“Beasts” is a wild ride through a post-apocalyptic world filled with chills and heart-pounding moments. The story follows Abdi and Alva as they fight to survive in a world turned upside down, and their sibling bond adds a sweet touch to all the chaos.

While the concept is super intriguing (mystery beasts?! Yes, please!), the pacing felt a bit uneven at times, and I wanted to know more about the creatures and the world. That said, it’s a quick, suspenseful read that kept me turning pages. Perfect for fans of survival stories with a dash of horror!

Beasts is a middle grade horror that follows Abdi and his sister Alva. After fleeing into the woods, the pair must make their way to a large city in order to safely escape the Beasts that have ravaged their towns, and are now hunting them.

This book was creepy from the beginning. The characters were realistic (aside from a couple of side characters) and the descriptions of the beasts left scary images in my mind.
The translation and formatting were excellent on the Netgalley app. It was an easy and quick read. The story itself gave me The Quiet Place vibes mainly, but it could look similar to any book or movie where the main characters are escaping either a war, or other creatures.

The horror of the beasts, and the situation that these poor kids were in, were unique to have in a middle grade. Even upper middle grade children would likely be terrified due to how descriptive and imaginative the story was. For a middle grade horror, it was much creepier than I was expecting. But that's not a bad thing. This could lead to some important discussions with parents around what to do in emergency situations, and the importance of staying together as a family.

This horror would be suitable for people really above the age of 13. It was incredibly well written and I think people would really enjoy it. As an adult I really enjoyed it! This receives a 4 star rating.

Thank you to Netgalley and Levine Querido for the Advanced Reader’s Copy (ARC) of this book. All opinions are my own.

Thirteen-year-old Abdi and his five-year-old sister Alva are on the run. From what? Beasts have been attacking major cities and after one kills their mother, they are forced to run. They are trying to survive, trying to reach the coast to get on a boat to find their father. Will they make it?

At 128 pages, this story packs a punch! Although it's a translated work, I don't feel like much is lost in translation. This is a great horror recommendation for a beginner who isn't into gore. I wish the ending had more closure, but sometimes, that's the spooky part about horror...being left in the dark.

Thank you to NetGalley and Levine Querido for the opportunity to read an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

BEASTS by Ingvild Bjerkeland is translated YA novella that has been described as a mash-up of A Quiet Place and The Road.

13 yr old Abdi is left to care for his 5 yr old sister in a world overwhelmed by killer Beasts. All power is down, food is scarce and survivors are all in hiding. The siblings are forced to escape their home town to make it to the seaboard for rescue.

I honestly forgot this was YA while reading it. The desperation of these two is chilling and heartbreaking. It’s movie worthy in my opinion.

This isn't for me, and that's partly my error for not realising it's a YA book (I requested it from the horror section on netgalley and missed that it's also teen) but also the writing just isn't doing anything for me at 25% in.

This was a very good book. I could not stop reading it. Maybe because it has children. Children ages are 5 and 13. I love to read the children's point of view in books. It makes the story so much better. This book is a good read and would strongly recommend it.

I received a free copy of the book and is voluntarily writing a review.

*Huge thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the digital ARC of this one!*

I’m a huge sucker for Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish horror. Whether TV, Movies or Books, the isolated locations and eeriness of story has always connected with me. I think a lot of it is because it reminds me a lot of where I grew up in Burton. We were remote, had wildlife galore, had sprawling mountains, darkest of nights, and there was always the sense that at any given moment you could be completely cut off from the outside world.

The cover of this one caught my attention immediately, especially when tied in with the title. The synopsis was also intriguing, so I was curious what could be done in such a short page count. As a fan of reading and writing novellas, I’m always a sucker for a less is more approach, so this one looked to be right up my alley.

What I liked: The story takes place not long after strange beasts have appeared around the world, ending things as we know it. A brother and sister are now on the run, having witnessed their mother’s death to one. They’re doing their best to survive, but the truth is, food is scarce and the beasts are numerous. Their dad was on a work trip on a remote island and they’ve heard that getting to the edge of the sea will get them on a boat and take them to where their father is.

One of my all-time favorite books is Cormac’s ‘The Road,’ and this is essentially that exact same book, only with monsters. In this case, it works for and against it. In ‘The Road’ the man and boy travel to the ocean’s edge in search of safety. They meet strangers along the way, some good, some bad and it’s a matter of trying to survive. Identical to this one.

