What if monster stories were about saving girls, not killing them?
When a series of brutal, mysterious deaths start plaguing the countryside and whispers of a beast in the mountains reach the quiet French hamlet of Mende, most people believe it’s a curse—God’s punishment for their sins.
But to sixteen-year-old Joséphine and her best friend, Clara, the beast isn’t a curse. It’s an opportunity.
For years, the girls of Mende have been living in a nightmare—fathers who drink, brothers who punch, homes that feel like prisons—and this is a chance to get them out.
Using the creature’s attacks as cover, Joséphine and Clara set out to fake their friends’ deaths and hide them away until it’s safe to run. But escape is harder than they thought. If they can’t brave a harsh winter with little food… If the villagers discover what they’re doing… If the beast finds them first…
Those fake deaths might just become real ones.
COMING DECEMBER 2024
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Early praise:
“Full of courage, heart, and danger, WE ARE THE BEASTS is a thoroughly engrossing read about the lengths young women must go to to survive when confronted by beasts of all kinds. I gasped, I smiled, I was enraged—this book is triumphant.” – Kendare Blake, #1 NYT Bestselling author of Three Dark Crowns
“Like sharp teeth in the dark, WE ARE THE BEASTS takes hold of you and never lets go. A compelling, tense, and thoughtful exploration of what it means to be girls in a world of monsters.” – Kiersten White, #1 NYT bestselling author of The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein
“WE ARE THE BEASTS is a love letter to girlhood and a vicious anthem of survival turned up loud. Griffis has deftly woven rage and resistance into the historical French countryside while gifting us bold and tender sapphic heroines who slay the most terrifying of monsters. It’s everything YA needs.” – Jamison Shea, author of I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me
“With a raw and riveting main character to match the setting, this historical YA horror dives into threats that face young women in 18th century rural France. What is scarier, the beasts among us or the beasts outside us? I flew through the last half of this rollercoaster of a book, and the last act twist does not disappoint.” — Wendy Heard, author of She’s Too Pretty To Burn
“Griffis wrote a loveably brutal historical horror novel about a monster in the woods that’s actually just a painfully earnest ode to the inherent claustrophobia of being a teenaged girl in a trenchcoat.” — Sami Ellis, author of Dead Girls Walking
“A haunting, beautifully written tale, infused with fears and truths that transcend time.” — Eva V. Gibson, Edgar-nominated author of Frightmares
“Gigi Griffis breathes new life and intrigue into the historical tale of the Beast of Gévaudan, the mythical monster blamed for a rural murder spree in Ancien Regime France, as two teen girls take advantage of the chaos to fake the deaths of their nearest and dearest and thus save them from more human terrors. Griffis has an eye for historical detail and a deft hand when it comes to plotting.” – Crime Reads
“With lush prose and a vivid historical setting, Griffis weaves a compulsive tale of monsters and men, and the blurry line between the two. Lovers of feminist horror will devour this one whole.” – MK Pagano, author of Girls Who Burn
“A gay thriller period drama with lowkey eat the rich vibes.” – early teen reader
“You managed to make me cry! In a horror YA novel! That I really didn’t expect.” – Daniela Petrova, author of Her Daughter’s Mother
“Compulsively readable smackdowns of…the patriarchy are the cornerstone of your works, and I am ENDLESSLY here for it!” – Chandra Fisher, contributing author, Prairie Witch