Beast: A Novel

Lauded as the Indigenous Stranger Things, this evocative, spine-tingling thriller from Dogrib Dene author Richard Van Camp blends supernatural horror with 1980s nostalgia.

Lawson Sauren’s life has always been entwined with the lives of the Cranes brothers. Cody Cranes became an unexpected friend when they shared a tent at summer camp—but now he’s disappeared. Star athlete Stanley Cranes survived the canoe accident that killed Lawson’s mother but has been a shell of himself ever since. Silver Cranes—jeez, the guy was downright scary even before he made some kind of occult pact resurrecting the Dead One, a ghoulish, cruel, powerful spirit hellbent on destroying peace treaties like the centuries-old one between the Dogrib and Chipewyan which Lawson and the Cranes boys are tasked with preserving. Determined to save his community from the Dead One’s ravenous maw, Lawson must step into his role as a Dogrib Yabati, or protector, and recruit his friends Isaiah Valentine, a Cree Grass Dancer, and Shari Burns, a Metis psychic, to face what Silver Cranes has called back.

This latest feat of storytelling magic by celebrated author Richard Van Camp blends sharply observed realism and hair-raising horror as it plays out against a 1980s-era backdrop replete with Platinum Blonde songs and episodes of Degrassi Junior High. Set in the same fictional town of Fort Simmer, Northwest Territories as previous Van Camp stories, Beast delivers a gripping, spirited tale that pits the powers of tradition against the pull of a vengeful past.