Why are there no fairytales about evil stepfathers?

A Monster Story is a debut confessional poetry collection structured as a dark fairy tale arc — seven sections that follow one woman’s journey from the silence of a childhood spent surviving an abusive stepfather, through fury, grief, and dissociation, to facing what happened, and ultimately, to the slaying. These poems move through trauma and healing with raw honesty.

“Some girls become women all at once. Some of us become hiding places.”

“Trauma is rude like that. It leaves the house spotless — lets everyone eat dinner, ask how school was.”

“He tried to break me. I cracked. But I did not shatter.”

“You are not what happened. You are what happened, after.”

This collection is for anyone who grew up in a house where the danger had a normal face. For anyone who has spent years trying to explain something that left no visible marks. For the ones who stayed silent until they couldn’t anymore. For the ones who are still becoming their own slayers.

What you will find inside are poems written across nearly three decades, some tracing back to diary entries from childhood, reshaped with the clarity that only time and healing can give. This is not a redemption arc. This is a reckoning.

Content warning: This collection contains poetry addressing childhood abuse, grooming, sexual abuse, depression, dissociation, and suicidal ideation. A crisis resources page, including the Kids Help Phone line, appears at the back of the book.

A Monster Story — debut collection. Crys Wiltshire. Canada, 2026.