-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Novel
by Anna Kovatcheva
A heady, dark-hued Gothic gem of a debut novel: in nineteenth-century Bulgaria, a self-proclaimed vampire slayer—actually, a traveling con artist—joins forces with a teenage girl to create a monster deadly enough to vanquish their own demons.
We make monsters in order to destroy them. For thousands of years, we've named witches and burned them, suspected demons and exorcised them. When crops die and children fall ill, who better to blame than a monster?
In nineteenth-century Bulgaria, Yana rides from one desolate town to the next, staging grisly displays while the villagers sleep: animal corpses in the public square, eggs filled with blood in the chicken coop. She tells the stricken villagers stories of vampires that stalk the night. Then Yana eliminates the threat, and leaves seeds of hope in her wake.
The village of Koprivici, however, is plagued by exceptional illness and misfortune, its children rarely surviving infancy. There, Yana meets Anka: a headstrong orphan who the villagers blame for their curse. As Anka approaches womanhood, the village Captain is grooming her for marriage against her will. Anka is powerless against him—that is, until Yana arrives. Together, the orphan and the vampire slayer hatch a plan: to conjure a monster so vile, it might provide cover for Anka to escape. But their plan quickly takes on a horrifying life of its own...
Inspired by Slavic folklore, She Made Herself a Monster concocts a clever mix of witchery, ghost stories, heresy, and deception to spin a feminist fable about agency and the power of collective action. It is a haunting and astoundingly cathartic tale of two women who will stop at nothing to take control of their fate.
"A tale of dark humanity that sticks like a brick in the mouth." —Kirkus Reviews
"Kovatcheva debuts with the sharp tale of a fraudulent vampire slayer who comes to the aid of an oppressed teen girl in 19th-century Bulgaria...With colorful folklore, grisly details of Yana's alleged vampire killings, and the characters' intense desires, this clever gothic novel offers readers much to savor." —Publishers Weekly
"A poetic exploration of the power of stories. Inspired by Slavic folklore, the novel uses lyrical prose, realistically drawn characters, and multiple points of view to expose the monsters created to make sense of the shadows." —Library Journal
"This exciting, gorgeous novel reminded me why I love vampire stories. Rooted in folklore and peopled with characters who are hauntingly real, She Made Herself a Monster never looks away from the consequences of burying humanity's evils too shallow and too near. I still have chills." —Kate Heartfield, author of The Embroidered Book
"Poetic, visceral, dark, Kovatcheva captures the monstrous in both the mythical and the mundane. A terrifying read that will leave you looking over your shoulder long after you finish reading." —Isabelle Schuler, author of Lady Macbethad
This information about She Made Herself a Monster was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Anna Kovatcheva was born in Bulgaria and now lives in Brooklyn. She holds an MFA in fiction from New York University. She Made Herself a Monster was completed while Anna was in residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her chapbook, The White Swallow, was selected by Aimee Bender as the winner of the Goldline Press Chapbook Competition; her short fiction has been anthologized in Best American Nonrequired Reading and has appeared in The Kenyon Review and The Iowa Review.
If you liked She Made Herself a Monster, try these:
by Heather O'Neill
Published 2025
From the hugely acclaimed author beloved by literary lights, including Emily St. John Mandel, Kelly Link, and Mona Awad, a dark dystopian fairytale about an idyllic country ravaged by war—and a girl torn between safety and loyalty.
by Genoveva Dimova
Published 2024
The Witcher meets Naomi Novik in this fast-paced fantasy rooted in Slavic folklore, from an assured new voice in genre fiction.
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century
by Kim Fu
Published 2022
A dazzling and daring debut story collection by PEN/Hemingway finalist, Kim Fu.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
