Paul Tremblay continues to prove in his latest short story collection The Beast You Are, that he can write just about anything and make it engaging and enjoyable to read.

Though not every story fired on all cylinders, there were still plenty that kept you drawn in and wanting more!

Tremblay has a talent for making you think as you read and often times still has you thinking well after you have turned the final page and that, is what I have come to enjoy about his writing.

If you are a fan of Tremblay’s work, then you don’t want to miss this one! Also, if you are a librarian such as I am, you will really enjoy one of the stories…no spoilers though so I won’t say which!

I give this collection 🐶🐶🐱🐱/5

The collection of stories in Paul Tremblay’s newest book, The Beast You Are: Stories, was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Some of the stories I quite enjoyed, like the opening tale: Haunted House Tour: 1 Per Person, while others didn’t quite click with me. I’m looking at you “The Blog at the End of the World” (the style in which he wrote that one just didn’t work for me though I get what he was going for.) If you are familiar with any of Paul’s other works then you’ll understand when I say this collection is very much Tremblay. And depending on how you feel about his work that can be either very good or very bad. As a fan I definitely see that as more of a good thing. I found it especially humorous that he actually kind of works himself into one of the books, making a point of pointing out a criticism than many seem to have of some of his writing, the ambiguous endings to ome of his books, which I’ve never had an issue with. While a definitive ending can be satisfying, I have no issue with a story that leaves you wondering/thinking about the possibilities of what may or may not have come next. Not that I would want that kind of ending in all books, but it is something that I think works for some of Paul’s stories. I feel long time fans of Tremblay’s work will come away from this collection mostly satisfied while those unfamiliar with his work may well be tempted to check out his full length fiction. I’d like to thank William Morrow and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of The Beast You Are.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R3TI3KJ2E0L9GM/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Paul has a variety of superpowers in his fiction but it’s his love of experimentation in form and storytelling that keeps me involved.
I would recommend this collection purely based on the story Ice Cold Lemonade 25 Cents Haunted House Tour which is one of my absolute favorites. Thankfully, The Beast You Are contains an entire table of contents packed with Paul at his best.
Highly recommended.

The last story went on forever, was the longest story and truly confusing. It was some confusing swirl of writing that mimicked a poem and I booed it. It's called free verse. I quit reading after I got to the second age piece of it (FYI there’s three ages). Bah.

There were one or two stories I enjoyed but most had me sighing. Tremblay is hit or miss for me on a good day and this collection felt mostly like misses.

Full review:

"Ice Cold Lemonade 25 cents
Haunted House Tour: 1 Per Person"-(3.5 stars)-It started off promising. An older man now recounting a story about a teenage crush he had and the time he came by and visited her "haunted house." I don't know where the story was going. I think that at times it was trying too hard and adding in details that didn't work. But when Tremblay showed a picture of the drawing that started some of the young girl's nightmares, it didn't work for me. I think the image I had in my head was scarier and I thought the drawing was kind of lame.

"Mean Time" (3 stars)-Not really a scary story, but a story of a young boy who does something mean to an older man that uses chalk sticks to find his way home at the end of the day.

"I Know You're There" (3.5 stars)-I thought this was a good story, about the nature of grief. The repetitiveness of the story the character Silas tells everyone though about finding his husband dead started to take me out of the story. And honestly, at the end I wondered what was I supposed to think. It felt a bit like "Disappearance at Devil's Rock" in parts.

"The Postal Zone: The Possession Edition" (3 stars)-No offense but I am tired of hearing about Marjorie and Merry from "A Head Full of Ghosts". I feel like that story has been milked. Reading a short story which are nasty letters to the editor of some journal called Fangoria. It just didn't add anything new.

"Red Eyes" (2 stars)-This one once again starts Marjorie, Merry, and their parents, but different versions of them. The story is told from it seems an unknown person whose sister told them this "scary" story. In this one though it's real obvious who is good and who is bad. I just shrugged at the end.

"The Blog at the End of the World" (4 stars)-Tremblay's version of COVID-19 and the deaths that were going on with those who still kept denying what was happening. I liked this story much more than the ones that came before it.