Along the way, we see the kids finding places of shelter, random scraps and eventually a place with some safety. Some. As with all post-apocalyptic type books, places are never safe for long and life can change in an instant.

The ending is open enough and closed enough to satiate the reader’s journey, and considering this is classified as YA, though I’d suggest it’s probably closer to middle-grade, that’s a common aspect of how many of these books will end.

What I didn’t like: Well, it’s like ‘The Road’ but light. The Road Lite, I guess? It doesn’t break any ground and at times also reminded me of the 2010 movie, ‘Monsters,’ where the two characters need to make their way across Mexico to try and get back to the US border. It’s an engaging book, but one many people have read a million times. I think if I was my son’s age – eight – this book would rightly blow me away. At my old age – forty-three – I’ve experienced this all too often.

Why you should buy this: If you do have a young reader, this is an excellent book if you want to introduce them to the post-apocalyptic genre, or if they like books with kids having to survive against monsters. The writing is crisp, the pacing spot-on and I never got the sense that there was anything lost in translation.

Overall, a good book for adults who’ve read this stuff before, but a great book for new readers who’re not used to this type of narrative.

A solid, solid novella.

Thank you to Levine Querido and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this!

“Beasts” is a fast-paced YA novel that is bound to get lots of attention. The two main characters, Abdi and Alva feel like kids trying their best to survive in this situation, which I know a lot of younger readers will relate to. Bjerkeland does a great job at balancing the meat of the story with action, with there not being a dull moment throughout the novel’s entirety. I think this would be a great choice for any young reader wanting to dip their toes into the realm of horror, since it’s light enough to not horrify, but thrilling enough to want to know what happens next.

Beasts is a very engaging YA horror that left my heart pounding. Beasts by Ingvild Bjerkeland dives into the darker sides of human nature, weaving together myth and reality in a captivating way. With vivid storytelling, Bjerkeland explores the pull between our civilized selves and our wild instincts, making us think about the “beasts” inside us all.

This was great and an absolutely eerie read!
Two children are forced to survive in Norway on an abandoned farmland.
If you like horror books that are based on the end of society and very much apocalyptic then this is for you.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely chilling. Two children are forced to survive in the eerie, abandoned farmlands of Norway, left ravished by humans and beasts alike. The prose was clean and bare and made me feel as hungry and cold as the characters.

I would definitely recommend this for fans of apocalyptic, fall-of-society horror. I know this is categorized as a YA horror, but I would suggest this for both adults and teens (and reading about two young kids in this situation was honestly more horrifying from an adult perspective lol).

Rating: A-

Beasts by Ingvild Bjerkeland is a middle-grade post-apocalyptic horror about siblings Abdi and Alva crossing Norway to escape from mysterious beasts that kill people. The story is a short adventure in 3rd person from Abdi's perspective. At 13, Abdi watches the beasts kill his mother and must take care of his 5yo sister and scavenge food as they cross the countryside. They face a number of terrors and struggle along the way.

The writing is pretty simplistic and light on descriptiveness yet still makes a vivid novel that scared even me. It was tense and skillfully written, really making the reader empathise with the two teenagers. Quickly we see Abdi learn and adjust to the new world as he meets his fellow person and sees how they will react. I enjoyed reading about their journey across Norway and I liked the description of the beasts. It was all very mysterious.

I think it's worth a read, I was surprised by it. Elements of so many post-apocalyptic stories really inspired my own imagination when reading this book and picturing the landscape and characters.

Thank you Netgalley for my free copy.

Thank you NetGalley and Levine Querido for the ARC.

I love Nordic stories. Add in a monster of some sort and I like it even more. I very much enjoyed this story and at the end was hoping for it to continue.

The characters are well-written and for the most part very believable. Each one played a part in the story and all felt necessary. The picture of the world the main characters currently inhabit is formed and enhanced by each person in the story.

The dystopian story has been done many times, but this still felt fresh and engaging.

I like the way the beasts were handled, manifesting barely enough to form an idea of what they could be. This is another area I would have loved for the story to be longer so that, in time, more could be learned about these creatures. The same goes for the state of the world this story takes place in, I would love to know more about how it happened.

I have read books translated from other languages before and have been fortunate that I understood nearly everything. This book falls into this category, although there were a few phrases that I believe are lost in translation, or I simply did not understand.

I believe if this novel were longer or continued at some point, I would rate it higher. It has a lot of potential and the brevity of it barely touches on what could be a much bigger world and story.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Levine Querido Publishing for this ARC of Beasts by Ingvild Bjerkeland.

