The Beasts We Bury is a high-stakes YA novel following Mancella, the heir to the throne, trapped by her father in a twisted cycle of violence and control. This book is surprisingly violent, and some scenes are difficult to read due to the animal killing. However, it is an interesting story of female rage, political intrigue, family trauma, and a surprisingly sweet romance. I do wish Silver had a little more to him; there was something missing in his character.

For a debut novel, I was surprised at how hard this was to put down! The audiobook narration is beautiful and really makes the story come to life. This won't work for everyone, especially due to the content of the magic system for the main character, but I hope fantasy romance readers will give it a chance.

My favourite thing about this book is the magic system. The way the magic manifests in people differently and the things that the characters can do with it is fascinating. Mancella’s magic, while acquired and grown through heinous means, is incredible.
The villain, Mancella’s father and another that I will not name, are well written. The villains get a satisfying comeuppance.
The dynamic between Mancella and Silver is fun and develops nicely. Their romance builds naturally and believably.
The book seemingly ends, but then we are treated to an epilogue that suggests much more. I am eager for the next instalment to see where that will be going.
The narrators provided an authentic portrayal of the characters.
Many thanks to MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for an advanced copy of the audiobook. The opinions expressed are honest and my own.

Beautifully written dark YA fantasy. Highly recommend the audio, captured me with the expression and emotion right from the start !

Mancella is used for her gifts that can summon animal’s souls to fuel her power, but only after she kills them. If she had her way- she would give up her power and never kill another animal again, but her evil father forces her. (It isn’t graphic descriptions, but this is mentioned multiple times including her pain in having to kill them, where I could imagine this would be hard for most readers) She is the heir to her father’s throne as ruler of their kingdom. She is pressured to have one sacrifice one animal a year for peace the rest of the year, but his quest for power has pushed her further and further- now wanting her to expirement and kill innocent humans as well. So heartbreaking what her father has put her through against her will, again- some hard to read animal cruelty scenes.

She crosses paths with Silver, a thief, who plans to manipulate Mance in order to get freedom for himself and his two friends. He earns her trust and starts to catch feelings along the way as he realizes she’s nothing like her terrible father.

Mance struggles through the book to save her world and bring peace without spreading the violence she’s been forced to in the past. She’s always had such a burden on her back and wishes to be free of the death and destruction and correct what her father has done.

I loved how this kicked off and was so fast paced and emotional right from the start and never let up. Easy, comprehensible world building. Loved it and would read more !

This is a dark and mature YA fantasy with dark themes !! You’ve been warned !

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for the ALC in exchange for an honest review. Release date 2/4/25!

*I RECEIVED A FREE ARC OF THE AUDIOBOOK FROM NETGALLEY AND MACMILLIAN. THANK YOU A TON. THIS HAS NOT IMPACTED MY REVIEW IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM. **

*NO MAJOR SPOILERS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS REVIEW*

Well. . . that was an EXPERIENCE. I love that we are getting UNIQUE and THRILLING reads in YA fantasy this year. When I first requested this book, I had no idea how unique it was going to be. But wow. I can honestly say, I have never read a book with this type of magic system, especially Mance's. Sure, it was a bit difficult to grapple with the way the magic works in this world, but once you push past it, you understand the intricacies and how it impacts the storyline. The storyline was great and the pacing was good, I loved the dual narration. i definitely think more ya books, especially duologies, should have dual narration in order to get the most well rounded experiences of both the main leads. Silver's audio was fantastic. The narrator did a wonderful job at bringing his sass and sarcasm to life. In fact, he sort of reminded me a bit of Percy Jackson's voice. That boyish, impish charm paired with a good natured attitude and penchant for getting into trouble. . . The narrator for Mance, while she was good. I did think that during emotional or intense parts, she began to maybe get too. . . impacted? Like, her voice would noteably go up an octave and sound like she was sort of strongly toning the words? It is difficult to explain,because it was not quite yelling but.. maybe I am just being too nitpicky. Other than some of those scenes, the narrator for Mance did well. The writing was good I think, it is a bit difficult to judge when you do audio, but there was enough description to let you get to know the characters at the very least.

