Launching Peternelle van Arsdale's The Beast Is An Animal, feat. special guest Emily Gould

We are thrilled to welcome Peternelle van Arsdale for the launch of her exceptional YA debut, The Beast Is an Animal. Peternelle will be joined in conversation by author Emily Gould. 

"A dark fairy tale featuring a heroine and a beast who are neither as simply good or as simply evil as such characters in these stories often are... This is, ultimately, a story about stories and how the tales we tell about ourselves and others shape who we and they become." - Billie Bloebaum, Third Street Books

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.

 

Emily Gould  is the author of Friendship and co-founder of Emily Books.

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.