We Who Hunt Alexanders

Who decides what makes a monster?

Amelia is a ripper, a monster who feeds on violent people who have so thoroughly forsaken love that they've burned away their souls. Unseen and unnoticed by most of society and living as both hunter and hunted, the only emotion rippers feel is anger. But Amelia is different from her fellow rippers and also feels happiness, sadness, fear, love and every other emotion. To her mother, Danjay, that makes Amelia the strangest of all monsters.

Reviews

"Sanford has written a wonderfully paradoxical story: horrific yet sweet, subtle yet blunt, rageful yet loving, historical and—unfortunately—all too timely. I came away both disturbed and comforted, and I very much enjoyed it."
—Jim Hines, author of the Magic ex Libris series

"We Who Hunt Alexanders is a fast-paced novella interlaced with mystery, exploring rage, violence, and the abuse of power while unpacking new truths and unravelling the previously known. It is a bloody yet comforting story about learning to love and trust after being taught to harden against the cruelty of the world and the difficulty of solving problems if you can't reach the rotten roots, and only trim its branches."
—Ai Jiang, Nebula and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Linghun

"By turns dark and deeply touching, We Who Hunt Alexanders is a tightly crafted rumination on fanaticism, monstrousness, and the power of community in a hostile world. With a fascinating new monster, a delightful supporting cast, and some epically bloody comeuppance, this is not one to miss." 
—Samantha Mills, author of The Wings Upon Her Back

"If you could rid the world of evil by eating it—by literally becoming the hell that will torture the blackguards you consume—would you? Jason Sanford's We Who Hunt Alexanders  puts this very moral quandary before us, in a grisly, action-packed tale of murder, loyalty, and more zugzwangs. By testing the human heart under the most unimaginably difficult circumstances, Sanford delivers a frightening, cathartic meditation on just how far we'd go for the ones we love—even when we aren't sure what love even is." 
—Carlos Hernandez, author of Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe

"Jason Sanford ain't playing with y'all anymore. We Who Hunt Alexanders  lives at the intersection of cyberpunk and horror. Edginess and timeliness; blood and desperation; love and terror all woven like a rogue literary DNA strand. Sharp, relentless, achingly beautiful. Like the times we live in, We Who Hunt Alexanders  is a harrowing tale infused with the kind of humanity that refuses to be erased."
—Maurice Broaddus, author of Unfadeable and Pimp My Airship

"Amelia, the protagonist of this remarkable novella by Jason Sanford, is at once adorable and arcane, and her experiences are both deeply relatable and utterly terrifying. What I loved the most was that underneath everything, this is a story of friendship, in all its myriad forms: from the mysterious sisterhood of the rippers to the individual friendships between characters that aren't coaxed into becoming 'something more.' It's also a story about families, both biological and found. Unexpected pockets of tenderness are folded into every scene of this book about ancient man-eating monsters with entirely too many teeth."
—Mimi Mondal, author of His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light

"This novella strives to take a bite of patriarchy, quite literally... Amelia and her world are extremely compelling, and readers will enjoy inhabiting her brain for a bit."
—Booklist

"Between rippers' adversarial relationships with one another, and the risks they have to take to keep themselves fed, there's a lot of tension and danger to keep you turning the pages, culminating in a dramatic and gory finale. We Who Hunt Alexanders is an imaginative, suspenseful, and surprisingly touching coming-of-age horror novella."
—Dr. Alice Violett

"I sat down to read this novella on a Saturday afternoon and did not stop until it was complete. It was fresh, fun, engaging, a little scary, and surprisingly heartwarming."
—Epeolatry Book Review

"We Who Hunt Alexanders is a novella that knows how to play to its strengths, especially putting the emphasis on the complicated mother-daughter relationship and in the difficult period that is the pass to adulthood; and honestly, horror is one of the best genres to reflect it. A really well executed novella by Jason Sanford!"
—JamReads

Description

Amelia is a ripper, a monster who feeds on violent people who have so thoroughly forsaken love that they've burned away their souls. Unseen and unnoticed by most of society and living as both hunter and hunted, the only emotion rippers feel is anger. But Amelia is different from her fellow rippers and also feels happiness, sadness, fear, love and every other emotion. To her mother, Danjay, that makes Amelia the strangest of all monsters.

Driven from their home by religious zealots, Amelia and Danjay must learn to survive in the city of Medea, where violent men rule and kill anyone who opposes them. Worse, Amelia has never hunted on her own, and her mother is ill and growing weaker by the day. Only a chance encounter with a human who can see Amelia gives her any hope that she might be able to save her mother.

To succeed, Amelia must learn to hunt in an increasingly dangerous city brought to the brink of war by the corrupt, rich and powerful. Amelia will also have to discover if her differences from her fellow rippers makes her weak, as her mother believes, or if she can instead be a new kind of monster that the world has never seen before.

About the Author

Jason Sanford is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer who’s also a passionate advocate for fellow authors, creators, and fans, in particular through reporting in his Genre Grapevine column (for which he's been a finalist multiple times for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer). He’s also published dozens of stories in magazines such as Asimov’s Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, Interzone, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies along with appearances in various “year’s best” anthologies and The New Voices of Science Fiction. His first novel Plague Birds was a finalist for both the 2022 Nebula Award and the 2022 Philip K. Dick Award. Born and raised in the American South, Jason’s previous experience includes work as an archaeologist, journalist and a Peace Corps Volunteer. His website is www.jasonsanford.com.