"Them: A Pitch" (1 star)-Really short and honestly baffled it was included. It's a pitch about a show I assume. I just went what in the world. At least it was short.

"House of Windows" (4 stars)-This one was interesting, a version of House of Leaves I think. I wish it had been longer.

"The Last Conversation" (5 stars)-I read this story a while ago in Blake Crouch's Forward collection. Other readers may have too. I could not very well rate it lower even though I read it before. I thought it was a shame that something I read years ago was one of the better stories in this collection.

"Mostly Size" (2 stars)-Really short. About a monster.

"The Large Man" (4 stars)-Really interesting story about some fictional secret society made up of Problem Solvers and those they serve called the The Consortium. I thought it was interesting and I liked the ending. Left me with more questions than answers though.

"The Dead Thing" (4.5 stars)-I think most of my issue with Tremblay is that he will provide us with something interesting and there's not enough details to satisfy me. I don't need to have things spelled out for me in excruciating detail, but sometimes some hints would be nice. It took a while for me to get into this story of an older protective sister named and her brother Owen. You get enough dribs and drabs to find out the kids mother abandoned them. Was actually kind of terrible, but their life with their father is worse. And then Owen finds something that is in a box.

"Howard Sturgis and the Letters and the Van and What He Found When He Went Back to His House" (1 star)-No. An endless story that had me bored out of my mind.

"The Party" (5 stars)-The second 5 star read in my humble opinion. A send-up of Shirley Jackson and I definitely caught those vibes. I loved the story from beginning to end and wondered if the world really did end.

"The Beast You Are" (1 star)-This is the free verse story that has three books and they are called "The First Age, The Second Age, and Third Age." I don't know, cat people? Something. I lost total interest after I saw the second age. The first age starts at 45 percent (I was reading via my Kindle) and the final story ends at 96 percent. I am not made of stone people. I was not doing this to myself. So I skimmed and then went seriously when I realized the rest of the book was going to be about this long drawn out weird story. In his notes, Tremblay brings up how he was always wanted to write an anthropomorphic animal story a la "Watership Down" and how he loved Smaug from "The Hobbit". So congrats on doing it I guess? I did not like this at all.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Beast You Are.

I have a love/hate relationship with the author. He's got great ideas but the narratives always leave me feeling bleh.

That's how I felt about the stories in The Beast You Are.

There's great potential for each story to be something truly dark, scary, macabre, but nothing really lands.

There are creepy and sinister undertones but the execution falls flat.

As some reviewers noted, the endings are unsatisfying, frustrating.

I don't mind vague, ambiguous endings, but the narrative that came before it didn't fill me up so I'm still hungry for more.

This is a compilation of unsettling short fiction stories that will bring a tingle to the back of your neck. True to Tremblay’s signature style, you won’t have all the answers and the stories are often open ended.

I found this collection to be so creative and thought provoking in an eerie way, which I enjoyed. It covers topics of coming to terms with your past, grief, the monsters that lurk, and unraveling fears. It’s haunting.

Tremblay has a knack for creating tension at just the right moments and is a talented and unique writer. I wouldn’t call this horror, or particularly scary, but it definitely sticks with the reader and forges a feeling of unease.

For many years - decades, even - I wasn't much one for short stories. They always seemed... well, TOO short, with abrupt endings that never seemed to say as much as I'd hoped they would. The form, too, never seemed terribly interesting to me - just truncated versions of what I'd rather be reading instead. 

But as time went on, I began to find writers who really stretched what the short story could do, playing with both form and content in ways I hadn't realized were possible. Paul Tremblay - whose novels I also adore - is one of those writers; his previous short story collection, Growing Things, grabbed me in a way few such collections historically have, and this new collection, The Beast You Are, continues the trend.

In "The Blog At The End Of The World," for instance, we're reading not just a series of blog posts penned by an increasingly isolated young 20-something as the world gradually ends around her, but a reverse chronology, AND the comments section, leading us ultimately to a slow realization of what, precisely, occurred to cause things to end up how they are. 