Sure, I had to suspend my disbelief a bit with the pacing of the romance between the two characters. You know it is inevitable, but I still would of liked a bit more development. Unless I missed it by my brain fogging over at times listening, who knows. But I did like how they complemented each other. Mance is strong and capable of protecting herself, but it is nice to see her vulnerable side and for once, have someone else care and protect her. You cannot help but feel for Mance in this book. The girl has it rough, man. Her magic is a twisted cruel thing, but...its still hers. And while what she does may be a bit unsettling, you realize its just...a new part of her. Every shard is as beautiful as the whole.

Silver is originally just looking to make things better for himself, and his friends. He stumbles into a bigger plot than anticipated. But he just rolls with it and he becomes integral to the plot, and not just for comedic relief. I like how Mance is able to let her guard down around him, and let him in. She becomes less of a witch, and more of a woman. And Silver...there is just something about him that makes you want to cuddle him up and never let him go.

The political intrigue is dashed throughout this book, and there is a storm brewing. When lightning hits, it hits. And wow. . . the ending came on strong and fierce. I was actually shocked. Not as big of a plot twister as some of the other books, but it was still impactful. It definitely leaves you wanting more. I would probably eventually reread/listen to this book again in anticipation for the sequel.

Remember, this is all my opinion. If you want your own, read the book when it comes out in Feb!

What a dark, twisted, thrilling ya Romania’s where a young girl harnesses the souls of beasts she’s killed…all to prove her worth to her father.

There’s a romance plot and LOTS of angst and action. Think heir to the throne + slippery thief and add in lots of lies and betrayals.

It was a bit slow at parts but the storytelling was wonderful!

This is a YA fantasy with dual first-person narration. There were scenes from this book that really shocked me but maybe not in a good way. I guess I like my magic systems a little less dark. I’m sure this book will find its people, but I was not one of them.
I listened to the audiobook, and both narrators did a fantastic job. The female narrator, in particular, really brought out all the emotions in the story.


Warnings:
-mental/physical abuse from a parent
-graphic description of animal cruelty

This has all the potential to be a really excellent fantasy series but it really just fell flat. I wish there had been better world building and explanation of all the different magical powers. I felt like I was thrown into this world with no backstory.

While I felt like the world building was lacking I did enjoy the dual POV of Silver and Mancella. The character development for both of these characters was well written and the banter made me chuckle.

I listened to the audiobook and I enjoyed the dual narration by Brenda Scott Wlazlo and Jake Chronister.

This story was good. I'm not a fan of the dark elements presented in the book, but the story itself was intriguing. I'm looking forward to the next book and finding out how the ending twist plays out.

🌟✨ Just finished *The Beasts We Bury* by D.L. Taylor, and it’s a solid 4-star read! 🌟✨

Netgalley ARC

📖 The magic system? Absolutely fascinating! Mancella, heir to the throne, has a rare ability to summon animals — but it comes with a *dark* twist that adds emotional depth and tension. 🐺🔮 It's the kind of magic that lingers long after you turn the last page.

⚡️ And *that ending*… WOW. No spoilers, but let’s just say it delivers a twist that had me gasping! 😱 Perfectly wraps up the first book while leaving just enough breadcrumbs for what's next. 📚

If you're into YA fantasy with dark magic, political intrigue, and a touch of romance, this one's for you! 👑🖤 Can’t wait to see where Taylor takes us next!

📅 *The Beasts We Bury* hits shelves on February 4, 2025 — mark your calendars! 🗓️

📚 Have you added this to your TBR yet? Let me know your favorite unique magic systems in the comments below! ⬇️

#BookReview #TheBeastsWeBury #DLTaylor #YAFantasy #MagicSystem #Bookstagram #FantasyBooks #BookRecommendations #TBR #ReadingGoals #FantasyReads #BookishCommunity #FebruaryReleases #netgalley #arcreview

This is a tentative review to share my thoughts so far. The writing is high quality. You vividly feel all the pain and torment right along with the main character as she is forced to kill animals by hand to acquire their powers. The narration is also high quality. Very dramatically read and feels like a graphic audio without all the background sounds.
I have tabled the read at the moment, just because it’s not hitting my current feels. I don’t live living through the pain of reluctantly killing something in the way it all happens emotionally. It’s the heaviness of living through the character’s tortured back story. But hats off to the author and narrator for eliciting such emotion from me in these moments! I may come back to finish this book when I’m in the mood for a heavy dark read like this. I’m very interested to see more about how the MMC is coming into the story.

