I'm used to fantasy books being badly translated, but somehow I had been convinced that "serious literature" (for lack of a better word) was better translated. I was very obviously wrong. More languages need to be learnt now. :)

True. And monsters aren't interesting, which is one of the reasons I stopped reading fantasy, except for the rare exceptions of good fantasy. Pure evil, just like pure good, is boring, like any stereotype. But, yeah, admitting that there's more to them would require using one's brain.