In "The Last Conversation," we experience a series of conversations with someone we're told is our doctor as we remain trapped in a single room, recovering from a mysterious ailment no one will tell us anything about. (And I do mean "we"; written in the second person, the story positions the reader as the protagonist.)

And in the novella for which the collection is named, "The Beast You Are," a fable-like setting populated by anthropomorphic animals quickly becomes a nightmare, all told in a prose poem format that gives it the air of legend.

Fans of A Head Full Of Ghosts - my personal favorite of Tremblay's novels - will find a lot here to love; several stories exist within the A Head Full Of Ghosts universe, or, in some cases, offer differing takes on its characters and their dynamic. The titular novella is particularly notable in this respect - and, indeed, I might even go so far as to say that when it comes to this particular collection, it's sort of a, "come for the short stories, stay for the novella" situation. "The Beast You Are" is arresting in its plot, in its ideas, and in its presentation - a real triple threat.

I'm always excited to see what Tremblay has in store for us, and each page of The Beast You Are offers something to shock and delight. An excellent read.

I love how Paul Tremblay’s books and short stories employ different types of horror. He doesn’t just have one lane that he sticks in. It’s also cool to see returning characters like Karen Brissette, Merry, and Marjorie, sometimes with different roles than their original stories. I think my favorite story in the collection was “I Know You Were There.” It’s emotionally impactful and also made me feel like something was standing over my shoulder. I also particularly enjoyed “The Blog at the End of the World” and “Last Conversation.”

As with any collection, some stories are stronger than others. I also think it’s pretty apparent that these were not all written to be in a collection together. It just never feels like a cohesive whole. If you’re a fan of Paul Tremblay’s novels but have never checked out his short stories, I’d say to give The Beast You Are a try. Even if you don’t absolutely love every story, there’s probably something you’ll find to enjoy.

•(Ice Cold Lemonade 25c)
Haunted House Tour: 1 Per Person- 4
•Mean Time- 3
•I know You're There- 4
•The Postal Zone: The Possession Edition- 3
•Red Eyes- 3
•The Blog at the End of the World- 4
•Them: A Pitch- 2.5
•House of Windows- 3
•The Last Conversation- 4
•Mostly Size- 2.5
•The Large Man- 3.5
•The Dead Tinh- 4
•Howard Sturgis and the Letters and the Van and What He Found When He Went- 3
•The Party- 3
•The Beast You Are- 2.5

Weirdly enough this summer is a short story summer for me. I’ve read a lot of collections by authors I really, really love. Stephen Graham Jones, Josh Malerman, and now Paul Tremblay. I really like Paul Tremblay’s writing style. It’s always ambitious and wildly creative. And this collection is no different. Surreal at times these stories cover so many different vibes, and I really appreciate what Tremblay is attempting here. However, it really wasn’t for me. I think I went into this expecting like super horror vibes, and this isn’t that. It’s the exact same reason I didn’t click with his last novel- The Pallbearers. It just wasn’t what I was looking for, and felt a little sloggy. That being said, this collection contains one of the best short stories I’ve ever read??? It’s called “The Last Conversation”, and it’s told almost exclusively in dialogue, but it’s absolutely profound and heartbreaking. Ugh what a story! I also really liked “The Large Man”. But that’s really all that resonated with me, and both for super different reasons. Also this cover is stunning!

I'll be posting my review on my Instagram closer to the Pub date- @boozehoundbookclub

I love Paul Tremblay so much, especially Head Full of Ghosts. So all these short stories about Merry and Marjorie (no spoilers) made me really excited. So excited that I almost missed my gym class, and after what happened to David, you might want to skip a workout every once in a while.

It’s not all horror, there is some speculative work in here as well. There were a few stories that I would have loved to see longer pieces about. Aka the clone and the house of windows.

Just an FYI, I got this as an advanced ebook from NetGalley and the publisher. There were a bunch of typos so I hope they were caught in copy editing.

