When Mystical Creatures Attack! (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781609382834)

In When Mystical Creatures Attack , Ms. Freedman's high school English class writes essays in which mystical creatures resolve the greatest sociopolitical problems of our time. Students include Janice Gibbs, "a feral child with excessive eyeliner and an anti-authoritarian complex that would be interesting were it not so ill-informed," and Cody Splunk, an aspiring writer working on a time machine. Following a nervous breakdown, Ms. Freedman corresponds with Janice and Cody from an insane asylum run on the capitalist model of cognitive-behavioral therapy, where inmates practice water aerobics to rebuild their Psychiatric Credit Scores.

The lives of Janice, Cody, and Ms. Freedman are revealed through in-class essays, letters, therapeutic journal exercises, an advice column, a reality show television transcript, a diary, and a Methodist women's fundraising cookbook. (Recipes include "Dark Night of the Soul Food," "Render Unto Caesar Salad," and "Valley of the Shadow of Death by Chocolate Cake.") In "Virtue of the Month," the ghost of Ms. Freedman's mother argues that suicide is not a choice. In "The Un-Game," Janice's chain-smoking nursing home charge composes a dirty limerick. In "The Hall of Old-Testament Miracles," wax figures of Bible characters come to life, hungry for Cody's flesh.

Set against a South Texas landscape where cicadas hum and the air smells of taco stands and jasmine flowers, these stories range from laugh-out-loud funny to achingly poignant. This surreal, exuberant collection mines the dark recesses of the soul while illuminating the human heart.


Author: Kathleen Founds
ISBN-10: 1609382838
ISBN-13: 9781609382834
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Language: English
Published: 10/01/2014
Pages: 206
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.80h x 5.90w x 0.60d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2014
Publishers Weekly 08/25/2014
Library Journal 11/01/2014 pg. 75
NY Times Notable Bks of Year 12/07/2014 pg. 27
New York Times Book Review 11/30/2014 pg. 34
New York Times Book Review 12/07/2014 pg. 80