2004 in the
  Essence of Midnight anthology, under the name Julie
  Kenner. And while I’ve kept the core of the original
  story, I’ve done a few minor updates, while retaining
  the “cla