I’m new to Tremblay’s work and was really excited to get a taste of it via short stories. This consisted of 14 short stories and one novella that took about half of the page count. While the collection is marketed as horror, most of them had a sci-fi vibe. I really appreciated Tremblay’s author notes for each story and wish I read each note immediately after it’s respective story. If you plan on reading this, I absolutely recommend doing that! The stories were hit or miss for me, mostly miss. But the ones I enjoyed were so good that I find myself still thinking about them days later: The Blog at the End of the World and The Last Conversation. I think the great thing about this collection is that the stories are all so different that you’ll definitely vibe with at least one of them. If I liked the novella The Beast You Are, this would’ve been a lot better. I enjoyed the fact that Tremblay did that in free verse, it was so different. But the novella itself ended up just being okay, started off strong but then dragged. The whole concept of this collection was really unique, experimental, and was clearly a passion project. Worth checking out if you’re a fan of his work or like horror story collections.

Paul Tremblay never let's me down. This is a worthy addition to his library of work. I highly enjoyed the stories in this collection.

What an eclectic, creative, and creepy collection of horror stories from one of my favorite horror authors. Paul Tremblay is one of those writers who knows how to stretch the limits of the horror genre with his experimental styles and ideas, and I think that THE BEAST YOU ARE is a great gathering of his different styles and the chances he's willing to take. The stories in this range from straight up horror to dark fantasy to weird fiction to flash fiction, and they go to places that aren't obvious or expected without losing focus. Whether it's meta fiction, stream of consciousness style, or anthropomorphic animals on a dark fantasy quest, there are so many interesting stories here that there is sure to be something for everyone.

THE BEAST YOU ARE is another creepy, ambiguous, and at times emotional work from Paul Tremblay. I found it very well done.

Honestly, this ended up being kind of a chore to get through for me. There were ups and downs but the last bit especially dragged for me. I'm not really sure why this is being marketed as Horror, while you can feel then tension/anxiety in these stories it still felt much closer to Sci-fi with a splash of thriller. I think I've read too many fantastic Horror short story compilations recently to thoroughly enjoy this enough. It was not what I was anticipating. I was never truly invested in any of these tales.

As with most story collections, some stories are definitely better than others. Overall I'd give this collection a chance, at least for the namesake story. Also, make sure you read the story notes in the back of the book. I read them after I finished a story which gave me a better idea of what went into the works.

Ice Cold Lemonade Not overly impressed by this one. Our narrator finds drawing which brings back childhood memories. Local children, including Kelly Bishop who the narrator had a bit of a crush on, were selling tours of their haunted house. After legitimately getting scared in the house, the narrator steals a drawing when he leaves. Flash back to the present day, he hears noise in his house which he goes to explore. Just a very basic story and not really that creepy/scary in any way.

Mean Time I do not get the point of this story. A confused man makes chalk lines to get around their small town. A girl erases one and man gets lost somehow. Extremely short thankfully.

I Know You're There The one is not scary but intense and I really enjoyed it. The telling of a man who finds his husband dead. Each time he tells the story something changes; David moving his head, opening his eyes, etc. Seems to me to be a story of what it means to lose someone and the fault of memory.

The Postal Zone Just weird and mostly skimmed it. Letter to the editor (Fangoria magazine in this case) style. References to Tremblay's book "A Head Full of Ghosts."

Red Eyes More "A Head Full of Ghosts" characters in this one. I didn't particularly get/care for this one either. Monsters appear and Merry goes running of to them. She reappears after a few days. And that's the end of the story.

The Blog at the End of the World: I really enjoyed this one. It is selected blog posts from a world in which there is possibly an epidemic making people die of "brain aneurysms." Very quick to read and just a glimpse into what it's like to live through a pandemic/epidemic and not really understand what is going on to make people sick. Also crazy to think this was written in 2008 (per the story notes).

Them This is a pitch for a comic strip. The story doesn't really work for me.

House of Windows A house of windows pops up overnight. Very eerie feel to the story and leaves the reader wondering.

