The Beast Is an Animal

Gr 7 Up—From the night she first meets the strange twin sisters outside her village and yet feels no fear, Alys knows there is something different about her. The twins suck away the souls of all of the adults of Alys's village that night, leaving them dead. The children are compelled to take refuge in a nearby town, Defaid, where they are treated as second-class citizens, forced to patrol the town boundaries and tend to the sheep outside of town while the Defaiders are safe in their beds. Alys tries to lead a normal life, but after an encounter with a strange beast mentioned in gruesome children's rhymes and further interactions with the soul eaters, she knows she cannot be normal—but can she at least keep herself from being evil? This debut takes inspiration from darker Grimm fairy tales and doesn't shy away from horrorlike elements. The work is dominated by atmospheric writing, the tone alternately brooding and stark. But the substance of character and story fall short of the promising setup and ambience. Characters are largely two-dimensional, and the people of Defaid are stereotypical pilgrimlike religious fanatics. The prose does a lot of telling rather than showing, which can lead to a feeling of disengagement in readers. A late-appearing romantic interest is a distraction, and while the happy-ever-after ending may satisfy some, it feels too gentle for an otherwise sinister tale.