Publication Date: July 11, 2023
A haunting collection of short fiction from the bestselling author of The Pallbearers Club, A Head Full of Ghosts, and The Cabin at the End of the World.
Paul Tremblay has won widespread acclaim for illuminating the dark horrors of the mind in novels and stories that push the boundaries of storytelling itself. The fifteen pieces in this brilliant collection, The Beast You Are, are all monsters of a kind, ready to loudly (and lovingly) smash through your head and into your heart.
In “The Dead Thing,” a middle-schooler struggles to deal with the aftermath of her parents’ substance addictions and split. One day, her little brother claims he found a shoebox with “the dead thing” inside. He won’t show it to her and he won’t let the box out of his sight. In “The Last Conversation,” a person wakes in a sterile, white room and begins to receive instructions via intercom from a woman named Anne. When they are finally allowed to leave the room to complete a task, what they find is as shocking as it is heartbreaking.
The title novella, “The Beast You Are,” is a mini epic in which the destinies and secrets of a village, a dog, and a cat are intertwined with a giant monster that returns to wreak havoc every thirty years.
A masterpiece of literary horror and psychological suspense, The Beast You Are is a fearlessly imagined collection from one of the most electrifying and innovative writers working today.
Within the pages of his newest collection of short stories, author Paul Tremblay opens the door to worlds filled with horror and larger-than-life monsters.
The Beast You Are is a compilation of 15 of the author’s stories, all of which demonstrate Tremblay’s skill as a writer of psychological suspense. He easily earns a spot next to Dean Koontz or my personal favorite, Blake Crouch. That is a bit ironic, considering one of the titles in this collection, “The Last Conversation,” was written for a Crouch-edited anthology.
While his work requires readers to use context clues and critical thinking to understand the true meanings behind the stories, there’s no doubt the author successfully translates his imagination into entertaining stories.
The final story in the collection, which has the same title, is an epic tale told in free verse. While the presentation might be one of those tools not used often by fiction writers, it’s interesting to see how well it worked featuring a monster.
The Beast You Are features a variety of short stories highlighting literary horror that leave readers with a lasting impression.
Paul Tremblay has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book awards and is the author of The Pallbearers Club, Survivor Song, Growing Things, The Cabin at the End of the World, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, and the crime novels The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland. His essays and short fiction have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly online, and numerous year’s-best anthologies. He has a master’s degree in mathematics and lives outside Boston with his family. He is represented by Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management.