The Last Conversation To me, this is the best story in the collection so far. A man wakes up in a chamber, unable to see. We follow him through his days as he progresses through trials to improve his health with the doctor who is just an omnipresent voice.
[Turns out he's just a clone, and she has been bringing him back so she doesn't have to be alone since everyone else has died from the sickness. Very interesting take on a sickness/end of
world story. (hide spoiler)]

Mostly Size This is a tale of a boy during a monster attack. This story is cute, short and to the point.

The Large Man That story was weird but I kind of loved it. A man, Mr C, is a problem solver in this mysterious unexplained world. He must go find the large man that is plaguing the current society.

The Dead Thing The little brother to the narrator brings home a mysterious shoebox with him. I liked the juxtaposition between possibly dangerous box and the living conditions
(alcoholic dad, missing addict mom). Overall a good story.

Howard Sturgis Another really great one in this collection. The title pretty much says it all. Howard gets mysterious letters, as he's supposedly sent a package that has helped a company create a unique product. He has no memory of this. Things get weirder as more letters come.

The Party A couple arrives at a party where the theme is end of the world. Is it really the end? Apparently the host likes to exaggerate and host parties with weird themes like this. The story is left open.

The Beast You Are The novella that is the namesake for this collection. This one is written in verse form which I think worked really well for the story. Anthropomorphic story about a beast that culls this village every thirty years based on different criteria. I really enjoyed this and don't want to give too much away, even hidden behind a spoiler tag.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC, in exchange for an honest review!

I unfortunately could not bring myself to finish this anthology. It seemed to be just a collection of ideas instead of short stories. While I did enjoy one or two, there were many of them that I just did not get the point of. This speaks to my preferences more than to the author’s writing skills, so do not be reluctant to give this a try based off of my review alone! I personally just could not get into the stories or the format. I hope to try one of Tremblay’s full-length works in the future!

If you’re looking for a disorienting collection of short stories with unique characters and concepts, The Beast You Are is a perfect match. From nostalgic stories to pandemic stories to dystopic (yet applicable to current times) stories, Paul Tremblay’s collection of short stories covers a myriad of topics and themes. Notes of loneliness, curiosity, grief, isolation, empowerment, memory, trust, connection, and the passage of time arise throughout these diverse stories. A man loses his life partner and is stuck in a perpetual loop of anxiety and grief. A woman uses a blog to cope with the sudden loss of her friend. A large building with only windows appears in the middle of a town. An old man receives a strange letter and gets roped into an even stranger series of correspondences. In an anthropomorphic free verse narrative, characters challenge the social tradition of providing sacrifices to a beast at the start of a new age.

Some of the stories were stronger than others, which would be my only critique of the collection. Some of the stories were promising but were not explored to their fullest potential. The stronger ones included “I Know You’re There”, “The Last Conversation”, “The Dead Thinh”, and the title story “The Beast You Are” where you can tell the author spent a good amount of time with the characters, plots, and premises. In these stories, these aspects were well-developed and explicated.

This is a strong collection. Each story felt wholly unique, as if Paul was showing off his range. My favorite story is one I had read prior in Blake Crouch's collection, titled "The Last Conversation." The title story, a novella, was such a wild ride. Kind of like Animal Farm meets the Hunger Games but it also had slasher elements and some fantasy stuff too. And it was written in verse! I think Paul was showing off, but I loved it regardless. Just a rock solid collection that showcases his short fiction and hands out bits of subtle fan service for those who are familiar with his work. Must-read for fans of Tremblay's work.

This book collects several of Paul Tremblay's short stories previously published elsewhere as well as the title novella. Some of the stories, especially the early ones in the book, are reminiscent of classic Ray Bradbury and Stephen King, though the writing is all Paul Tremblay. They have perfect build up of foreboding and intense sense of dread to them. As it turned out, I had previously read three of the stories. As I often seem to find with collections and anthologies the stronger tales seem to be in the beginning, with some of the later ones not being as strong. The short stories take up the first 45% of the book while the novella takes up the remainder. And the novella just didn't do it for me. It was an anthropomorphic tale written in free verse style, and both those factors took me right out of the story. Because of the novella this will be the lowest rating I've given to a Tremblay book, as usually I love his writing and rate his novels 4-5 stars.