#BookReview: The Beast Is an Animal by @peternelleva

  A girl with a secret talent must save her village from the encroaching darkness in this haunting and deeply satisfying tale.

Alys was seven when the soul eaters came to her village.

These soul eaters, twin sisters who were abandoned by their father and slowly morphed into something not quite human, devour human souls. Alys, and all the other children, were spared—and they were sent to live in a neighboring village. There the devout people created a strict world where good and evil are as fundamental as the nursery rhymes children sing. Fear of the soul eaters—and of the Beast they believe guides them—rule village life. But the Beast is not what they think it is. And neither is Alys.

Inside, Alys feels connected to the soul eaters, and maybe even to the Beast itself. As she grows from a child to a teenager, she longs for the freedom of the forest. And she has a gift she can tell no one, for fear they will call her a witch. When disaster strikes, Alys finds herself on a journey to heal herself and her world. A journey that will take her through the darkest parts of the forest, where danger threatens her from the outside—and from within her own heart and soul. 

Peternelle van Arsdale is a book editor who never thought she’d write a book, until one day she had a glimmer of an idea that became The Beast Is an Animal. She lives in New York City, where she is at work on her second novel. Visit her at PeternelleVanArsdale.com.

This book was so good. It was one that I had DNFed when I had it in eARC and I didn't think I would ever pick it up again. But my trip to the Jacksonville bookstore proved fruitful and I found an ARC.  So I decided to grab it. Then that evening one of my favorite authors said she was reading it to!  So I jokingly said hey wanna buddy read this? and to my astonishment she accepted!! We finished it in a day or so!  I speed read my other book I was reading to do this one.  And it was a trip man!!

If you are easily creeped out this probably isn't the book for you!  Its full of the creepies as soon as you open the book. Its a story about soul eaters and a beast and well I loved it and I want more.  This one starts off with a story of two mirror twins girls and quickly jumps 15 years into the future where our story really gets started.  Poor little Alys doesn't sleep much and so one night she decides to go wandering around her village where she meets two girls who look more like trees with the eyes of owls.  There they tell her its not her time but things turn for the worst right after.

This book is full of new mythology about these soul eaters and this beast. I wish we would have gotten more back story to those two things since only 15 years has passed since the soul eaters came to be and the story took off.  Not enough time for a real legend to take hold on a town.  So I am guessing that these creatures have been born before and created.  But the world building and the story surrounding these creatures was amazing!

The cast of characters was fantastic! I love Alys and everyone she came into contact with. She was a very strong girl even for her young age and I loved that she never gave up even when things got hard and frightening. She reminded me of Tris in Divergent in the fact that she knew what she had to do and she did it with almost no fear. She didn't let it rule her decisions.

The story flowed perfectly to start but sped up during the ending of the story which was fine. I do wish for the story itself that we would have gotten more back story to the beast and the soul eaters since we didn't get any.  I also would have like more of an ending ie. an epilogue. the one we got was fairly short. I just would have liked a little more to understand the story better.   That being said there was one other thing that was mentioned during her time with Mother about what was she?  Was she like Alys?

But even with all of this together I still rate this one 5 stars.  I couldn't put it down and I read 100 pages the first night I picked it up.  I can't wait to get a finished copy of this one!

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Posted in: 5 Stars, Jessica P., Review, Simon & Schuster, Young Adult