This essay will discuss the connections between femininity and monstrosity in several works of contemporary fiction. Why are female characters in these novels closely associated with monsters?[1] A feminist reading of these texts illuminates the ways in which grotesque yet powerful creatures may represent the women’s repressed desires.[2] ________________ [1] I use the terms “monster” and “creature” interchangeably in this essay. [2] For further analysis of the relationship between the monstrous supernatural and the feminine, see Laura van Dyke, “Self-contained and singing to itself”: Reading the Fairy Melusine in A.S. Byatt’s Possession,” “Curious, if True”: The Fantastic in Literature, edited by Amy Bright (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012), pp. 145-158