In this paper, I discuss the construction of monsters as beings that are considered to exist outside normativity. I then offer a series of ethnographic examples from different regions which show how monsters become a means of confronting the complexities of the modern world. I argue that, in these spaces, the discourse on monsters is one way of making epistemological, moral and practical sense of social suffering, and of reflecting on the ties that unite social actors in networks of exchange and responsibility. I consider the relation between monsters, monstrosity and the monstrous in order to establish a critical attitude in the face of the horrors that charac ­ terize certain experiences of modernity.