Review of ‘Darkbeast’

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‘Darkbeast’ may be a story based in a fictitious land named Duodecia, but this story draws a lot of relevance to our modern world. I am glad I chanced upon this book.

In this story, in a land named Duodecia, every 12-day old child is blessed with an animal companion, also known as a darkbeast. This animal could be a bird, reptile or rodent. These darkbeasts are supposed to “take away” the sins their mortal child companion commits; like anger, jealousy, stubbornness, and so on. However, all good things come to an end. When the children turn twelve, according to tradition, they should slay their darkbeasts. With the slaying of their darkbeasts, these children become “free” from the constant company of their darkbeast. Keara, the protagonist, is one of these children, who is supposed to slay her beloved darkbeast, a raven named Caw, on her fast-approaching twelfth birthday. However, Keara has no heart to kill her dear Caw who has been her best companion for the past twelve years of her life. On her twelfth birthday, Keara runs away with Caw from her home village, in search of the Travelers, who are a group of people who travel from village to village, putting up plays that tell stories of the Gods of Duodecia. Keara falls in love with their acting when they had performed in her village, and she knew she had to be one of the performers. Eventually, she finds them and becomes one of the performers, while hiding from them that she is a girl who crossed the boundaries of tradition by not killing her darkbeast. Ultimately, when the Travelers go onstage to put up a play in front of Duodecia’s king, one of the Travelers, a girl named Vala who Keara befriends, gives away Keara’s secret by yelling onstage that Keara did not slay her darkbeast on her twelfth birthday. Immediately, Keara and Goran, a Traveler boy and another friend of Keara, who also did not slay his darkbeast, Wart the toad, on his twelfth birthday; are pulled away from the stage by the head of the Travelers, Taggart. He leads them to a tiny house, where there is a lady named Brigid. Keara and Goran come to know that Taggart and Brigid themselves are people who did not kill their darkbeasts on their twelfth birthday many, many years ago. That is when Keara realises that although darkbeasts “take away” their child companion’s sins, the child will not completely lose that sin. For example, if a darkbeast took away a child’s anger, it does not mean that the child will never become angry in his life ever again. If this is so, then what is the purpose of slaying their poor darkbeasts? So, the book ends with Keara’s realisation, and her next journey with Taggart and Goran to end this cruel tradition of slaying darkbeasts for no reason in all of Duodecia.

In a nutshell, I thought this book is a masterpiece. It sends a powerful message that superstitions and beliefs are of high importance, regardless of whether they actually meaningful. I am a lot like Keara, and I could relate well to this message. I too think that there are many superstitions in this world that are redundant, for example, crossing your fingers for good luck. I have tried this a couple of times, and realised that even if one crosses their fingers, good luck does not necessarily come their way; if it does, it is just a mere coincidence. Yet, people put such high importance on this superstition and never fail to cross their fingers on every occasion. I also think that there are many things in this world worth rebelling about, such as animals’ or women’s rights. Sometimes, rebelling is better than following beliefs or superstitions that are impractical, just like in “Darkbeast”.

Since Keara is a 12-year-old, the target audience would probably adolescents of ages 10-14, who would be able to relate better to Keara's thinking.

This is a book I won’t forget anytime soon, and to spread this book’s message around, I will definitely recommend this book to my friends, family, and you too, since you have just read my review.