Thanks, Macmillan Audio, for the ALC!

I ended up DNFing this audiobook. I was 100% a cover buyer for this book and should have paid more attention to the book blurb because maybe then I would have realized the hints toward animal cruelty and death. It had an interesting plot and characters, but I can't handle hardly any animal cruelty or death in real life or books, and this book far exceeded anything I could handle. It definitely needs a content warning at the beginning, but I can see it having an audience. I'm just not it.

This was such a good book. I loved the story and the writing so much. The characters were great and the story flowed smoothly. Will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

The Beasts We Bury by D.L. Taylor 
Pub Date Feb 04, 2025

A thief and an heir make an unlikely pair in this dark YA fantasy where right and wrong blur as a war brews and the fate of many hang in the balance. Mancella is heir to the throne but has an aversion to violence. She has great powers over animals and as she ages, her powers grow stronger. As heir to her father's realm, she is expected to lead the realm and her father cares about one thing. Power, control, and conquer. He cruelly raised her to strengthen her powers to control the animals but to do that, she must destroy them and absorb them into her magic. Once there, she can use them in battle. Over the years the animals she fights get more dangerous and although she has been doing this unwillingly forced by her father the Prime, it doesn't get easier. He has a grand plan; she is the key to his success and will also become his second. 

Silver is a thief who will do just about anything to survive. When he is offered a job by a stranger who seems to know his way around the palace and requires his skills of stealing that pays well and will help secure a safe new home for him and his friends that he couldn't refuse. He did what he was told, stealing items as asked with little knowledge of why the items were needed. For these items, he not only needed access to the palace but also to specific areas where the king held them and do it without getting caught. To do that, he befriends Mance to accomplish his tasks, but as time goes on he realizes that she is nothing like he assumed and finds it harder to lie and take advantage of her. When things get closer to the completed task he must decide to continue the path and break her trust or go back on his deal due to his growing feelings for this powerful girl that surprises him with her kind heart.    

Book one in this duology starts slow as you get to know the characters and this world but it isn't overly complicated. It is dark in regards to how the FMC is treated and what she is forced to do to strengthen her magic abilities which she does not do willingly. The romance is a slow-burn YA appropriate and not explicit however the way her magic is formed may be bothersome to people who are sensitive to animals. The magic was interesting and different than what I typically see and the ending of this book leads you to believe that the FMC will be up for a big challenge that makes her face her internal demons head-on. It will be interesting to see how that plays out so I look forward to reading book 2.  

I received the Unabridged Audiobook through Netgalley and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest review. 

Audiobook length 11 Hours, 36 Minutes Narrated by Brenda Scott Wlazlo; Jake Chronister
Or 368 pages, Hardcover

I enjoyed this audio! The narrators were great and did a fantastic job! The author captured so much beauty and detail in the words! It's very high YA fantasy but well worth the listen or read. I greatly enjoyed this one! Snag it up!

Silver and Mancella were great characters. I loved the way we get to see Mance find her voice within the court and it's politics. Silver creates such a mix of feelings for me as I kept just wanting him to confide in Mance and not betray her. His character was probably my favorite to read due to these complex feelings.
The audiobook was very good. I loved that it was narrated with dual narrators for both Mance and Silver.

A really interesting fantasy story with a lot of twists and turns that were unexpected. The last chapter, for example, was a big shock. I found the FMC likable and enjoyed watching her growth, though I did find her unrealistically naive at first given the immense trauma she endured throughout her entire life. The one thing I did not particularly enjoy was the romantic plotline. Sometimes, an author is a little too good at making the enemy part of an enemies to lovers and I simply cannot forgive the MMC. I was disappointed at how long his deception continued and how quickly the FMC seemed to get over it.