Beasts is a YA translated fiction horror novel by Ingvild Bjerkeland of Haugesund, Norway. At 128 pages, this novel was a quick read - and it did keep me interested the whole time. I found the characters very likeable. The story revolves around a big brother caring for his sister during post-apocalyptic times, after their mother is suddenly killed by a Beast.
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The story was interesting, but I felt a bit bored because of the lack of descriptive details surrounding the identity and origination of said Beasts. This story read very much like a post-apocalyptic story, and I felt a lot of the details of the apocalypse were reminiscent of the COVID 19 pandemic. As with every time I read translated fiction, I wonder if some of the plot details were lost in translation? Or if the story is just a bit underdeveloped?
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Either way, I can definitely say this this is worth a read if you're looking for something quick and easy to read. I would definitely feel comfortable recommending this to someone that is interested in trying out the horror genre. There is very little gore in the story, which makes it easily palatable for new horror readers.

***Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the advance readers copy***

This book is described as Cormac McCarthy ''The Road'' meets the movie ''A quiet place''. I would also add that it has resemblance to Waubgeshig Rice's book ''Moon of the crusted snow''.

We follow a 14 year old boy, Abdi, and his sister Alva a 5 year old as they try to run away from mysterious beasts killing humans after all power has been lost.

This book was very good. It was fast-paced and intriguing from the start. The chapters are short and there's a back and forth between the past and the present that keeps things interesting. We are stressed and implicated in the present as well as curious to find out more about the past and how this situation came to be.

This book has many layers. It shows human adaptability especially children's. It explores what desperation can make people do. How in times of crisis some people chose to fight for the good of the masses or for their loved ones. However, others are more selfish and are ready to use violence instead of communication. It also shows that when there's chaos in the world the rules of civilized society don't exist anymore. It gives the individual the ''right'' to act as he/she sees fit. The line between good and evil gets more and more blurred.

Not everything will be explained in this book, but you will still feel satisfied by the ending!

very interesting and epic dystopian short novella with some cool ideas. VERY cormac mccarthy in material, if not in feel. tysm for the arc. 4 stars. would recommend. quite short.

This was such a strong horror novella and worked with everything that I was looking for from the description. I thought this was really well written and had that creature feature element that I was hoping for. Ingvild Bjerkeland wrote this well and had that suspenseful feel that I wanted.

This is an amazing story! It is a YA horror, but as an adult, I absolutely enjoyed every moment while reading it.

We follow a brother and sister trying to survive an apocalyptical event. There are supernatural monsters, as well as human monsters. At times, it is hard to distinguish which is worse. I am hoping for a book two. If there is a second book, I hope it comes out soon!

#NetGalley #Beasts

Dystopian novella is an action packed narrative reads like a modern fairy tale rewriting of Little Red Riding Hood. It is a cautionary tale that warns us the dangers of becoming complacent with the comforts of modern society, capitalist globalization and the fragility of institutional norms, regulations and values. In this story, the people of the village have ample opportunity to leave their homes and seek out refuge from the dangers of the Beasts that have emerged in their country, killing all those they come in contact with and slowly destroying all cities, towns and villages they come across. Although the village has heard about them on the new, they felt safe enough to remain at home believing they were far enough away. Then remained based on the belief that they could would together and could defend themselves. But the deterioration of social order, food scarcity and access to medical supplies turned friends and neighbours against one another and made people do horrible things to others in order to obtain things that they needed in order to survive. A mother sends her children off on alone into the countryside in a race against time in an effort to find safety and escape the beasts. This survival horror/ dark fantasy narrative focuses on the childrens’ desperate attempt avoid the beast as they venture on a refugee’s journey through the countryside to find safety and shelter from the beasts genocidal conquest.

I got this book as an ebook arc from netgalley and edelweissplus simultaneous as I am a huge fan of horror and dark fantasy dystopian and apocalyptic fiction especially narratives that are set in ou time or near future and feature the breakdown of civil society. It was a fast paced and easy read that took me one sitting in a single day to finish. And I think that it is worth the time to read but it’s not something that screamed out to me as anything super unique or brining anything new to the sub-genre as a whole. It’s a great y/a novella that is entertaining and thought provoking read. I personally wouldn’t read again or buy for myself but for a younger audience (aka reader 10-13) it’s a very good story and modest book as it doesn’t feature sex, drugs, or much violence.

Excellent short horror novel. The fear the children felt was intense and well written. Would love to read more from this author.