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:
“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
“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