The dual narrators had very different approaches to the text, which definitely created separation between the two POVs. I liked how expressive the female narrator was, with every chapter feeling very high emotion, and how much calmer the male narrator was.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending me an audio-arc in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley.

Mancella, the heir to the throne, has magic -- the ability to summon animals. However, her magic comes with a price: in order to summon them, she must kill the first, with her bare hands. Though she doesn't want to kill, and must live with the horror and constant reminders of what she's been made to do, her father continues to force her to kill in order to strengthen the power of their realm. Silver, a thief, takes on a job by a mysterious person -- steal something from the castle. He enjoys the fact that he'll have his revenge and his freedom, and all of this at the cost of gaining Mancella's trust.

This was dark, and for those of you who need this, TW for animal violence. And I do mean TW. It's gruesome for sure. But what I loved about it, despite the carnage, is that although she does take their lives, she doesn't want to, and her emotions are so raw and real. The world was interesting, and I wish I knew a little bit more about it. But just about everyone here is ambitious and out for themselves, there's secrets being kept, crazy magic and action, and a lot of violence. I loved seeing things from Mancella's POV and Silver's, which the audiobook does a fantastic job with the dual narration and giving us those emotions from both of them. There's a lot of craziness that happens here, and I don't want to spoil it because of how unique this was.

I definitely recommend this book. It's dark, it's twisted, and it's one of those YA books that doesn't really feel very YA.

The Beasts We Bury
By D. L. Taylor
Narrated by Brenda Scott Wlazlo and Jake Chronister
4 ⭐️

I’m impressed with this book. It’s a dark YA fantasy with one of the most easy to hate rulers/fathers I’ve read in some time. The magic portfolio is interesting overall with the FMC’s magic being even more so. Mancella is an achievement of a character. Her staunch difference between who she is and who she’s expected to be, her ability to push back against her oppressive father, and her humility that allows her to give chances when she has over ever been used makes her so interesting to read. Silver feels more simple to me and compliments Mancella so well. The epilogue: So smart and has my mind trying to anticipate what could happen next long after I’ve finished reading.

The overall pacing was so good. Every detail felt very intentional with very little, if any, wasted words. The audiobook narrators were excellent. I always appreciate having separate narrators for each POV - thank you for that! The narrators add to the story and don’t detract from it. Pacing of the narration was also good. I really enjoyed this read/listen.

Thank you NetGalley, D.L. Taylor, and Macmillan audio for this audiobook ARC.

Ending was not as great as I expected. Over all it was good. It keeps you engaged. Some parts a a bit rough to hear if you are an animal lover but it lets you feel closer to what Manc feels. How she acts and feels and why she does some things.

Thank you to D. L. Taylor, Netgalley, and Macmillan Audio for sharing an ALC of The Beasts We Bury with me. This is book 1 in the Broken Citadel series.

The narration was wonderful, and the pacing was just right. I also very much enjoyed the emotion in the narrator's voices – they were powerful and the audio was done well.

This book has almost everything I’m looking for in a fantasy book: magic, betrayal, world building, character development, and a rebellion.

Mancella is heir to the throne, but lives a life she is not happy with. Her father has conditioned her to believe that in order for the realm to be strong, Mancella must be a portrayal of insurmountable strength. In order to be that strong, Mancella must kill animals of all kinds.. Once killed, she is able to summon these animals and fight with all their strength. It was difficult to learn about the animals she’s killed, especially when she’s able to get snippets of their lives and emotions right after they’ve been killed and their souls entering her body.

When she’s had enough, Mancella rejects the brutal monster her father has conditioned her to be and there’s so much that happens that eventually has her fight back - for her life, for the lives of the animals she wish she could have spared, and for her realm.

The character development was fantastic in this book. We learn so much about Mancella, her sister, her cousin, and Silver was an incredible book boyfriend – unwavering, genuine, and fierce. His character absolutely grew on me.

I’m very much looking forward to reading the next book.

You can read this book February 4th, 2025!