Synopsis
In 1785, Professor Sebastian Grave receives the news he fears most: the terrible Beast of Gévaudan has returned, and the French countryside runs red in its wake.
Sebastian knows the Beast. A monster-slayer with centuries of experience, he joined the hunt for the creature twenty years ago and watched it slaughter its way through a long and bloody winter. Even with the help of his indwelling demon, Sarmodel – who takes payment in living hearts – it nearly cost him his life to bring the monster down.
Now, two decades later, Sebastian has been recalled to the hunt by Antoine Avenel d’Ocerne, an estranged lover who shares a dark history with the Beast and a terrible secret with Sebastian. Drawn by both the chance to finish the Beast for good and the promise of a reconciliation with Antoine, Sebastian cannot refuse.
But Gévaudan is not as he remembers it, and Sebastian’s unfinished business is everywhere he looks. Years of misery have driven the people to desperation, and France teeters on the edge of revolution. Sebastian’s arcane activities – not to mention his demonic counterpart – have also attracted the inquisitorial eye of the French clergy. And the Beast is poised to close his jaws around them all and plunge the continent into war.
Debut author Cameron Sullivan tears the heart out of history with this darkly entertaining retelling of the hunt for the Beast of Gévaudan. Lifting the veil on the hidden world behind our own, it reimagines the story of Europe, from Imperial Rome to Saint Jehanne d’Arc, the madness of Gilles de Rais and the first flickers of the French Revolution.
Review
“Then come with me this one last time. I will tell you what happened at the Bow and Brace, and the truth of the Red Winter.”
First things first, the best way to read this book is via audio only or audio + physical/ebook (immersion.) The audiobook has to be present in one way or the other. It is one of two audiobooks that I’ve ever purposefully slowed down to enjoy it more. What excellent narration by Rory Barnett and Imogen Church. I would recommend immersion read more because this book contains a lot of delightful footnotes and it’s easier to distinguish it if you were reading it via both audio and the eye.
It is a dark historical fantasy that follows a professor turned monster-hunter and his demon companion who demands payment in living hearts. The easiest way for me to describe the book is that it is the love child of Matt Dinniman and Joe Abercrombie set towards the end of 18th century France- right around the French revolution. It is not a completely serious and grim affair though; it is deliciously dark but is also full of wit and levity. It also takes enormous liberties with the setting and time period.
“If I leave one piece of cautionary wisdom to the young men of this world, it will be this – Do not put your penis inside anything with a tail”
Professor Sebastian Grave becomes a very interesting character to follow right from the onset. I also believe that I am now educated enough to pick up what commonly characterizes a disaster bisexual. Yes the land is in a state of turmoil, there is a giant oversized wolf terrorizing the province of Gévaudan in the foreground of the story, and a centuries-long war played out by angels, demons, agents of god/chaos in the background but Sebastian Grave’s yearning and unresolved romance with his ex-lover Antoine forms the core of the book. While there are some significant side characters, the entire book mostly focuses on Sebastian and his journeys around Gévaudan at two different time periods. Sometimes this can be detrimental but I think this choice works very well for this book. It has a lot of moving parts during 3-4 different time periods and this singular focus makes the whole plot very easy to follow and helps make the MC more memorable.
“Oh, excellent, said Sarmodel. Quickly, throw your breeches as well, that we may be completely defenseless!”
The other thing I’ve to talk about is the prose. I really enjoyed all of the writing- the characters in each scene, descriptions of their emotions, dialogue, descriptions of the hall, everything. I was so immersed in each scene that I overlooked previous foreshadowing and only realized it when it was explained to me much later. In particular there’s a banquet scene in chapter 9 that rivals George RR Martin’s many iconic dinners and Herbert’s one in Dune. And once again, I couldn’t get enough of the footnotes. They are delightful.
“But the whipping, tufted tail and matted mane did not belong to anything they could name. And the human proportions, the intelligent eyes, the face– these were beyond comprehension. They could not bear to look at it in the daylight, and their recollection would shy away from it for fear of madness. They had only one word that might capture it. “Beast.””
All in all, it was a very enjoyable dark fantasy tale with proper mystery, romance, and a lot of laughs. I am excited to see what adventure Sebastian Grave tells us next.
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