Review by yellowbinge - Beasts

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yellowbinge 's review for:

Beasts by Ingvild Bjerkeland

3.0

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Publishing date: 01.04.2025 (DD/MM/YYYY)

Thank you to NetGalley and Levine Querido for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

TLDR: Two children try their best to survive a semi-apocalypse where almost everyone else is eaten by unknown beasts. Somewhat tense with a lot of slower moments, somewhat unsatisfying ending. 3 stars

Alva and Abdi have suddenly become part of a small apocalypse where a majority of the people have been eaten by beasts. They start to flee and their destination is a small island where their dad was last headed.

This story has a really simple but effective premise. Seeing two kids do their best to stick together and survive is nerve wracking. I can imagine my own thirteen year old self attempting to take care of my siblings, and I think it might have gone well ... worse than it did here.

The characters are kids, and as such they can be annoying and make stupid decisions. They are kids, it is what they do. Not a lot of personality to be seen except the usual "broody and strict" older sibling and the "sunny and naive" younger sibling.

Pacing worked well according to the page number. If it had been much longer I think it might have started to drag. However, the ending was mid. I found it a little sudden and left me with questions I wanted answered. Unsatisfying

Intended audience is a little younger than myself. Young adult, maybe even middle grade. There isn't much explicit language or events, so this fits for them. Especially considering the age of our protagonist.

I would recommend this to horror-curious kids in the 8-14 range.

Overall, this was fine. Fell slightly flat, not enough tension for me, and the writing is a little young. I did speed through the book so it gets points for that.

I give this three stars, fine for what it was, but not quite for me.

Content Warnings