5 things you must know about BEAST
So it's been a hot minute...
(There are important things related to I FEED HER TO THE BEAST AND THE BEAST IS ME in this email, so bear with my dramatics for a second.)
You hear the door creak and toss in bed. It is still propped mostly shut, enough for the cat to pad in and out but not so wide open as to invite the monsters beyond. Only—
Wait. The cat is curled up at your feet and not at all near the door.
Shadows blanket the room in the dead of night, and from the dredges of sleep still clinging to your thoughts, maybe they shift and stir and coalesce a little in the corners of your eyes.
But you closed all the windows before you climbed into bed because of the rain, so it couldn’t have been a draft. The air in the apartment is still, heavy, confirming just as much.
Then light footsteps skitter across the floor—the cat still a soft weight on your toes—and you lurch up. What is that?
A mouse?
Can your lazy, good-for-nothing apex predator of a feline do anything right?
The sound skitters closer in the dark, along the edge of the bed, decidedly not mouse-like. Bigger. Without the chitter of mouse-speak. Dragging shadows behind its approach.
Long tendrils of night curl around the edge of the mattress like fingers, like claws, one by one and too fucking big to be a mouse. So you crawl back quietly. Up against the headboard, while your good-for-nothing cat rolls its eyes at you and resumes its slumber.
Another hand around the edge. The shadows warp and twist and bend, the mattress sagging as a ghoulish thing hoists itself up. Your heart beats so loudly, it’s all you can hear.
The visitor cranes its neck to look at you. Gaping holes where the eyes should be, a hanging jaw and only darkness where the maw should scream. Yet it speaks so clearly,
“Jamison is back. They’re sorry this newsletter took so long, but there’s a lot of good stuff in it.”
Hi, hello, how are you? I’m sorry it’s been a while, that my monthly newsletter hasn’t been newslettering in a bit. I have several excuses, some good, some not, but without further ado: A Listical!
1. I FEED HER TO THE BEAST AND THE BEAST IS ME has three editions.
Behold the three genders: US English (hardcover, published with Henry Holt & Company, a Macmillan imprint), UK English (paperback, published with Hot Key Books, a Bonnier Books imprint), and Spanish (paperback, published with Editiones Versátil for Spain and Latin America).
Preorder links for US & UK can be found here: jamisonshea.com. Spanish links will be added soon.
2. There are TWO giveaways for the US, Canada, and UK going on right now.
Yes, you heard right. US, Canada, and UK readers can enter giveaways for advanced reader copies of I FEED HER TO THE BEAST AND THE BEAST IS ME like right now. Like right this instant. Like don’t wait.
Fierce Reads is giving away 5 copies of BEAST to residents of the US and Canada here. That (very short, very easy) form is only open until Monday, July 10th so chop chop et croisez les doigts!
Readers First is leading the charge for the UK here by giving away the first two chapters to literally anyone who clicks on that link. They’re also raffling full copies to anyone who shares their first impressions of my book (try saying something like, “Wow, this story sounds so amazing and gorey and fucked up, I love it and would totally sell my soul or venture into the Catacombs and offer myself up to a talking river of blood to have it”).
May the odds be ever in your favor.
3. There will be a special launch event and preorder campaign for the US edition.
I will probably be announcing next week when we have all the graphics finalized, so keep your eyes peeled because numbers are limited. 👀 It’ll definitely be a treat for fans of teenage girls who are also opportunists and criminals, hint hint.
And if that wasn’t incentive enough, look at how beautiful the book will be beneath the jacket!! It’s giving Black Swan-but-bloody and don’t-tell-my-religious-grandmother-or-she’ll-start-a-prayer-circle, am I right? Preorder my book so I can withstand the pastor’s laying of hands the next time I go home.
4. It has been perceived by NPR and Kirkus.
NPR???? Kirkus????
Caitlyn Paxson over at NPR called BEAST, “relentlessly gory and almost euphoric in its embrace of the horrific,” and said, “Laure's transformation will speak to girls who have had enough of being dominated and knocked down.”
Read the full review here.
And Kirkus went all in on BEAST:
Equal parts dark, supernatural fantasy and mystery, this layered tale utilizes a spectacular arsenal of body horror, mythology, and the occult to explore mature themes around desirability, the consequences of unchecked power, and the apathy toward violence against girls engendered by a system that values perfectionism, pedigree, and submission over people’s lives.
Gory, gripping, and visceral; examines how supernatural and systemic power unleash the monster within all of us.
Read the full review here.
(I am totally holding it together.)
5. All your (my) favorite YA authors? They also perceived me.
Screaming, crying, throwing up, gnawing my own arm off because look at these!!!!
"Cut-throat competition and eldritch horrors — of both the human and monstrous kind — collide headfirst in I FEED HER TO THE BEAST AND THE BEAST IS ME. Gloriously haunting and darkly thrilling, Jamison Shea’s words will leave you breathless."
— Aiden Thomas, the NYT- and internationally bestselling author of Cemetery Boys, Lost in the Never Woods, and The Sunbearer Trials. You can find his latest here.
"Brutal and beautiful, this book will drag you through the bloodied depths of fierce ambition and into a raw, untethered world of chaos, where salvation comes from crossing the line between girl and monster."
— Lyndall Clipstone, (reigning queen of YA gothic romance) and author of World at the Lake’s Edge duology. You can preorder her upcoming Unholy Terrors here.
"A hungry novel that smears your teeth with blood and ambition, then asks if you’d be willing to rip them out. Jamison Shea has cemented themself as a force to be reckoned with - and reminds us that when your enemies go low, you can always bury them there."
— Andrew Joseph White, the NYT bestselling author of Hell Followed With Us. You can preorder his upcoming YA horror The Spirit Bares Its Teeth here. (I’m obsessed.)
“A beautifully wrought horror story that has you rooting for the monster in the face of insidious institutions. Shea’s writing is as graceful as the dancers in their book and will leave readers screaming for more blood.”
— Trang Thanh Tran, the NYT bestselling author of She is a Haunting. You can grab a copy here and then freak out about it in my mentions.
“A sinister, delicious dive into a truly captivating villain origin story. In lyrical prose and a cutting pace, Shea explores the ways power corrupts and the way racist, elitist systems push us to hunger for it. As Laure descended, I descended with her, and when I turned the final page I was starving for more.”
— Courtney Gould, award-winning author of The Dead and the Dark. She just released Where Echoes Die a couple weeks ago. Check it out here.
“With its monstrous ballerinas, beautiful monsters, and writing that drips with both beauty and gore, I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me is a glorious debut. I would follow Jamison Shea down any dark path.”
— Erica Waters, Bram Stoker award-winning author of The River Has Teeth and The Restless Dark. You probably saw me crying on Twitter over her upcoming All That Consumes Us, which you should definitely preorder here.
That’s all for now, but there is so much more coming soon!!
Stay hungry, stay foolish, stay wicked, stay tuned!
-Jamison