Beast
- 2024 INDIES Finalist
- Finalist, Young Adult Fiction (Children's)
In Richard Van Camp’s moving novel Beast, an Indigenous teenager and his friends fight a sinister evil threatening their hometown.
Lawson is a member of the Dogrib tribe, which feuds with the Chipewyan tribe. As a Yabati, his role is to protect the fragile peace treaty between the two groups. When one of his volatile peers, Silver, makes a deal with an ancient devil, the Dead One, it puts Silver’s younger brothers, Cody and Stanley, in danger of losing their souls. After Lawson agrees to help save the brothers and rectify the peace treaty, he teams up with his friends Shari and Isaiah, who possess spiritual powers.
Though they are from three different tribes, Lawson, Shari, and Isaiah all want to counteract violence with empathy and understanding. They believe in their heritage and encourage Silver’s brothers to fight against the Dead One by doing the same. The peace engendered through their work together goes against the Dead One’s call for war and separation, resulting in triumphs.
Lawson is a thoughtful narrator whose descriptions of the world and people around him are evocative. He holds reverence for the elders in his tribe, and he brings his town, Fort Simmer, into focus when recalling fond childhood memories. Further, there’s figurative power in the book’s symbols. Halley’s comet is in orbit, and Lawson sees it as a signifier of a once-in-a-lifetime event coming to pass. And the hope of the peace treaty centers all, moving the book toward an ending that is exciting and that honors the elements of friendship and cultural tradition that run throughout the book.
A rousing supernatural novel, Beast is a coming-of-age story in which a young man protects his Indigenous tribe.
Reviewed by
Anna Karnedy
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
