Reviews

The Beast You Are by Paul Tremblay

anachronaxia's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.75

Honestly, I didn't care for the first three stories - this was sold to me as a horror analogy, and the first three were not horror, not really (to be honest, I'd say in the strictest sense The Dead Thing is the only story with real spooks, and it was a stand out!).  Perhaps I would be kinder on a reread.  Fortunately, the momentum picked up after those first three!  As a collection of stories, there are always the good and the bad, so here's my rankings:

The Best:  The Dead Thing, The Last Conversation, Blog at the End of the World (These were all really good!!)

The Good: House of Windows, The Large Man, Postal Zone, Them (there's less to these, but I still liked them a lot.  They all have a simple idea (or two) that are used well.)

The Meh:  Lemonade 25¢/Haunted house tours (this one would have been good were I in the right mood, I think), Mean Time, The Beast You Are, Howard Sturgis, Mostly Size (The beast you are surprised me after its first third, but still ended up being just okay and slig tly too long, despite how quick of a read it was.  Mean time, Howard Sturgis, and Mostly Size just... Didn't have enough going on for me.  There was a basic concept that had nothing done to it.)

The Bad: I Know You're There (it's a ghost story without a ghost, stripping of the metaphor of grief from the story and not really replacing it with anything other than base statements or fact.  I liked the detail of the story The main character tells changing details each time, but tbh nothing was really done with that.  Too pretentious for its own good.), The Party (what was the point of this?)

ghiblireads's review

dark

smithreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

natejohansen's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

gaulien's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

lexieryan's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I absolutely loved The Beast You Are. So creepy and allegorical 

mrzachyt's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

nouhcake's review against another edition

2.0

‘The Beast You Are’ is only the second of Paul Tremblay’s works that I have read. There were a few moments in this collection that caught my attention, but there were no stories that really stood out to me. I also can’t quite pinpoint if I enjoy his writing or not. 

autumnalfantasy's review

dark emotional lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

arockinsamsara's review against another edition

5.0

Tremblay has already proven himself as a masterful leading name in contemporary horror, and this collection shows that he has just as much to say in the short-form genre as he does in novels. Short stories don’t need to follow the conventional arc that a novel takes, they really are great venues for bringing up a really interesting idea, poking and prodding it, and then forcing the reader to imagine what may come next. They don’t need satisfying conclusions that tie up all loose ends, they need to make you feel something, and you get that in spades throughout this collection. Tremblay does a great job, getting right in to each story, doing enough character work to immediately get you invested but without a lot of words or description, and then pushing you into this space, sometimes creepy, sometimes unnerving, sometimes tragic, sometimes frightening, but always just enough steps away from ordinary to draw you in and invite you to feel something, or, rather, some thing.

Whenever I read a collection of short stories I don’t go in expecting to enjoy each story equally, and even expect there to be a few that don’t land with me. But that is the beauty of short-story collections, even a single gem in a sea of detritus makes a collection worthwhile. I am happy to say that this collection has more than a few gems that were more than worth the price of admission, including but not limited to the wonderful eponymous novella that closes out the second half of the collection. I wouldn’t recommend this only to Paul Tremblay and horror fans, but any fan of short-form storytelling, whether you’re normally attracted to horror or not, can find a lot to love in this collection.

I want to thank the author, the publisher William Morrow, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.