Forged in Fort Simmer, NWT
Beast
by Richard Van Camp
Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2024
$24.95 / 9781771624145
Reviewed by Zoe McKenna
*
Lawson is navigating the uncomfortable period between being a child and becoming an adult: creating new friendships, butting heads with neighbourhood bullies, developing crushes, and figuring out his place in the world. The same as any other teenager, except he must also contend with a dark spirit that’s determined to murder his loved ones and bring destruction and devastation to his community. So opens Richard Van Camp’s Beast.
As the author of 30 books in 30 years and the recipient of the Order of the Northwest Territories, Richard Van Camp is a familiar name to many people across Canada and beyond. Currently UVic’s storyteller-in-residence, Van Camp is Dogrib Tłı̨chǫ Dene from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories; titles to his name span almost every genre, such as The Lesser Blessed, a 1996 young adult novel that became a movie in 2012, and more recently, Burning Cold: An Indigenous Comics Collection from the North.
With so many well-known and well-loved stories, Van Camp’s reputation precedes him in a way that seems difficult to continue living up to. Yet, with each new offering, Van Camp reminds us of his remarkable gift for storytelling. Beast is no exception.
Lawson, a teenager living in Fort Simmer, a small Northwest Territories town, is keenly aware of the treaty between the Dogrib and Chipewyan that keeps his community in a state of peace, albeit a fragile peace. Lawson and his family are Dogrib and are doing their best to uphold the treaty through acts of service to the Crane family, descendants of a Chipewyan war chief. Though both families are Yahbati—warriors responsible for upholding and maintaining the treaty—the Cranes don’t return Lawson’s kindness.
One of the Crane sons, Silver, goes beyond scowls and looks of derision. He’s determined to lure Lawson into a physical altercation that will nullify the treaty and put the Dogrib and Chiewyan at war once again. Unsatisfied with mortal methods of antagonizing Lawson, Silver enters into a deal with the Dead One, putting himself in its service in exchange for the end of the treaty and the beginning of a new war. Lawson soon realizes that the time has come to take his role as Yahbati seriously, and the only way to keep his family and community safe is to overcome Silver and the violent spirit.
Set in the 1980s, with each chapter titled after an iconic ’80s song, Beast immediately comes alive with a classic, coming-of-age narrative that has a bittersweet sense of nostalgia, while also appealing to fans of the more recent period pieces, such as Stranger Things. Following the energetic pace of vintage synth pop, Beast hits the ground running, and Van Camp wastes no time getting into the action. After under 50 pages, Lawson is tied to a pole in an otherworldly clearing and forced to reckon with the spirit that wants to tear his community to pieces.
Like most of Van Camp’s novels, the setting swiftly becomes the star of the show. Whereas other writers explain their settings with sweeping, pastoral descriptions, Van Camp brings the story’s town to life by exploring the community of characters who call it home. His rich cultural and geographical knowledge lends the story an immense level of detail that helps those—me, for one—who have never visited the Northwest Territories feel at home.
Despite the palpable through-line of supernatural horror, Beast does feel remarkably homey. The novel is written with a character voice that is warm, welcoming, and impossible to put down. Not only does Van Camp’s writing bring forward the conversational tone of oral storytelling, but he balances this with the awkward, uncomfortable thoughts and feelings of a teenage boy. The result is a protagonist who is brave, charming, foolish, and dorky, like many teenage boys.
As the cast of characters expands around Lawson—his mother and father, uncles, friends, and neighbours—the community buds with personalities that are at once unique and intimately familiar. Even the villains’ backstories are treated tenderly, so while readers might not agree with their actions, they can understand the complexity of their motivations.
Perhaps the most stunning thing about Beast is how full of heart the story manages to be, despite the supernatural spirits, and despite the undercurrent of grief, loss, and fear. Van Camp takes Lawson’s coming-of-age journey—which is both fulfilling in its realization of his place in the world and harrowing in the shedding of his childhood—and overlays it with humour and love. Beast carefully illustrates the inextricable partnership of growth and loss, creating a story that is equal parts painful and profound.
The experience of reading Beast reminded me of catching up with loved ones, heading home later into the night than expected with a sore face from talking and a chest full to bursting with care and appreciation for those around me. Beast is a book I itch to share with anyone who will listen—not just like-minded readers who enjoy a good book, or those horror fanatics who always welcome a scare. Beast is a story with a lot of heart—and we’ve all got one of those.
*
Zoe McKenna holds a MA from the UVic and a BA from VIU. Her thesis, as well as a great deal of her other reading and writing, focuses on horror writing in Canada, especially that by BIPOC authors. Her previous work has appeared in VIU’s Portal Magazine and Quill & Quire. When not reading, writing, or reviewing, Zoe can be found hiking a local mountain or in front of a movie with her two cats, Florence and Delilah. She is always covered in cat hair and wears almost exclusively dark clothing to prove it. Find her on Twitter. [Editor’s note: Zoe McKenna has reviewed books by Nalo Hopkinson, Marcus Kliewer, Ivana Filipovich, Giselle Vriesen, Scott Alexander Howard, S.W. Mayse, Linda Cheng, Paul Cresey, Michelle Min Sterling, Eve Lazarus, David Wallace, David Ly & Daniel Zomparelli, Sophie Sullivan, kc dyer, Robyn Harding, and Lindsay Cameron for BCR.]
*
The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors, 2023-25: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an online book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, Maria Tippett, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
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