Poetry isn’t something I normally seek out, but I wanted to give this one a try. I’m glad I did, since I really enjoyed the entire collection. Sharing a common theme of horror, the works in this book are arranged by themes (monsters, ghosts, etc.) and range from spooky to funny to a little creepy, all while containing a healthy dose of social commentary. Fantastic for horror fans who enjoy poetry.

A stunning collection of poems from one of the best writers in the game right now. Everything I read from Pedro Iniguez is so captivating and has me hanging on to his every word.

Iniguez has crafted something so awesome with these poems. Maybe he is the Frankenstein of poetry? Creating a monster out of words, waking us up and showing us the horrors of yesterday and today. Monsters aren’t always creatures, but often man and what we do to others.

A dark and delicious collection of poems.

Pedro Iniguez is a Mexican-American Bram Stoker, Elgin, and Dwarf Stars Award-winning science-fiction and horror writer from Los Angeles. He has also been a Rhysling finalist and Puschart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. He is the author of Mexicans on the Moon: Speculative Poetry from a Possible Future, Fever Dreams of a Parasite, Echoes and Embers: Speculative Stories, Sythetic Dawns & Crimson Dusks, and the SF novel Control Theory. His newest collection is The Build-a-Monster Workshop.

Divided into four parts, The Build-a-Monster Workshop approaches the idea of monsters from all sorts of speculative angles, whether it be science fiction (“Biology Class Blues” or “Assembling a Father”), ghosts (“The Girl Who Played by the Tombstones” or “The Haunted Roadside Motel”), or more traditional monsters from fable and folklore. Not satisfied with that, Pérez even concocts new monsters of his own, such as “The Lint Fairy,” a poem which begins

When he finds you in the night

try not to weep

as he plucks the lint

from your bellybutton as you sleep.

You’ve heard the urban legends,

and didn’t think them true,

but now he’s come crawling

through the window just for you.

This is the sort of narrative poetry which permeates this collection, poetry both clever and haunting.

As a multiple-award winning poet, Pedro Iniguez’s work needs no introduction. He already established himself as a speculative phenom with Mexicans on the Moon: Speculative Poetry from a Possible Future and The Build-a-Monster Workshop is yet another packed collection. The variety of approaches to the theme of “monster” is so vast that any fan of speculative poetry will find something of value in between these covers and will want to read this book as soon as they possibly can.