All the Lovely Creatures

When Victor Frankenstein crafts his infamous creature in Mary Shelley's masterpiece, he creates something that is a patchwork not only of men but of ideals, of emotions. Out of many, he is one. Indeed, this anthology you read now is something similar, though I do say quite a bit more pleasant to encounter than the fruit of Victor's labors!
What precisely does the word creature conjure in the imagination? Something frightening? Something unknown? The authors of the stories you are about to re...