The Bestiary of Unearthing
How Monster Romance Led Me Through the Threshold of Reclamation
What if the monsters under your bed were actually the teachers you needed?
This January I found myself completely untethered—that particular unmoored feeling that comes after months of crisis and the early stages of grief.
So I did what any reasonable person in liminal space would do: let the algorithm gods lead me down a rabbit hole of monster romance novels.
What started as escape became something else entirely—a bestiary of transformation.
In this solo episode closing out 2025, I share how seven particular creatures became my threshold guides through grief and emergence. From Fae who reminded me the Otherworld exists when this one cracks open, to Orcs teaching that being both/and in an either/or world is exactly what we need to navigate our own paradigm-shifting times. From Trolls showing when protection must become gardening, to a Lich demonstrating how death resurrects what was carefully rationed. To a Basilisk giving permission to thrive despite survivor’s guilt for joy itself, and finally a Scarecrow teaching me to stop letting my life force leak into fields that were never mine to tend.
These aren’t just steamy reads (though yes, there’s heat). They’re mythic maps for anyone tired of being the emotional regulator, the perpetually useful one, the one who manages everyone else’s crises. For anyone navigating the particular complexity of a mother who died with unlived joy—and discovering that claiming your own pleasure can feel like betrayal.
Here’s what all this reading illuminated: I’ve loved Beauty and the Beast since childhood because I understood something essential. We need to be fully seen—monstrosity and all—to feel at ease being who we are. Not performing our goodness to earn attention or love, but witnessed in our full complexity by something that doesn’t need our usefulness as currency. This year of monsters became my lived experience of that truth. Creature after creature arrived, each one offering the gift of being seen whole—not despite my grief-wildness, but including it.
So Many Monsters - So Many Anatomies
Below are the 50 creatures who kept me company during my cave year. Each arrived at exactly the right threshold with their own medicine. Some taught transformation, some integration, some just made me laugh when I needed it most. Consider this your field guide to the unexpected teachers hiding in ‘escapist fluff.’ May you find the monster medicine you didn’t know you needed.
