Beasts

The world has been overrun by hitherto unknown beasts. Society has collapsed: the power is gone, cars are abandoned across the highways, and anyone left is hiding from the terrifying creatures--and one another. Thirteen-year-old Abdi and his five-year-old sister Alva are on the run, their last hope to escape through the forest and to the sea. As they recall the strange events that led to the beasts' arrival, and how the two of them got to where they were, they must ask themselves who they can trust--and what they will do to survive.

Set in a postapocalyptic world, Ingvild Bjerkeland's chilling novel Beasts is about children who hope to reunite with their father. After a beast killed their mother, Abdi becomes the guardian of his five-year-old sister, Alva. With Alva feverish, Abdi is anxious to find supplies and travel to the remote island where their ornithologist father is stationed. The creatures the siblings encounter are six feet tall, covered in black fur, with hoofs and curling claws that unfurl for attacks. The narrative maintains an engaging and brutal pace as Abdi struggles to keep his sister and himself alive.

This gripping YA novel explores deeper themes, such as the line that separates not only child from adult but man from beast. The siblings anchor the book, and their emotional journey is as riveting as the physical one. Through his responsibility for Alva, Abdi overcomes his fears and finds strength within himself. Bjerkeland walks a careful line between being mindful of her audience's age while refusing to shrink from the truth.

Beasts will appeal to readers of survival classics such as Hatchet and Julie of the Wolves with its realistic illustrations of Abdi's dogged problem-solving. It will also please those who enjoy stories with supernatural antagonists in pursuit of their prey, like The Walking Dead or The Last of Us. Rippling with constant tension, Beasts is an eerie, quick read for teen readers who can handle a bit of horror and unease.

P R A I S E

Bjerkeland's writing is beautiful. A quick, enjoyable read.

★ Chilling... short chapters and taut prose set a frantic pace. Beasts combines the timelessness of a fairy tale with the stark immediacy of contemporary dystopian fiction.
--Foreword (starred

★ Bjerkeland's propulsive tale is sleek and elegant, a subtle blend of fable and realism that increasingly reflects many of today's desperate refugees' experiences. Every sentence is direct and brief, vivid with eventfulness, uncertainty, and Abdi's deep sense of responsibility for his sister... The story's brevity and abrupt forcefulness, and the characters' stalwart courage and love, make this tale unusually compelling.
--The Horn Book (starred)

Crisp and spare, the lines lean as picked-clean bones... The siblings anchor the book, and their emotional journey is as riveting as the physical one... Bjerkeland walks a careful line between being mindful of her audience's age while refusing to shrink from the truth. Filled with tension and a few heart-pounding moments, Beasts never fully strays into the darker recesses like its postapocalyptic adult cousins The Road or I Who Have Never Known Men, yet it also resists easy answers or a storybook ending. It's a balance that clearly works...Beasts is likely to garner praise from far more readers than that in the United States and beyond.
--Washington Independent Book Review

Harrowing... Abdi's perspective is gripping, and the vagueness of detail and backstory adds to the suspense... Highly appealing for a great many horror readers, new and old.
--Kirkus

Drips with eerie atmosphere and moves at a taut pace. Abdi's first-person narrative balances the unsettling events with his poignant thoughts and feelings about caring for his younger sister, whose irrepressible attitude is a welcome lightness in this disquieting tale. Middle-grade readers looking for something scary but not too gory will appreciate the mood cultivated here.
--Booklist

For those just beginning to learn the [horror] genre, this is a magnificent introduction--spare, tense, gory just at the edges, and tightly focused on the siblings, creating a heightened sense of connection and investment in their survival. The beasts themselves, cunning and malicious, are well-described, and moments when Abdi and Alva encounter them are chilling. Readers will likely be left questioning whether they would have had the fortitude to survive, let alone keep a much younger sibling alive as well.
--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

A sense of urgency simmers beneath every line of prose, relentlessly driving the characters--and the reader--forward ... Rippling with constant tension, Beasts is an eerie, quick read for readers who can handle a bit of horror and unease.
--BookPage

Bjerkeland paints a bleak picture of postapocalyptic monster survival reminiscent of media like 28 Days Later and The Last of Us... A simple yet effective monster story that will appeal to fans of postapocalyptic fiction.
--School Library Journal