Beasts

February 1, 2025
Grades 6-9 This tense survival horror follows siblings Abdi and Alva as they sneak through the Norwegian forest on their way to a distant port town, where they hope to be able to catch a boat to a small island--the last place they knew their father was alive. As they try to travel unseen and keep themselves fed and warm, they try to avoid both the monstrous beasts that have taken over the country and killed their mother and the menacingly selfish adults unwilling to help them. Bjerkeland's short novel, an award winner in Norway, drips with eerie atmosphere and moves at a taut pace. Abdi's first-person narrative balances the unsettling events with his poignant thoughts and feelings about caring for his younger sister, whose irrepressible attitude is a welcome lightness in this disquieting tale. While the abrupt ending might frustrate some and there are many questions left unanswered, tween readers looking for something scary but not too gory will appreciate the mood cultivated here.

COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 15, 2025
In this Norwegian import, a teenage boy tries to keep his sister alive after a harrowing outbreak of monsters. For months, 13-year-old Abdi's life has been an increasingly horrific nightmare, ever since the day the terrifying two-legged beasts mysteriously emerged (no one knows from where) and began their violent attacks. The food and medicine supplies have dwindled to nothing, and just about everyone Abdi knows is dead, including he and his 5-year-old sister Alva's mother. As they run through the woods and across farmland, trying to evade the monsters both human and beast that would do them harm, Abdi has one goal in mind--keep Alva alive long enough to get to the port in Djupevik and then across the North Sea to the U.K.'s Fair Isle, where their ornithologist father is hopefully waiting for them. This proves much easier said than done. A breathless series of illnesses, near misses, and brutal losses--with barely a moment's rest--keeps readers hurtling through. Though the narrative's brevity prevents deep characterizations, Abdi's perspective is gripping, and the vagueness of detail and backstory adds to the suspense. While older readers more familiar with dystopian fiction may find some of the twists less surprising, younger readers will be rapt; all will find the pervasive air of distress that permeates the tale palpable. Physical descriptors are minimal. Dark and achingly upsetting; highly appealing for a great many horror readers, new and old.(Horror. 10-18)

COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 4, 2025

Gr 7 Up-This Norwegian novella opens deep in the action, as 13-year-old Abdi treks through a catastrophic landscape that has been ravaged by beasts with his five-year-old sister Alva in tow. Their mother has been killed, and the siblings are trying to reach Djupevik so they can flee by boat to the island where their father was working when everything collapsed. On their journey, they narrowly escape the vicious beasts with their sleek coats, crooked necks, and terrifying claws; but sometimes it's the other people trying to survive who are even more dangerous. In her first novel translated into English, Bjerkeland paints a bleak picture of postapocalyptic monster survival reminiscent of media like 28 Days Later and The Last of Us. Clocking in at under 200 pages, the plot maintains an engaging and brutal pace as Abdi struggles to keep his sister and himself alive. The children encounter trustworthy and untrustworthy adults, experiencing the best and worst of humanity in crisis. The abrupt, open ending may seem hopeful to some readers and dissatisfying to others hoping for any sort of closure to Abdi and Alva's harrowing tale. Though the brutality of the circumstances does not ease up, the explicit violence and gore in this text are minimal, making this a suitable introductory genre text for young teens. VERDICT A simple yet effective monster story that will appeal to fans of postapocalyptic fiction.-Ashleigh Williams

Copyright 2025 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.