The Beast Is an Animal

January 30, 2017
Alys was only seven when soul eaters killed the adults in the village of Gwenith. She was then taken to nearby Defaid, where she made a life with new parents. It isn’t much of a life, though: when soul eaters attack Defaid, a “great wooden Gate” is built around the village, and the children of Gwenith must guard the Gate through the night. Theirs is a colorless existence, and Alys feels the pull of the dark “fforest” surrounding the village, and the beast that lives there. From the sorrowful opening that introduces the soul eaters, van Arsdale’s lyrical debut spans about eight years, revealing the growing darkness Alys feels inside and the weight of the secret she carries. When Alys is accused of a terrible crime, she’s forced to leave the village and confront her destiny. Atmospheric and immersive, van Arsdale’s eerie fantasy keeps its focus on Alys’s struggle to reconcile who she is with what she wants to be as it builds toward a poignant and satisfying conclusion. Ages 14–up. Agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House.

January 1, 2017
In a dark atmospheric fantasy debut, one young woman (like so many adolescents) finds her greatest enemy is the monster within.After twin sisters tragically warped into wraithlike "soul eaters" wreak vengeance upon the adults who betrayed them, 7-year-old Alys and the rest of the surviving children seek refuge with a neighboring village--at the price of cruel servitude to their oppressive Elders. Over the decade that follows, Alys is secretly drawn to The Beast, the mystical spirit of the "fforest" widely deemed the source of all evil. To her horror, she also realizes a growing sense of kinship with the vampiric sisters, even to a compulsion to drain the souls of anyone threatening her. Van Arsdale limns a bleak, doleful world, inspired by medieval Wales, where the "white as snow," rigid, and puritanical townsfolk contrast negatively with the more ethnically diverse, gender-fluid, and carefree people of the Lakes. Alys' archetypical hero's journey meanders at a dreamlike pace: great swathes of earthy quotidian detail are punctuated by set pieces of grotesque horror and brief interludes of beauty, compassion, and perfunctory-feeling romance. Her final confrontation with the sisters (and her own inner demons) occurs in a phantasmagorical climax that is a pure distillation of all that comes before, at once achingly poetic and frustratingly opaque. Moody, ponderous, and baroque; a good choice for readers with Gothic inclinations. (Fantasy. 12-18)

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March 1, 2017

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. VERDICT An intriguing premise that only half delivers. Not recommended.-Gretchen Kolderup, St. Helens Public Library, OR

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