The Beast Is an Animal Hardcover – February 28, 2017

When I first read The Beast Is an Animal by Peternelle van Arsdale, I wrote a Goodreads review in a flurry of excitement. I wrote passionately and flew through my thoughts and impressions in an effort to capture how thrilled I felt, how impressed, how bowled over. I felt so sure of it, so convinced this beautiful novel would move other readers the way it had moved me, but I knew, too, that a reader should sit with a book, to wait, to see if it sticks, to find out whether it continues to feel meaningful.Time has passed, and I can promise that The Beast Is an Animal holds up over time, significantly so. I’m as excited about it today as I was months ago, having found myself thinking about it and marveling over it long past the original reading. I’ve recommended it to friends, family, strangers, and to young and not so young readers. This book falls into the YA category, but isn’t limited in any way. Readers of any age will be absorbed by it.In The Beast Is an Animal, you’ll find suspense, a dark creepiness, a deep sense of seeking and searching, a feeling of what it’s like to look out at the world and then inside oneself and to fear what you might find. You’ll experience the atmosphere and the landscape through Peternelle van Arsdale’s exquisite writing. You’ll feel it. You’ll luxuriate in it and you’ll notice something worshipful about the experience. Read it and tell me if it feels as beautiful, even holy, to you as it does to me.

The most gorgeous mix of M Night Shymalan (right? That’s how I spell it anyway), The Girl Who Drank the Moon with a touch of The Neverending Story. There’s fairy tale with a love story you so hope comes to fruition for this tried and tested young girl, Alys. You just want her to be happy. But the book is about more than all this. It’s about accepting dark and light in herself. She has emotions that war naturally and so vividly. Shame, grief, self-loathing, the inability not to blame herself for everything that’s gone wrong in her sad life. One of my favorite lines is when she’s told that it’s not her fault, it is her loss. To let things be easy for once. Such a heartbreaking and gripping story where every character has light and dark in them and we face it all together. Can’t more highly recommend.

I was hooked from the first paragraph, and with every chapter, it became harder to put this fascinating tale down. The story of a young girl's battle of wills against the seductive soul eaters is utterly absorbing. I was immediately drawn to Alys, and to the plight of the other outcast children in the village. Every descriptive line in the book is beautifully written, from the mossy overgrown fforest to the fascinating medicinal herbs that Alys collects with her adoptive mother. The Beast Is an Animal is bound to become a new YA classic.

This book was great for the first 75%. Then the author tries to shoehorn in a love story at the end with out letting it build and it just doesn’t help the story. If she’d just stuck to the tense, suspenseful slow-burn horror she started with it would’ve been perfect.

This is a different kind of a horror story from it read or seen. It was nice to have a happy ending. That was my favorite part of the story. I didn’t expect Alys to be happy. But she did. And now I’m happy.😁

It seems Van Arsdale must be a wizard of some sort, to craft a fantasy story that arrives with uncanny metaphors for our times. Besides all that, this is a story to sink into, with your heart, body, mind -- as it sinks itself into your psyche. There's power here, and more. Read it for just the page-turning joy of it, remember it for much more.

Just reading the first page of the sample had me hooked.Definitely not the same as many others in the genre.I hated for it to end and can't wait to read whatever comes next.Definitely on my 'excellent read' list.

There are a lot negative reviews about this book but as a whole it is an engaging and beautiful story.

I love the cover of this book sooo much! ^_^

Wonderfully written suspenseful