REVIEW: The Beast

The Beast
Authors: Ally Condie & Brendan Reichs

In The Darkdeep, a group of kids saved their town by holding back monsters formed from their own imaginations. The Figments were formed from their thoughts by the Darkdeep, which they now hold at bay as Torchbearers. Well, they are supposed to hold it at bay anyway....  As the kids try to learn what they have to do to keep control of the Darkdeep and stop the formation of Figments, things start to spiral out of control. Figments begin to form on their own, a creature stored in a jar on the boat might be communicating with one of them, and YouTubers show up in town searching for a legendary sea monster called the Beast. Can the kids protect Timbers once again?

The first book in this series, The Darkdeep, totally hooked me on this group of characters and the premise of the Darkdeep. It's like Stand By Me, The Goonies, Gremlins, or Stranger Things....a group of kids thrown together having to deal with some scary and out of control situations. Except these kids can conjure up whatever pops into their heads. Dinosaurs, pop culture characters, scary monsters....whatever they think of, the Darkdeep can create and bring to life. While creating things using the whirlpool was fun at first.....it quickly became a problem when monsters over-ran the town during a local festival. This new story in the series finds kids are trying to learn their responsibilities as Torchbearers, while things around them rapidly warp out of control.

Loved this book! Definitely still middle grade appropriate, but still entertaining and fun to read for adults! I love the characters and the premise. The story alternates point of view between the kids. Usually I find jumping POV to be distracting, but for this story it works. I felt so sorry for the kids trying to deal with the Freakshow in town. The Darkdeep has to remain hidden and that's really difficult with YouTube monster hunters in town. The ending leaves it open for another book. I hope so! I'm enjoying this series! I hope it continues.

So far, this is the only series by either Ally Condie or Brendan Reichs that I have read. I really enjoy this concept, so I think I will branch out and try other books by these two writers. Brendan Reichs Co-authored the Virals series with his mother, Author Kathy Reichs. Ally Condie writes YA novels including Summerlost and The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe.

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Bloomsbury USA via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**