Pardon Our Monsters Author:Andrew Hood Andrew Hood?s debut collection heralds a young talent with an irresistible style and merciless eye. These unapologetic stories deal with an assortment of foolish self-destructive small town anti-heroes. They are unlikely odes and elegies for human shabbiness. A newly-wed conjures a ghost in an attempt to contact her absent husband. A seventeen ... more »year old is blackmailed into buying drugs for his English teacher. A tumescent young Blue Jay?s fan and his tumor-addled sister are swept up in the tempest of the Blue Jay?s 1989 run for the World Series. An estranged stepmother and stepson embark on a pilgrimage to the Michael Jackson trial. Hood?s cleverly wrought lyrical prose is the perfect foil for a prevailing lack of forgiveness, which becomes the overriding monstrosity of each story. Every character wants only to be pardoned, but will not, themselves, grant it.« less